Saturday, July 31, 2004
Fulvio Cativo
Plain Dealer Reporter
Days before the opening of the International Children's Games, the Afghan girls soccer team needed a coach.
From their homes in Kabul to their training site in Connecticut where the girls arrived about five weeks ago a variety of instructors taught the girls the basics and prepared them to compete at the games in Cleveland.
Ali Kazemaini, soccer sports co-chairman for the Children's Games and soccer coach at John Carroll University, tried to find a volunteer coach. He contacted several candidates. Finally, on Thursday, he found the person for the job himself.
Kazemaini, an Ohio soccer legend, played in the Major Indoor Soccer League and for the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, and he runs a soccer academy in Willoughby. On Friday, he ran his first practice with the Afghan squad.
He said the opportunity for an Iranian immigrant to coach a group of Muslim girls in Cleveland at an international competition was one he couldn't pass up. And, since the team members speak his native language, Farsi, the coach was able to bridge much more than the girls' inexperience with the sport.
"I've been able to communicate with the girls, which makes it that much more interesting," he said. "They're excited. How well they'll do we don't really know . . . but that's not the issue here."
And Kazemaini said his own upbringing resembles the girls' current situation.
"I left my country when I was 13 years old, pretty much the same age as some of these girls right now," he said.
"I also know that when you leave your land, being away for about a month, what it means to have a voice that understands. . . . My real goal was not necessarily coaching soccer but to coach them about the American way of life and coach them about our hospitality here as a host nation, in particular Cleveland."
Kazemaini's willingness to step in with little notice is much appreciated, said Awista Ayub, Afghan delegation coordinator.
"All the coaches have been amazing, but the cultural, language and religious connection makes it special," she said, later adding, "His efforts have definitely not gone unnoticed."
The Afghan Youth Sports Exchange, founded by Ayub, is a nonprofit organization that prepares Afghanistan's youth with leadership skills required to promote athletics in their schools and communities. The exchange sponsored the Afghan delegation's trip to America.
Ultimately, Kazemaini said, his becoming coach of the Afghan girls is more than coincidence.
"It's fate, really . . . why would you think in a million years, a group of kids from Afghanistan leave their land to come to Cleveland . . . out of all the places, and all of a sudden be in need of a little bit of guidance to play in a tournament and come across a guy that speaks their language?" he said. "I mean, this is crazy."
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