Refugee soccer team near Atlanta: what a movie this would make

[Lanya]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/us/21fugees.html?ei=5094&en=6fc2195c79a2be61&hp=&ex=1169442000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all

[Xavier_Onassis]

“There will be nothing but baseball and football down there as long as I am mayor,” Lee Swaney, a retired owner of a heating and air-conditioning business, told the local paper. “Those fields weren’t made for soccer.”

=================================================
I have yet to see a field you could play baseball or football on that was not also made for soccer.

I imagine that it is only a matter of time before someone DOES make a movie of this.

The only problem would be that the obligatory last game in which Our Team of Fugees defeats the Bad Guys would lack for Bad Guys, since the local yocals would play only baseball or football, and if they tried playing soccer, then they would be at a disadvantage and Out Team could not be the underdogs.

A sports movie without the Final Triumphant Game would involve a degree of creativity that people who make these sappy sports movies do not have.

[BT]

This team is sponsored by the YMCA and the YMCA fields are two-maybe three stops up on the subway(less than 5 miles) . Not sure what the problem is.

[BT]

Wonder why the NY Times wrote the story differently than what was reflected in the Council Minutes:

Hein Nguyen reported he had members of the Fugees Soccer who have submitted a request to use Armistead Filed to practice soccer from Monday through Thursday from 5:00pm until sunset. Ms. Mufleh stated that Indian Creek Elementary field is all gravel and is not a supervised location. Wayne Foster asked what the age group is. She said the age group is 9-17 for kids who cannot otherwise afford to play.  There are three select teams for 16-18 kids on the roster, so tryouts are held in August and the best are selected. The field would only be used for practice and not game play so they would use portable pop up goals and they would line the field in sport paint.  The kids would also clean the field of trash.  The Mayor stated he would like to see the lower end of the field used and encouraged the Council to try this.  Wayne Foster asked what the timeframe for the field use would be.  She said the program starts August until the 1st week in December when they take a month and a half off and start back through May. There was discussion on if this would conflict with little league football use of the field.  Mayor Swaney said the council would be looking at different options for the football program and the soccer use would not be a conflict.  Hein Nguyen asked about insurance and she stated the insurance is provided through the YMCA and they can also provide cleared background checks.  Pat Davis-Morris asked about a hold harmless agreement.  The City Attorney stated that as long as they provided a certificate of insurance, which has a beginning and ending date that would be sufficient.  Hein Nguyen made a motion to allow the Fugees Soccer program to use Armistead Field for a trial period.  Joyce Wade seconded. The City Attorney stated the trial period needs to be specified.  The motion was amended to allow for a trial period of one season.  The motion was passed (5-0).

http://www.cityofclarkston.com/Content/92.htm

[Lanya]

The council minutes are from October of 2006.

'' On Dec. 26, Ms. Mufleh receives a fax on Town of Clarkston letterhead.

Effectively immediately, the fax informs her, the Fugees soccer team is no longer welcome to play at Milam Park. The city is handing the field to a youth sports coordinator who plans to run a youth baseball and football program.''

Don't know what happened in the interim.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I wouldn't want to play soccer on gravel, but then again, gravel isn't suitable for football or baseball, either.

[BT]

The fax on city letterhead may be genuine but Clarkston is a strong council weak mayor goernment, which basically means the council voted to allow the team to play on armistead field until spring and unless that motion were rescinded by council vote that is the way it is.

Mr. Swaney encourages Ms. Mufleh to make her case at the next City Council meeting. So in early October she addresses a packed room at City Hall, explaining the team’s origins and purpose and promising to pick up trash in the park after practice.

Mr. Swaney takes the floor. He admits concerns about “grown soccer people” who might tear up the field. But these are kids, he says, and “kids are our future.”

He announces his support of a six-month trial for the Fugees’ use of the field in Milam Park.

The proposal passes unanimously. At least for six months, the Fugees can play on grass.

and:

Effectively immediately, the fax informs her, the Fugees soccer team is no longer welcome to play at Milam Park. The city is handing the field to a youth sports coordinator who plans to run a youth baseball and football program.

Questioned by this reporter, Mayor Swaney says he has forgotten that in October the City Council gave the Fugees six months. A few days later, he tells Ms. Mufleh the team can stay through March.[/b]


Again what is the problem?

[Lanya]

Questioned by this reporter, Mayor Swaney says he has forgotten that in October the City Council gave the Fugees six months. A few days later, he tells Ms. Mufleh the team can stay through March.[/b]


Again what is the problem?
________________________

She is trying to get them a permanent home.  March will come soon, she's being pro-active.

[BT]

She is trying to get them a permanent home.  March will come soon, she's being pro-active.

She is being pushy, disingenuous  and acting like cooperation from the city is an entitlement. It isn't.

It never fails to amaze me, that people think the best way to get cooperation and/ or special treatment from an entity is to paint them in the worst possible light and then expect them to bend over backwards to help them.

[Lanya]

Where in the article do you see a mention of her being "pushy" or asking someone from the city to bend over backwards? I don't see it.  She's doing a lot, they are doing very little.  A less disingenuous person I've never read about.   

[BT]

Where in the article do you see a mention of her being "pushy"

On the field, Ms. Mufleh emulated her volleyball coach, an approach that did not always sit well with American parents. When she ordered her players to practice barefoot, to get a better feel for the soccer ball, a player’s mother objected on the grounds that her daughter could injure her toes.

“This is how I run my practice,” Ms. Mufleh told her. “If she’s not going to do it, she’s not going to play.”


But the Fugees have no soccer goals. The Y.M.C.A., which sponsors the team, did not place the order, despite a $2,000 grant for the purpose. Ms. Mufleh quietly seethes that a team of wealthy children would probably not have to wait for soccer goals. She likens practice to “playing basketball without a hoop.”

Ms. Mufleh has a list of complaints about the Fugees’ practice field: little grass, no goals. Neighborhood children regularly wander through the scrimmages, disrupting play.

But after a gang shooting in an apartment complex behind the field in late September, she concludes that the field is not safe. She cancels practice for two days. Fed up, she storms into Mayor Swaney’s office, demanding use of the empty field in Milam Park.

[Xavier_Onassis]

On the field, Ms. Mufleh emulated her volleyball coach, an approach that did not always sit well with American parents. When she ordered her players to practice barefoot, to get a better feel for the soccer ball, a player’s mother objected on the grounds that her daughter could injure her toes.


I am not convinced that it is such a positive thing to play soccer barefoot on a gravel field. Perhaps Disney will not pick up the option for the film after all.

[Lanya]

But after a gang shooting in an apartment complex behind the field in late September, she concludes that the field is not safe. She cancels practice for two days. Fed up, she storms into Mayor Swaney’s office, demanding use of the empty field in Milam Park.
********
Well that brazen hussy.  How pushy of her, to want to practice somewhere other than near a gang shooting.
OK, you've totally won me over.  She's just a pushy demanding woman.

[BT]

The town is less than 1 square mile. The apartment complex was where many of her players lived.
Odds are she would be near shootings no matter where she practiced.

And in case you didn't notice, she didn't ask for the mayors help. She demanded it. She apparently was a woman born into privilege and was used to getting her way.

[Plane]

BT , how distant is this from your baliwick?