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Yusuf: Al salaam al layakum! Iím here at the North Side Learning Center soccer practice.
The guys are just about to scrimmage. Iíve got the video on. Al salaam al layakum! Do
you like this program? Boy 1: Yes.
Yusuf: What do you like about it? Bo y 1: Everything.
Yusuf: How about you? Boy 2: Me?
Yusuf: What do you like about Coach Abdulilah? Boy 2: He is good!
Yusuf: Does he know what heís talking about? Are you improving your soccer?
Boy 2: Yeah. Yusuf: How about you?
Boy 3: I definitely know him! Yusuf: Definitely, right?
My name is Abdulilah al-Dubai. I am originally from Yemen. I came to the US six years ago,
2004, and before I came here I had been playing National Team soccer for Yemen, U-17 for Eritrea,
and so on. I came to this country, I played for LeMoyne College for three years, and graduated
with a degree in Business Administration, and a minor in Economics in 2008.
I am the Assistant Director, actually Volunteer Assistant Director, and I do also soccer program.
I manage the soccer program. It is how you help the refugees play soccer while they are
doing good at school.
If you just go walk across the road, you will see people playing soccer. If you want to
just point, you will see a lot of people go here. Even if they donít go to the North
Side Learning Center, we try to bring them. Because you will see how talented these people
are, very talented, but they need someone to guide them, to say, Well, come. We can
organize a very good soccer program, maybe in the future you can be a big soccer player,
you can go to school for free, and then you can also pay back to- You can help the country
too, you can help other people!
Why it is very important to put them into a soccer plan is because if they go to school,
and play soccer at the same time, if they know they are important, that what they are
doing is very important, then they will keep continuing this, doing this continuously,
and they will not think about otheróother stuff like, let us say, playing soccer and
being successful at school.
Plus also I found out that the program is not only open to refugees. One of the goals,
these refugees should integrate with the people here in the US. Then we have 60 to 70 percent
refugees, but other people are not refugees. And then if you see the communication between
them, that is something like you, like priceless when you see them. Well, if you see them in
the classroom, sometimes their communication is not- I mean it s good, but it s not-. But
come see on the soccer field. They have a goal to achieve, to be successful at school,
because they already know that is the goal, to bring them here and play soccer and then
go to school.
The goal of the program is not only to have one team. It is to have four teams. I call
it Level A, B, C, and D. Level A you go with 18-plus. Then you have Level B go from 15
to 17 years old. Then we have Level C which isówe have it nowó11 years old to 14 years
old. Which is we have now 24 to 28 kids. And then you will have the last level, which is
Level D, from 8 to 10. So if you want a very well organized and professional program, you
have to know first what you have to do.
You have to understand the basic concept of soccer: how to coach those ages, those young
ages.
There is a lot of equipment to buy, which isóWe cannot afford at this point, but I
am basically doing according to what is available to us, which is like buying cones, soccer
balls, pinnies for practices, something like that. And trying to play from time to another,
friendly games with some friends so they feel like they are competing some other teams.
But if you want to run these four programs, which is four levels, you need the staff to
help you. You need coach and assistant coach. So if you talk about four levels, you need
four coaches and four assistant coaches. So they comeÖitís very tough to find people.
There are people who want to volunteer their time, but it is very tough for consistency.
You want to go long-run, so you have to have a budget so you can pay those people to achieve
a goal. To also implement your, let us say, plan.
But I am really happy with what we are doing. I mean, we have got a lot of support from
the team here. We can only provide whatever we have. We have to start this program and
we have to make it successful. That is our plan.