I never cease to be amazed by the dedication of teachers; this is a sweet story about the new “mom squad” that formed at Bishop Gibbons to cheer for the refugee players (from Bishop Maginn) whose mothers were at work and couldn’t come to their big game.

(Above photo: Sue Silverstein (in the rear and La Reina Touraine from the “mom squad.”)

Bishop Maginn didn’t have the resources to field a soccer team, so the refugee students – many from countries where soccer is the national sport – were excited about playing at Senior Night Soccer at Bishop Gibbons’s huge and well-maintained soccer field.

Pole, Moo Eh Htoo, and Hsar were excited to be playing soccer in their neat new uniforms, but there was one cloud hanging over them.

All three have hard-working mothers, all with at least two jobs, who love their children dearly but could not get to the game to cheer them on, as most mothers and fathers at Bishop Gibbons could.

Social Worker Laura from the “Mom Squad.” She even brought flowers.

Flo approached Sue Silverstein and asked if she could be a “stand-in mom” for him and the other two refugee players, all of whom were students of Sue at Bishop Maginn. They said they missed having anyone to cheer for them.

Sue went one better – she rounded up two more “moms” to form their own cheering “mom squad” – Sue, Spanish  Teacher LaReina, and Laura, a  social worker and refugee co-ordinator who knew the boys from Bishop Maginn. They made a lot of noise.

The presence of a mom for each one meant a lot to them; as of this writing, the game is still on, and the boys are ahead.

“We know we aren’t the real moms; there is no substitute for that,” but it meant a lot to us, and I think to them, to have somebody cheering for them.”