Neighborhood Athletics aims to empower Somali Bantu youth in Columbus
It's 6 p.m. Tuesday in the gym at Sullivant Elementary School, on Columbus' West Side, and kids are darting and weaving between one another, their sneakers screeching up and down the basketball court.
Fardowsa Haji, 13, in pink pants and an embroidered black headscarf, is the shortest of 10 boys and girls in the scrimmage, but she dashes down the court, shoots and sinks a three-pointer.
“She's going to be one of the best players to come out of the West Side, yes sir," coach Abdullahi Kassim says, watching from the sidelines.
Minutes later, Kassim is dissatisfied with the teamwork from the players, who range from second to ninth grade, and steps onto the court.
“What are we supposed to be working on?" he asks, rhetorically. "Spacing, screening, cutting, communicating. We can stop and run if I don't see that.”
Kassim, 35, founded Neighborhood Athletics, a volunteer-run nonprofit that offers sports and academic programming for youth in the Hilltop, South Franklinton and nearby neighborhoods. He and most of his players come from the Somali Bantu community, a minority ethnic group originally from southern Somalia, thousands of whom have settled in Columbus.
Asha Mohamed, 14, a ninth-grade student at West High School, said she's glad to have a coach and team from her own community.
“You don’t have to try so hard to fit in; you can just be your own self," she told The Dispatch. "Usually, on a school team, there’s not many Somali Bantus. … Sometimes you get looked at different."
'Another way to give back'
Kassim was born in Somalia, but his family fled the civil war to a refugee camp in Kenya and then resettled in Ohio when he was young. Growing up in Cleveland and Columbus, he developed a love of basketball even as many other members of the community were attracted to soccer.
"I was the outcast," he said with a chuckle.
An instructional assistant with Columbus City Schools for 13 years, Kassim said he has volunteer-coached since 2015 and registered Neighborhood Athletics as a 501(c)(3) in 2021. Today, the organization has 28 volunteers who work with around 40 kids in the basketball program and around 100 kids in soccer. This year, it also organized a summer academic tutoring program. It partnered with the Columbus Crew, Children's Hunger Alliance and Columbus Parks and Recreation for various sports programs.
The basketball program has two practices and two games per week, fielding several boys' and girls' teams in an Ohio Hoopsters league.
Many of the players live in the South Park and Wedgewood apartment complexes, where poverty is pervasive and gun violence is all too common.
“I see a lot of kids that need help and more male role models," said Kassim, who has nine children of his own. “In our community … most of the parents are either busy working or they have their own things going on. Growing up, I had some coaches that I interacted with … who gave me a different perspective. My dream was to become a professional athlete, but I didn't become that, so I wanted another way to give back.”
'It saved me from the world'
Neighborhood Athletics' soccer and basketball programs provide kids an opportunity to gain important life skills, according to the organization's athletic director Aden Mohamed (no relation to Asha, the player).
“They have to interact with their teammates, they have to problem-solve and find solutions together. When there are conflicts … they have to overcome whatever differences with their teammates," Mohamed said.
Sidi Adem, 20, a former participant and now a volunteer with Neighborhood Athletics, said playing basketball with Coach Kassim "saved me from the world."
“I've seen drugs; I’ve seen shootouts; I’ve seen all of it. … It's easy to go down the wrong path," Adem said. "I decided to become a leader instead of a follower.”
Recruiting girls to the program has sometimes been challenge, Kassim said, because the older generation of Somali Bantus remain hesitant about girls in sports.
“Girls in our community are meant to just get married and have children and be housewives. There’s been a lot of barriers," Kassim said.
But the younger generation of parents are more open to girls' sports, he said. Still, his female players — most of whom wear long pants and headscarves on the court — sometimes get dirty looks from people outside the community when they play tournaments.
“I tell them they're role models — there's a lot of girls that look up to you," Kassim said.
Fordowsa Haji, the star 13-year-old, told The Dispatch she wants to be a truck driver when she grows up, following in the footsteps of her older brother.
Her coach hopes she'll stick with sports, at least for a while.
"She's very talented. She's going to be great at basketball — or running," he said. "She has blazing speed."
Peter Gill covers immigration, new American communities and religion for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America at: bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Neighborhood Athletics empowers Somali Bantu youth in Columbus
