Husker Profile: The Pick-Up Soccer Ecosystem

Peyton Thomas Author

02/13/2022 Added

2 Plays

Description

NBS National Student Electronic Media Competition

Searchable Transcript

Search:

[00:00:00.349](gentle music)
[00:00:06.730]There may be no greater uniting force,
[00:00:09.350]than the world's game.
[00:00:11.420]Soccer has shown a unique ability to bring together people
[00:00:14.400]of all backgrounds, socioeconomic levels,
[00:00:17.140]religions, languages, the list goes on.
[00:00:20.930]Today, we take a deep dive
[00:00:22.740]into how the sports unifying quality
[00:00:25.170]is present around the campus
[00:00:26.680]at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
[00:00:28.910]Welcome to this Husker profile.
[00:00:30.940]I'm Peyton Thomas.
[00:00:33.030](upbeat music)
[00:00:37.810]My name is Faisal Alamani.
[00:00:39.360]I'm from Oman.
[00:00:40.980]My name is Zacharia. I'm from Oman.
[00:00:43.930]My name is Morrison, and I'm from Oman.
[00:00:46.570]I'm Ossan Alvarani, and I'm from Oman.
[00:00:49.030]Just go by Aziz, and I'm from Oman.
[00:00:52.120]If you know where to look
[00:00:53.540]the sights and sounds of the game are present.
[00:00:56.880]This atmosphere becomes a backdrop
[00:00:59.350]of many college experiences
[00:01:01.140]for students who spend their free time here.
[00:01:03.950]To these international students specifically,
[00:01:06.660]this outlet to play a game
[00:01:08.630]is all but second nature.
[00:01:11.420]We, we used to play
[00:01:13.691]since we were like little kids,
[00:01:16.520]like five, six years old.
[00:01:18.770]If I don't play soccer, I might,
[00:01:20.293]honestly, I'll go crazy.
[00:01:22.960]It is in our genetics I would say.
[00:01:26.210]And this ritual
[00:01:27.490]can develop almost a spiritual nature.
[00:01:30.200]For example, us Muslims, like you know how the way,
[00:01:32.390]for example, we pray five times a day?
[00:01:34.420]Soccer is almost the same thing.
[00:01:36.220]Any personal issues and literally,
[00:01:37.960]everything is behind our backs when we play soccer.
[00:01:41.090]It's just to compete and to have fun with each other.
[00:01:44.220]With that passion,
[00:01:45.430]these like-minded individuals quickly make connections
[00:01:48.270]through those similarities,
[00:01:49.760]and create an ecosystem on campus.
[00:01:52.870]If you ask them to play
[00:01:54.150]they'll like welcome you with open arms.
[00:01:56.210]They don't discriminate or anything like that.
[00:01:58.640]It's very healthy.
[00:01:59.473]If anyone gets hurt, everyone stops, takes care of them.
[00:02:02.410]It's a pretty good community to be honest.
[00:02:04.310]Pick up games are ongoing,
[00:02:06.110]and there's no barrier to entry.
[00:02:08.320]The students I spoke with
[00:02:09.630]say they get new players all the time,
[00:02:11.520]and that each game can bring a new group of people.
[00:02:14.443]Literally everybody's welcomed right now.
[00:02:16.350]As you see right now,
[00:02:17.183]there's like other Oman students right now
[00:02:18.720]that's playing with somebody else.
[00:02:20.530]Within this large soccer ecosystem,
[00:02:22.990]you find differing subgroups often broken up along skill,
[00:02:26.550]or what time of day you play.
[00:02:28.810]Most of the students I spoke with
[00:02:30.700]enjoy playing together because they're all from Oman.
[00:02:33.550]There's some Omanis here.
[00:02:34.720]We used to play for professional soccer clubs back home,
[00:02:37.290]but we have to leave, you know, everything back here,
[00:02:40.490]back there for here for school,
[00:02:41.930]because we're sponsored by scholarship.
[00:02:43.930]There's new Omanis coming here to Lincoln every year.
[00:02:46.460]And we depend on that in order to have like,
[00:02:50.080]all the Oman players to play with us.
[00:02:52.849](smooth guitar music)
[00:02:56.071](players communicating)
[00:03:04.940]How competitive do the games usually get?
[00:03:07.500]They get, they get too competitive sometimes.
[00:03:11.650]I'm telling you, yeah.
[00:03:13.020]No, nobody wants to lose.
[00:03:14.520]If we play like in a competition, it gets so competitive.
[00:03:19.131]With a mix between these highly skilled players,
[00:03:21.985]and the level of passion that they have for the game,
[00:03:25.009]it didn't come as a surprise to me
[00:03:27.530]that these students spoke about a competitive environment.
[00:03:30.250]But, fitting in nicely alongside
[00:03:32.490]the everyone is welcome atmosphere.
[00:03:34.840]There's a clear limit where the person behind the player
[00:03:37.770]takes center stage.
[00:03:39.170]The more competitive, the more fun it is
[00:03:40.910]but we always strive to, like safety first,
[00:03:43.911]in their sportsmanship.
[00:03:45.250]There comes a time for each game to end.
[00:03:47.490]The facilities close,
[00:03:49.030]the players get tired,
[00:03:50.550]the time limit has been reached,
[00:03:52.520]but there are many intangibles
[00:03:54.210]that these students get to take far beyond the finalism.
[00:03:58.186](upbeat music)
[00:03:59.519]Like, I, I met people that I thought I'd never meet.
[00:04:01.610]And like, they're introducing me to other people.
[00:04:03.560]So, new friends, new experiences.
[00:04:05.275]I met people here that I'm hanging out outside.
[00:04:07.650]So, it just brings everyone together.
[00:04:09.450]So if I, I don't, if I didn't have soccer,
[00:04:11.210]I don't know what I'd do, to be honest.
[00:04:12.530]Especially here in U N L.
[00:04:14.534](smooth piano music)
[00:04:16.190]Thanks for listening to this Husker profile,
[00:04:18.970]on soccer's global power team
[00:04:21.057]right here on the University of Nebraska Lincoln campus.
[00:04:24.670]I'm Peyton Thomas,
[00:04:25.850]and I hope to see you next time.

The screen size you are trying to search captions on is too small!

You can always jump over to MediaHub and check it out there.

Comments

0 Comments

Husker Profile: The Pick-Up Soccer Ecosystem

Description

Searchable Transcript

Comments icon comment

Related Channels

Comments