The girls ended the tournament excited and wanting more
Jack Randolph is an American Fellow for PeacePlayers International – Middle East (PPI-ME), who works with PPI – ME’s northern and central communities, which make up half the total number of teams for the 2013-2014 year.
FEEL THE BURN! The warmup pushed the girls (and myself) to raise the intensity
This past Saturday, three northern communities gathered at the American International School (AIS) for Peace League, a larger scale tournament-style event for Arab and Jewish kids. This Peace League included a couple hours of basketball games, which were played simultaneously on two different courts with about 80 girls getting in on the action. The Druze community Ussafiya brought three teams, while Jewish communities Hadera and Holon together brought three teams to match. Throughout the games, the teams are randomly mixed up so that the communities from the different religions and cultures are able to interact as teammates on the court. American fellow Jamie Walsh got everybody sweating from the get-go with an intense defensive warm-up. You know that Jamie did a good job, because after the warm-up there was no messing around. The girls were ready to do what they love: play basketball.
The games were hard-fought and competitive, which created a great atmosphere.
A big reason for the success of Saturday’s Peace League was the presence of four participants of the Leadership Development Program (LDP), who came all the way from Jerusalem to help out in central Israel, where AIS is located. We have spoken in past blogs about the mission of the LDP coming to fruition with many of the LDP participants growing into the kind of coaches that fulfill Managing Director Karen Doubilet’s three pillars of the ideal coach: basketball teaching ability, an understanding and support of PPI-ME’s mission, and someone who is a great role model for the kids. The Peace League was another example of the LDP’s impact. I asked Aysha, an LDP veteran, if there was anything that surprised her Saturday compared to the many Peace Leagues she attended in the past. She brought up the special activity we had for the older girls at the closing of the event: American football. I got the opportunity to teach the girls football, my other favorite sport. Aysha was impressed. “I was really surprised how much fun the girls had playing your football,” Aysha told me over the phone. “I was happy that the girls really wanted to learn, and they were playing hard with both teams trying to win.” I have to agree with Aysha that these ladies from the north and center of the holy land were fantastic on the gridiron playing “Ultimate Football,” while half the older girls played the other more familiar sport of soccer.
The girls off the court watching the action were having a great time.
Not only was it a fun day for all parties involved, but real progress was made with these teams in terms of our larger mission. In Jamie’s words, these communities are “growing much more comfortable around each other.” Plus, Aysha commented on the playful way they were interacting at the end of the day. Samich, the Ussafiya coach, also shared some very positive thoughts. “The girls from Hadera and Holon are really wonderful, and my girls are very fond of them. I even noticed [on] Facebook that they have been connecting with one another.” Samich went on to tell me that some parents of the Ussafiya girls had called him especially to share how much their daughters enjoyed the Peace League. It’s safe to say, it was a big success.
