Wrestling with the American Dream

Elham Jalak and Mustafa Pashtoon met for the first time on a flight from Kabul in February Jalak was years old Pashtoon just Their fathers had known each other in the Afghan Army and their families came to the United States through the Special Immigrant Visa undertaking which has helped resettle Afghan citizens who worked with the United States during the war In America their dads hoped to find better jobs and guidance for their children It was a big plane an Emirates double-decker and the two boys sat next to each other They didn t know what to expect once they landed aside from what they had seen in the movies and neither spoke English Not even one word Pashtoon later communicated the Texas Observer I didn t even know how to write my name After the -hour flight to Houston they flew to San Antonio their new home where they settled in a northwest neighborhood known for its diverse immigrant communities A couple years later their families relocated to San Antonio s West Side The pair started playing sports I played soccer cross-country track golf tennis soccer and then I did football and basketball Jalak proudly recounted We played together They sometimes speak about their experiences unemotionally as if every teenager were forced to flee a war-torn country Occasionally they break into Pashto with each other then switch back to English When I first met them at an away junior varsity tournament at Legacy of Educational Excellence LEE High School they were wrestling In the gym bleachers Jalak and Pashtoon now and were waiting for their next matches along with Saifullah Gul another Afghan immigrant Altogether they were among five Afghan wrestlers on Sidney Lanier High School s crew at that point in the season about a quarter of the entire gang Traditional Afghan wrestling known as Pehlwani is a popular pastime for boys in the south-central Asian nation so multiple Afghan refugees find a natural home on high school wrestling teams in America This phenomenon is prevalent in California and Virginia the states with the largest populations of Afghan immigrants In Texas the state with the third-largest concentration it s pretty much happening in one place San Antonio s West Side and thanks to one person Faridullah Ferrari Samsor Faridullah right and Sahil Samsor at Lanier High School Christopher Lee for The Texas Observer Samsor now came to the United States in October at years old On his first day in San Antonio he met Gul at a local park The next day they met up again to wrestle His father who had also been in the Afghan Army took a job as a taxi driver one of several occupations that Afghan immigrants often fall into Refugees learn briskly that to survive you just need the three C s a cell phone a computer and a car according to Jean Sherrill assistant director at San Antonio s Center for Refugee Services Still speaking very little English Samsor evidenced up at LEE High School in north San Antonio in August Right away he tried to join the wrestling operation but didn t weigh enough He came back his sophomore year promptly broke a finger and was out for the season but not before he earned the nickname Ferrari because a coach couldn t pronounce his name Samsor thought the name was cool and brought it with him to Lanier when his family and Gul s like Jalak and Pashtoon s moved to the West Side in Samsor started training at Takedowncity a gym run by eight-time jiu-jitsu world champion Danielle Walker then approached the school s wrestling coach Steven Cruz He also stated he was going to get all of his friends to join the band Cruz recalls and he did Cruz didn t realize that Samsor had already started recruiting That summer Samsor had started showing Pashtoon Jalak and the other Afghan boys from the neighborhood the moves he d learned at the gym Cause we re Afghan so sometimes we wrestle each other mentioned Pashtoon He was like This is how you guys get a pin and we re like What is a pin The rules weren t quite the same as back home but Samsor was convincing That year one other Afghan boy joined him The next year there would be eight including Samsor s younger brother Sahil one of his six siblings Like other high schools in San Antonio Lanier s wrestling campaign is still in its infancy In various parts of Texas teams adopted wrestling as far back as but San Antonio schools have been slower to embrace it You re in Texas but Texas is football explained Kristen Lara the Lanier wrestling coach who helped establish the gang along with Cruz HE LL BE GONE BUT HIS RECRUITING EFFORTS WILL HAVE A LASTING IMPACT AT LANIER Three years ago Lanier tried to set up a powerlifting gang The district disclosed no but that they could have a wrestling organization We didn t ask for a wrestling company stated Cruz an El Paso native who started coaching football at Lanier in But now that they had one they needed a head coach Eventually Cruz accepted the job and they