Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference

The story of the Fugees demonstrates that organized sports can provide young people with a safe space to explore their identities while also providing a motivation for education and better behavior. St. John suggests that organized sports can benefit children from all walks of life, but centering his narrative on the Fugees’ experiences allows him to highlight organized sports as a community-building tool to support refugee young people and their families.

For many refugee families in Clarkston, the safety provided by participation in the Fugees becomes the team’s number one benefit. While watching the team practice for the first time, St. John observes “a palpable sense of trust and camaraderie between the players and their coach” (6). This trust extends to the Fugees’ families. Before Beatrice Ziaty agrees to let her sons play for the Fugees, she questions Luma extensively about the team’s safety protocols. Only after “Luma promise[s] to pick Jeremiah up before practice and to drop him off afterward” does Beatrice finally agree (57). Ultimately, St. John suggests that the Fugees’ families “[understand] that soccer with Luma [is] safe, unlike the games in the parking lots of the apartment complexes, which often [take] place in the menacing presence of drug dealers” (102).