Ali takes his coaching very seriously. Soccer, he says, is everything to the RISSE kids, “it’s a big part of their lives.” They have played soccer their entire lives, and in a way, he says, it has sustained them. Many of these kids have lost a parent or left close relatives behind, sometimes trapped in refugee camps, sometimes dead.

In a sense, Ali seems himself as a second father or a surrogate father, he is available to the kids 24 hours a day, and protects them with a ferocity and commitment that is sometimes breathtaking.

Woe to anyone who threatens them or mistreats them. Ali asks a lot for them on the soccer team. He is proud of them when they play well, win or not, he is blunt when they lose focus or get distracted. Ali and I work very well together as a team.

We just seem to be on the same page, brothers of different mothers. He tells me I seem to know what he is thinking before he says it, and while that is not really true, we just are in sync with one another. I love Ali’s openness and faithfulness to “his kids.” I have seen him when he is defending and protecting them – that is an awesome sight – and when he is loving them.

I have seen their total trust and devotion to him. These families have little money, work hard and grueling jobs, speak little English and are nearly overwhelmed trying to get through the acclimation  process. Many of these kids have no clothes, are mourning dead parents or relatives, are taunted and harassed in school.

Ali is always there for them, and on the soccer field he demands everyone’s best behavior and effort. Coach Ali does not ever smile, and misses nothing. After the tournament, I said, “you need to take the kids out to a good restaurant to celebrate,” and I called ahead and paid the restaurant bill with a credit card, because I knew Ali would not ask me for any money to go there.

I told him it was all done. “How did you know we wanted to do this?, he asked. I don’t know, I said, I just did. This group needs one another and is happy together, it is their safe and healing space.