brought in Lara as the assistant Neither had any wrestling experience but Lara had been training in jiu-jitsu for three years and there were plenty of YouTube videos to help Cruz first noticed Afghan students on the West Side about five years ago The population of Afghan immigrants in the States has ballooned over the past years from around in to in More than half arrived after the fall of Kabul and these refugees have overwhelmingly ended up in a handful of states California Virginia Texas Washington and New York Precise local numbers are hard to come by but the Migration Initiative Institute and nonprofits who patronage refugees have estimated there are Afghan immigrants in San Antonio as numerous as in Houston and several thousand each in Dallas Fort Worth Austin and El Paso As of February an estimated Afghans are still in limbo overseas after the Trump administration halted resettlement Across the country Afghan children mostly boys are diving into American sports Wrestling is popular partly because it s similar to traditional Afghan wrestling which involves more upper-body throws than the single and double-leg takedowns favored in American high-school wrestling but requires similar body control and mental toughness Where I grew up we used to wrestle in the streets anywhere Samsor explains That s the thing like in Afghanistan it s like basically fighting anywhere Faridullah Samsor right takes a break with his teammates during the regional wrestling tournament in Corpus Christi in February Christopher Lee for The Texas Observer In California and Virginia teams with critical numbers of Afghan wrestlers are more common than in Texas That s likely because for the the majority part the schools in Texas where they enroll don t have wrestling programs Lanier which only has about Afghan students total is an outlier Cassiano Homes the sprawling inhabitants housing public where Samsor s family lives takes up several blocks on the West Side a little over a mile from Lanier Its symmetrical rows of red-roofed two-story townhouses give it the feel of military barracks aside from the fading murals on their walls for which the neighborhood is celebrated They reflect the area s Mexican-American heritage from Aztec gods to s Chicano lifestyle San Antonio has one of the highest poverty rates among major cities in the United States and thanks in large part to the practice of redlining it is still one of the nation s the majority economically segregated cities the zip code that includes the Westside has a long history of neglect and is still the poorest part of the city Lanier the high school that serves the area was founded as a commerce school its mascot the Voks short for vocational is a blue gearwheel and is percent Hispanic though its valedictorian last year was an Afghan girl Around the corner from the school a mural depicting Hispanic soldiers in Vietnam reads You Are Not Forgotten and brings to mind the flood of refugees after the fall of Saigon The school grounds in recent days renovated consist of a meager dusty sports fields and an assortment of modern atrium-filled brick buildings that resemble a mid-sized airport and clash with the surrounding neighborhood s architecture Two days before the Regional Wrestling Tournament in February the Lanier unit was getting in a short practice after school just to break a sweat They practice in a hallway around the corner from the cafeteria on a narrow rectangular strip less than half the size of a regulation mat Samsor was visibly sweating through a gray shirt with blue sweatpants tucked into his socks Weighing under pounds with a wet mop haircut he s not an imposing figure but his confidence and all-consuming passion for wrestling have an inspirational effect on his teammates akin to Benny from the movie The Sandlot With a lot of hard work aside from a break or two to eat shower or pray Samsor trains every weekday from around to p m and competes in tournaments on the weekends he has come a long way in three years on the squad He won only two matches his first season was knocked out at the district tournament his second then made it to regionals in his third and final year as a senior with wins and only losses His brother Sahil a freshman would also be at the tournament as an alternate in situation someone dropped out Advertisement After practice Cruz gathered the band at the edge of the mat dressed in casual coach-wear a polo shirt and shorts They d already made history in his opinion When he and Lara started the effort they had one girl make it to regionals This year they would be sending eight wrestlers three as alternates We ve beaten a lot of teams that we shouldn t have beaten on paper and we ve been beaten by a lot of teams that shouldn t have beaten us on paper he disclosed But you don t wrestle on paper you wrestle on the mat Walking to the field house Samsor pointed out that they also have Afghan players on the soccer baseball and