Sometimes, members of the Fugees soccer team think they can outwit Luma Mufleh, their coach.
Although Mufleh has a much better understanding of the world than they do, her players still try to test her.
 Photos by BARRY WILLIAMS/Special; photo illustration by BILL BOYKINS/Staff |
| Fugees players Austin Hoods (left) and Safiullah Mohamadullah scrimmage during practice at a soccer field in Clarkston. |
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| Luma Mufleh started the Fugees when she saw children playing soccer barefoot in the street in Clarkston. |
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| Fugees players Prince Tarlue, 14, (left) and Mohammadullah Hassan, 13, listen to coach Luma Mufleh during practice in Clarkston. The Fugees story is being made into a movie, and the deal has helped the team purchase a bus and a soccer field in Dunwoody. |
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| Fugees coach Luma Mufleh (third from the right on the first row) poses with team members during practice. |
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| Glenda Thurman helps Lewis Makor with math during an after-school tutoring session at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf in Clarkston. |
"I had one say to me, 'Coach Luma, I'm Muslim; I have to skip practice the next month to fast,'?" Mufleh said during a recent interview in Clarkston.
She didn't give him a chance to make his case.
"Really? I'm Muslim, too. You can come with me, and we'll break fast together and get back to practice," she said.
When the trickery doesn't work on Mufleh, the kids try to fool the volunteers. One incident, she recalls, was at a pizza restaurant.
"I heard him say to one of the volunteers, 'We don't eat pizza in my country; I need something else,' " Mufleh said.
"I called over there to him and said: 'You're Iraqi. What do you mean you can't eat pizza? Eat the pizza.' He yelled back at me, 'Coach, why do you know everything?'?"
Mufleh, a 33-year-old coach and teacher, built the Fugees soccer program for refugee children who have been marginalized in the United States and could otherwise be idle after school.
Mufleh's story, which is the Fugees' story, is being made into a movie. The financial deal will help the Fugees purchase a bus and soccer field. Currently, the team receives donations from individual sponsors. The Fugees play their home games at Blackburn Park in north DeKalb County and are members of the North DeKalb Soccer Association.
Mufleh started the Fugees program 3½ years ago, when she saw barefoot children playing soccer in the street. Today, the program, which consists of three boys teams and one girls team, serves about 80 youngsters from 11 to 18.
The Fugees aren't just about soccer; the program also is about education. Many of the players were thrust into the U.S. public school system but were ill-prepared for class work, because of language barriers. So Mufleh, who believed that a smaller school was the answer, set up an academy for some of the children.
The older children in the Fugees program are being guided toward trades, such as plumbing and electrical work.
It is all part of an effort to get them into the mainstream work force and out of the margins of American society.
"I grew up very privileged, and the line of thinking was [that you] go to elementary school, then middle school, then high school and college, and there were no other options," Mufleh said. "But, with these kids, there have to be [other] options.
"We have a kid who came over from another country, and he is 18 now and in the ninth grade. He is not going to college at this rate. There have to be apprenticeships and trade programs for people like him."
Mufleh said another teen has earned a GED and is working in the Job Corps, a no-cost educational and vocational training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor for people ages 16 through 24.
"We're making a difference and trying to find options for these kids," she said.
Remedies aren't easy to find when you consider that many of Mufleh's players come from war-torn nations, including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan. They have seen horrors children shouldn't see.
In the United States, parents often are the filter that comes between life's ravages and the innocence of youth. Mufleh has helped single mothers be that filter for the Fugees.
"They didn't have what I have, and it makes me angry," Mufleh said. "I know how the world works and people have advantages and disadvantages, but that doesn't mean it's right."
Although Mufleh had advantages growing up in Jordan, she wasn't spoiled. She had a diverse upbringing that shaped her empathy for disadvantaged children.
Mufleh attended an international school with the children of diplomats. Her friends were Asian and Western, as well as Middle Eastern.
The most fun was sharing food during festivals, at which students would set up booths, dress in their native garb, and sell food from their countries, she said.
After she finished high school, Mufleh attended Smith College in Northampton, Mass., where she studied anthropology, because it was "the best reading."
Even though Mufleh had different opportunities in life, she feels a personal a connection with her soccer players.
"When I look at this group of kids I have, I say, 'This is my school; this is how I grew up,' " Mufleh said.
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