Ali (Amjad Abdalla Mohammed and Dave Zimmerman come to RISSE from different places. Both are natural teachers who love working with children, Ali is studying to be a chemical engineer, Zimmer is a student at a New York State University, he wants to be a teacher.

Both men love working with the refugee children, both see the soccer program as essential and important to children. Soccer connects them to their pasts in their own countries, it gives them a chance to bond with and support one another, it also, says Ali, keeps them engaged in healthy and supervised activities as they adjust to America.

Ali is a natural teacher, the kids adore him and listen to him with great attention. Ali grew up in Egypt and came to America when he was 17. I said I thought he was a natural teacher, he just shook his head and said he was set on being an engineer but his passion in life was working with kids.

I’m not at all certain he won’t end up teaching in one way or another, he seems to natural at it. He and Dave are a solid coaching team, there is a lot of hard work but no drama or shouting. These kids don’t seem to need it.

The very idea of sports is a complex one for me. My father, himself a life-long athlete, desperately wanted me to be an athlete as well, he believed sports was the pathway to assimilation and connection in America. My father and I fought about this and it damaged and ultimately destroyed our relationship permanently.

I do see at the RISSE practice that sports is very important to these children, they are serious about it and excited about it. The Risse kids do not have any of the resources available to the other teams they play against, there is just no money to support them other than what they can scrape together, and Ali and Dave they do a great job of scraping.

Ali and Dave are serious but also gentle with the kids, there is no screaming or bullying or posturing, and the team members respond by being serious, paying attention and working hard. I hope to go to some games and see how this evolves.