Is it true that sports can transcend language and cultural barriers?
A group of soccer players from Ponte Vedra High School (PVHS) and a group of refugees from around the First Coast found that to be the case when they participated in a soccer friendly on Jan. 5.
The young players may have vastly different life experiences, speak different languages, celebrate different holidays and traditions, but the love of the world’s most popular sport brought them together.
The soccer friendly was arranged by Kim Bogart, who is founder and director of Kim’s Open Door, an area nonprofit that “equips a diverse group of volunteers who teach life skills to local at-risk kids, through education, the arts and community events.”
Bogart began Kim’s Open Door after hearing on the news about 31 shootings in 31 days in Jacksonville in 2014. Bogart wanted to help at-risk youth in the community and worked with area police departments and schools to create opportunities and safe experiences for young people in the area. She said the nonprofit also trains and mobilizes people from diverse backgrounds to tutor and mentor at-risk kids.
Another big part of the nonprofit involves assisting the area’s hundreds of refugee children, who may be struggling in their new schools and environments.
“One of our greatest focus groups are refugees that we have been working with for about three years, now,” Bogart said. “We’re really fortunate to have people from all around the world in our city. And the refugee children in our public schools are put into classes, and English is their second or third language. So that is our strategic target group.”
And Bogart said she’s been amazed at what she’s seen.
“Our results have been unbelievable,” she said. “Their language acquisition and life-skills acquisition are unbelievable. We’ve had great results.”
Setting up the scrimmage
Bogart is passionate about sharing what her organization does, and it was during her speaking engagement at a Ponte Vedra church that first set things in motion for the Jan. 5 event. Kamie McBrayer, a parent of a Ponte Vedra High soccer player, was in attendance and contacted Bogart to see how the PVHS players could get involved with the nonprofit. Bogart came up with the idea for a scrimmage — and she knew just the right person to help make it happen.
Scott Wise has a very busy life, teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) at Southside Middle School and serving as the school’s assistant soccer coach. Not to mention, he has four kids — a 16-year-old son, two 13-year-old boys, including one adopted from China, and a 10-year-old daughter he and his wife adopted from Ethiopia. He also manages to fit in coaching two teams from the All Nations Soccer League (ANSL), a Jacksonville-based league that was created in 2017 in partnership with World Relief.
Working with refugees has special meaning to Wise not only because two of his own children are from other countries, but because his family has lived across the world, including in China for five years, and understands how hard it can be to acclimate to a new culture, especially for adolescents.
“The situations they come from are challenging, and when they get here, there’s opportunity but there’s also a lot of other challenges in front of them” Wise said. “They’re not put in an easy place to succeed.”
Wise met Bogart through Kim’s Open Door, which tutors refugee children throughout area public schools, including at Southside Middle every Thursday. Bogart said refugee students are often just placed into classrooms where they don’t know the language, and often subject to bullying, which makes tutoring and extracurricular activities so important.
Wise has seen a big boost in the number of people from the area wanting to play in the ANSL in its short time in existence. Players in the league are ages 15 and up, and most are in high school, but Wise said as much as they love soccer, they haven’t had opportunities in the past to play for an organized league or team.
“They knew soccer,” Wise said. “They eat, breathe and sleep soccer. We don’t have to spend a lot of time teaching them the foot skills or ball handling, but organized teamwork, discipline that come along with organized soccer, which they haven’t played before, they’re at the right age where they need to be learning and practicing those things.”
Logistics are also a big problem for refugee students when it comes to organized sports. Wise said transportation is the No. 1 factor, and he even has a van to help get players to practices and games. Wise said through organizations like Bogart’s, people want to help and can see what a difference they can make.
“This person doesn’t have cleats, this person can’t get to the field,” he said. “And when people see that they’re able to work together, those needs can be met.”
Wise expects the league to continue to grow not only because of soccer’s growing popularity in the U.S., but also because of the sense of comfort being on a team provides.
“It’s a unifier and it’s an educator,” Wise said. “All the sudden they’re part of the group. When everything is all topsy-turvy and their lives are turned upside down, they feel like they’re at home on the soccer field.”
Game day
On the day of the scrimmage, all the players were there for the same reason — to play soccer — but they all also enjoyed an added life lesson.
Bogart implemented an activity where the players involved had to get to know each other by finding out how they’re more alike than different. The kids were asked to communicate with each other and brainstorm five things they had in common, whether it be having a sibling, the food they like, the music they listen to, and of course, a love of soccer.
“It is building relationships with these kids, and it is a much-needed activity, especially with so many days out of school,” Bogart said.
The players were also surprised with a visit from professional soccer player Tony Taylor, who played at Bishop Kenny High School and Jacksonville University. Taylor also played for the Jacksonville Armada in 2017.
“That really meant a lot to the refugees, they were so excited,” Bogart said.
The players from PVHS may have provided insight on how organized high school soccer is played, but they also received plenty of insight themselves.
“It was a really good experience because I got to play the sport I love to play with people from different cultures and it was a just an experience to see it from other people’s views,” said Liam Burchell, a freshman soccer player at PVHS.
Burchell said he and his teammates were excited for the opportunity to make the connections with the refugee players, and to be offered a different perspective.
“I think we learned to be more aware of what’s happening around you, and around the world,” he said.
But the biggest impact on Burchell from the event was something universal to all kids.
“Just to be able to see them and help them have fun just like we do playing soccer,” he said.
That’s precisely the mission, said Bogart.
“That’s part of the strategic events that create a healthy community,” Bogart said, “it is really just breaking down those barriers and creating empathy and compassion for one another.”
