Bass finds true heroes as well, including Lewiston High's legendary soccer coach, the high school staff, and the wider community. While the players and families face racism and hatred, obstacles in Lewiston mostly pale in comparison with life in refugee camps, where most of the players grew up playing soccer barefoot and with nothing but a bundle of rags for a ball. Bass uncovers the heartbreaking immigrant stories of the mostly Somalian, devout Muslim players, and how their families adjust to life the old mill city of Lewiston, Maine, their experiences mirroring the emigration of the French-speaking Acadians just a few generations before. This is an incredibly powerful, uplifting, and beautifully written book: journalist Amy Bass tells the story of how the first predominantly African-American high school sports team in the history of the state of Maine won Lewiston's first state soccer championship. And now I feel like a fan of these kids, these coaches and teacher and the whole city. The story of the season unfolds in a dramatic and suspenseful way - even when I knew the outcome, I couldn’t wait to read the details of each game and how the season progressed. As we follow their championship season, we see the power of sport to bring a community together. She introduces us to the players and their families, and the hurdles they’ve faced. Here, he thought looking at the field, he was a proud Lewiston soccer player.”Īmy Bass does a magical job of weaving the nuanced and complicated local history into the narrative of the current group of Somali immigrants who make up the majority of the championship soccer team. He felt the stereotypes - terrorist, drug dealer, pirate - that had plagued him just a few years ago beginning to disappear. While his community wasn’t perfect, it was better.
‘When you love others,’ she said, ‘sincerely love them, you will eventually get it back.’ Looking at the crowd of Blue Devils fans - white, black, Muslim, Catholic, Somali, Franco - Shobow realized that his mother was right. His mother told him then to have a big heart, to have empathy.
“He flashed back to when his family first arrived in Lewiston, the days when people told him to leave.
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