9/01/05

Soccer unites down and out

By Rob Anthes
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
June 17, 2005

Michael Schell has no job, no home and few prospects. He does, however, have a corporate sponsor and on this night a formidable opponent in a group of soccer-playing 13-year-old girls.
    This is supposed to be a friendly match, but Schell is taking it seriously. A girl nonchalantly runs to retrieve a stray ball, and the 6-foot-1 Schell knocks her down and triumphantly boots the ball toward an open goal.
    Schell is a member of Art Works Football Club, a soccer team composed of homeless people from Charlotte, N.C. The club was in the District this week to tour the nation's capital and visit with the D.C. United soccer team, and the National Church of the Nazarene offered to put up the players.
    Debbie Randall, who volunteered to cook dinner for the team after receiving an e-mail of community service opportunities, offered her daughter and four of her friends as Art Works' competition Tuesday night. Nothing was bruised or broken -- and a stained-glass window only briefly endangered -- and there were no bruised feelings either: The teams didn't keep score, so there was no loser.
    The warm-up against the teenage set dispensed with, Schell and his Art Works teammates now have their sights set on competition more their own size -- and much farther afield. Art Works FC, fortified by sponsorships from Nike and Eurosport, will travel to Edinburgh, Scotland, next month as the U.S. representative in the Homeless World Cup.
    One of the players, Stephanie Johnson, 45, says God led her to the team. The Baltimore native spent her entire paycheck on a bus ticket to Charlotte, giving into a recurring feeling that somehow she belonged there.
    One day Johnson stopped by the Urban Ministry Center for some food. Volunteers at the center urged her to come there more often and, when she eventually obliged, recruited her into Art Works FC.
    "I never understood why [they wanted me to go more often]," Johnson said. "But I needed something do to. God told me to get there."
    For Abdul Wright, soccer is life. He first realized he loved soccer in 1995, when he played for a Job Corps team. Now he is one of Art Works' more dedicated players, earning one of the eight spots for the trip to Scotland.
    "When you're not working, you have something to look forward to," Wright said. "I've got soccer going for me, if nothing else."

(theglobalgame.com)

This photo of Feliciano Robles appeared on the front page of the Charlotte Observer. He is now known as "cover boy." (Gary O'Brien | Charlotte Observer)

6/15/2005

All players have been homeless at some point in the last year.

Art Work Football Club, made up of 20 homeless players from the Urban Ministry Center of Charlotte, will be one of 32 national teams in the Homeless World Cup on July 19-24 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

"We haven't won a game yet," defender Ray Isaac, 43, told the Associated Press. "But what does it matter? There's no knowing where this can take you. Doors can open for all of us on the team."

The club hopes to bring at least eight men and women, ranging from 18 to the late 40s, to the four-on-four tournament. It's played on the street, with boards surrounding the field. The event is expected to draw 50,000 fans.

The team will be honored today at halftime of the Major League Soccer game between D.C. United and the Chicago Fire in Washington.

The team practices twice a week and competes in a league in Charlotte. And it does have a victory under its belt, albeit by forfeit.

The Homeless World Cup began three years ago to bring attention to poverty and homelessness.

"It aims to tackle global poverty, specifically challenging the issue of homeless people, and results to date have been simply astounding in terms of challenging lives and changing perceptions," co-founder Mel Young said.

Update: Art Works Football Club lost its matches to Scotland, Slovakia and Sweden at the Homeless World Cup but left with the Fair Play Award for best embodying the spirit of the event. In a 1 August newsletter ("Dreams of Bonnie Scotland"), Cann says U.S. team members were denied visas, as were five teams from Africa (see 20 July). But the American players were allowed to enter as tourists. "We live to learn and we learned to live with each other," writes Art Works player Michael Schell of the experience. "If you do not have good sportsmanship and a good team ethics, then you can't make it in life."

Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, NC (section 1a)

Charlotte soccer squad hopes to represent U.S. at "Homeless World Cup"

The Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The United States is sending a soccer team to the world cup this summer.

All the players are coming from Charlotte.

And they're all homeless, or have been.

If all goes as planned, they'll represent the United States in the 2005 Homeless World Cup in Edinburgh, Scotland, in July.

"I've fought for my country, but I've never played a game for my country," says Ray Isaac, 43, a defender. "Not many people get this opportunity."

Competition will be tough. Many of the 30 teams will come from Europe; the British team is said to get coaching from famed team Manchester United.

Charlotte's team started playing together last summer at Freedom Park.

"We haven't won a game yet," Isaac says. "But what does it matter? There's no knowing where this can take you. Doors can open for all of us on the team."

The Homeless World Cup uses soccer to help homeless people move from the fringes of society. It started in 2003 with 18 countries sending homeless players to games in Austria. Last year, the tournament moved to Gothenburg, Sweden. Nations competing for the Homeless World Cup trophy included England, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Japan, Ukraine, Ireland and Portugal.

The dream of fielding a team began with Jessica Woody, 23, and Lawrence Cann, 27. Cann directs an art program at the Urban Ministry Center near uptown Charlotte. Woody, a UNC Charlotte student, got involved at the center through a class.

She started thinking about the benefits of introducing a team sport to homeless men and women. Soccer made sense because it includes a lot of people and doesn't require much equipment. She discovered the Homeless World Cup online.

Cann, who played soccer for Davidson College in the late 1990s, bought into it.

The two coaches held their first practice in July; about 20 men and women attended.

Over the summer, interest grew. The team, called Art Works FC, joined a coed league through Charlotte Sports Connection.

"We were 0 and 7," says Cann, who was Davidson's MVP in 1998. "But it was really great. The goal wasn't to win games, but to get better and learn. For many, soccer was a new thing."

Cann says the Charlotte team was picked for the Homeless World Cup because it was well-organized and had a high attendance record among players. He and Woody gave a PowerPoint presentation in November to U.S. organizers in New York.

To get ready, a core group of about 12 plays games on Wednesday nights and practices on Thursdays at Covenant Presbyterian Church.

In Scotland, games will be street soccer - played on a concrete field about the size of a tennis court. Teams field three players and one goalie. Players must be homeless, or have been homeless sometime during the previous year.

Cann says the biggest challenges might come even before the tournament begins. Players could have trouble finding birth certificates and getting passports. And the team will need to raise as much as $30,000 to cover airfare, uniforms and equipment. They're hoping for corporate sponsorships and help from local soccer programs.

As to whether it's right to spend so much money on a sport, Cann tells would-be critics that soccer gets people fit and helps teach teamwork.

Ray Isaac agrees. A father of seven, he had never played soccer before.

"And now I'm running with the teenagers," he says. "I find energy here. When Lawrence told me about the World Cup, I was like, `Come on, man.' It's just a dream. But it keeps getting realer and realer.

Style Weekly, Richmond, VA