Host intro: With immigration to New York City currently surging, there are many people in search of community and opportunities. Saturday Night Lights, a free soccer program every Friday and Saturday night in East Harlem, aims to provide both. Kimberly Molina-Soto spoke to one of SNL’s coaches about the work they do to bring kids together for a free game of futbol, and potentially provide future jobs for them or their parents.
AMBI: Players communicating on the field
Track: I am here at Saturday Night Lights (SNL) in East Harlem where the lights shine bright over the gray dull field where you hear kids laughing and calling out for the ball to score a goal. I am with Brady Molina, a head coach for the program looking towards the field where kids from various Latin American countries are playing. He says for them, language barriers haven’t been an issue.
ACT: Once you understand and learn how to play soccer, soccer is a language so even though they might not know how to speak English and other people may not know how to speak in Spanish. As long as they can speak soccer they fit in very perfectly well because they feel very connected adapt to the new environment.
TRACK: Molina himself joined SNL at the age of 14 and eventually became a coach himself.
ACT: Me being a participant to a coach, to the coaches it’s like a revelation like wow I really influenced Brady to be a coach.
TRACK: But SNL aims to open up more opportunities for its players than coaching alone. Maria Ramirez was a participant of the program who worked with New York City Football Club and was a part of the youth leadership council.
ACT: Which is a group where we were invited to apply and if accepted it would bring around 15 to 18 young leaders from different community programs to further our involvement in the community. By allowing us to organize different soccer related workshops, festivals and events.
TRACK: Maria also highlights some of the other opportunities SNL has given to her
ACT: For example, three of us we able to join a Bloomberg start up program that aimed to teach us Python the coding language. Which later helped me realize how much I actually like coding and it let me further explore that in college and consequently major in Web Design.
TRACK: Both Brady and Maria have used what they learn to continue to motivate the youth and understand the importance of giving back to the community.
ACT: I think what motivates me is the energy you really learn something new every day. Sports also brings out the true side of a person even if they are not academically good in school but when it comes to soccer, they are a whole different person and they bring out their true colors.
(MARIA) I can’t speak for all of us when I say this but it definitely helped me develop stronger leadership skills and overall more confidence in life. It makes me realize that giving back to our community is imperative.
TRACK: There has been an increase of Immigrant families coming to New York City. According to The New York Times, “As of mid-October, more than 130,600 migrants had arrived in New York City… people from all over the world have arrived, sometimes by the thousands each week.” With immigrant families coming into the city the program has grown in numbers.
ACT: I am lucky that I speak Spanish and English although it is kind of difficult for me too because there are certain Spanish words that I do not know. For example, I didn’t know how to say push-ups when I first started but once I explained the momentum and movement, they told me what it was, in Spanish its “lagartijas” and got it right away.
TRACK: Although there is a slight language barrier the kids still understand other forms of language such as movements and demonstrations which makes it easier for immigrant kids to understand and get involved.
TRACK: With the Saturday Night Lights program running they are always welcoming new players and people with no experience the program at the moment is looking for a female head coach for the girls site. For Baruch College this is Kimberly Molina-Soto.