track teams He slapped a learner s hand as they passed each other and reported That guy s Afghan He s on the basketball gang We re taking over At weigh-ins Samsor joked around with his teammates by putting his toe on the back of the scale to make them seem heavier He made weight himself but Sahil who seemed nonplussed had to lose seven pounds in the next day and a half Cruz handed out blue Lanier t-shirts he d ordered just for regionals which had all their names on the back and Samsor was quick to point out to his teammates that his name was on top Despite the jokes there was tension in the air The regionals would likely be Samsor s last high school match and it seemed to weigh on him even though he has ambitious plans for the future Now that he s he can apply for citizenship In the fall he plans to go to college to make his mother proud but he also intends to keep training in boxing and jiu-jitsu and eventually become a UFC fighter He ll be gone but his recruiting efforts will have a lasting impact at Lanier Next school year there should be at least five Afghan wrestlers on Lanier s group again including one new addition Jalak s brother who will be a freshman After weigh-ins Ferrari and Sahil jumped in their father s Toyota Highlander not quite a Ferrari and took off for another two hours of wrestling at Takedowncity On Friday morning at the regional tournament in Corpus Christi Cruz and Lara who drives the bus to matches both dressed in coach-professional a polo shirt and slacks were excited Two of their three alternates including Sahil were going to compete Ready to go coach Samsor commented as they finished warming up You hydrate Water You good Cruz petitioned Your brother is he good Scared When the national anthem played and the crowd stood at attention Samsor didn t move leaning back against the bleachers with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and his headphones over his ears Then the wrestling began If you ve never been to a wrestling tournament it can be overwhelming A basketball court floor is covered from end to end with mats which give off a strong smell of rubber and sweat and the incessant squeaking of dozens of shoes is punctuated by whistle blasts and eruptions of clapping and hooting It s nearly impossible to tell who s wrestling where without a very helpful wrestling app Faridullah Samsor competes in Corpus Christopher Lee for The Texas Observer Samsor controlled majority of of his first match against a wrestler from Buda that he d beaten before and won after the full three periods During the long breaks between matches he d split his time either making the rounds to chat with wrestlers he knows or lying down under his blanket and scrolling through social media At one point while in the hallway outside the gym with his teammates watching a video of himself wrestling one of his female wrestling friends walked over and pulled him away Just friends Just friends right yelled one of his teammates as Samsor casually slipped him the middle finger on his way out Before his second match Samsor was bouncing on his toes looking nervous He was about to face a wrestler from Edinburg named Gonzales who was ranked fifth in the state and against whom Samsor had lost earlier in the season With Sahil shouting advice to his brother in Pashto from the side Samsor tried valiantly to outcome points by landing one of his favorite moves like the Big Mac or the Blast Double but he spent majority of the match fending off Gonzales strong leg challenge struggling to get off of his back multiple times until at last the referee called the match with seconds remaining because Samsor was losing by points When it was time for his next match Samsor was nowhere to be seen Cruz looking worried ran across the gym out the doors and a minute or so later came jogging back with Samsor who had been hanging out with a girl in the hallway Sahil threw him particular headgear and Samsor took his place on the center line across from a wrestler from Edcouch who was only seeded one place above him Within five seconds Samsor was caught by a head-and-arm throw and ended up on his back He recovered got hold of the opponent s leg almost got back on top then was thrown to his back again before being saved by the bell He spent largest part of the second period trying to make something happen from on top get a leg in grab an ankle a wrist anything Shortly into the third period facing each other on their knees Samsor was surprised again by a head-and-arm throw but this time he didn t recover and was pinned At the corner of the mat Cruz looked disappointed as he rose from his chair He concluded that Samsor could have won the match That s a tough loss he commented Once off the mat Samsor squatted down behind the coaches chairs dropped his head lowered his eyes toward the ground and stayed there frozen in the moment The post Wrestling with the American Dream appeared first on The Texas Observer