The team’s assistant coach was Ekkapol Chantawong, 25 years old in June 2018, known to the boys and their families as “Coach Ek.” His biography was notably distinct from that of a typical youth football coach. He had grown up as a stateless person — his family were members of an ethnic minority group without Thai citizenship — and had spent a decade of his childhood and youth as a novice monk at a Buddhist temple near Chiang Rai. His temple training had given him experience with meditation, fasting, and the management of physical discomfort that would prove directly relevant to what was about to happen.
The boys on the team came from families in the Mae Sai area. Some, like Adul Sam-on, 14, were the children of ethnic minority families with complex citizenship status similar to Coach Ek’s. Adul spoke multiple languages — Thai, English, Mandarin, and his native language — a multilingualism that would become significant when the first contact with the British divers occurred.
The twelve boys who entered the cave that afternoon were: Duangpet Promtep (13), Ekarat Wongsookchan (14), Adul Sam-on (14), Chanin Viboonrungruang (11), Panumat Saengdee (13), Sompong Jaiwong (13), Pipat Phothi (15), Phiphat Photi (also listed in some accounts as age 15), Prachak Sutham (16), Nattawut Thakhamsee (14), Mongkol Boonpiam (13), and Porinut Kamluang (16). The youngest, Chanin Viboonrungruang, had turned 11 less than two weeks earlier.
The plan for the afternoon of June 23 was modest: a post-practice visit to the cave to celebrate a teammate’s birthday. The cave was a known place, a local landmark the boys had likely visited before. They parked their bicycles at the entrance, left their shoes outside, and went in. The entrance passages were dry.