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Soccer Helps Oak Lawn Immigrants Ease Into New Life

Hector Duran, Servando Duran and Saul Huerta: Three Oak Lawn players have immigrated from Mexico in the past three years and soccer has eased their transition to a new life.

Two years ago, Nate Joiner walked into his Spanish class at Oak Lawn expecting to play the role of teacher and translator. But when two first-year transfer students asked about soccer teams, he was thrust into the position of recruiter.

That was the day Joiner, also the Oak Lawn varsity soccer coach, met Hector and Servando Duran, cousins who had just moved to the south Chicago suburb from Mexico. Neither spoke much English, but loved the sport of soccer. Joiner didn’t need to do much recruiting.

“I had them in class; they were my students,” Joiner said. “On the first day of school, they asked and I told them about (soccer at Oak Lawn), so they expressed interest.”

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Last winter, another transfer student from Mexico caught Joiner’s attention. During the off-season, Joiner holds a number of open gyms, allowing Oak Lawn’s soccer players to keep honing their skills. That’s where he was introduced to Saul Huerta, now a junior at Oak Lawn, who came to the United States less than a year ago.

After trying out this summer, Hector, Servando and Saul all have played for Oak Lawn this season. They’ve had an immediate impact, helping the Spartans rebound from a disappointing season in 2010. Currently, they are 5-5 in South Suburban Conference play.

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Impact transfers aren’t new to Joiner and his team. In 2008, Mostafa Abdelrahman, an immigrant from Jordan, was named the SSC Red Player of the Year and helped Oak Lawn win the conference title.

“Because of the makeup of the student body, we do get some transfers from Poland and Mexico. So, it’s not unheard of,” Joiner said. “But I’ve never seen this many together on one team.”

Adjusting to American Life

Transferring to a new school--let alone a new country–is never an easy transition. And all three boys came under different circumstances.

Huerta had never been to the U.S. before immigrating to Oak Lawn in early 2011.  

“The adaption to a new school, the new people,” Saul responded when asked about the toughest thing in adjusting to his new life. “I have family. I had no friends.”

Both of the Durans were born in the U.S., but moved to Mexico when they were less than 2 years old. After spending most of their childhood south of the border, they moved back to Oak Lawn in 2009.

“We went back to be with family,” Hector said. “But as we got older, our father wanted all of us to get a better education, so he brought us back, hopefully to get a better future.”

Servando’s situation was slightly different than Hector’s. Out of his immediate family’s four kids, he was the only sibling born in America and, therefore, was the only one who could come back to the U.S. Now, Servando lives with his dad in Oak Lawn, while his two brothers and one sister are back in Mexico.

“It was easy for me to move from Mexico, but it was hard saying goodbye to my friends and trying to make new friends here,” Servando said. “But I got used to it.”

They shared a passion for playing soccer, but their Mexican experiences within the sport were different as well. The Durans hadn’t played much organized soccer in Mexico and Servando said he often played on dirt fields rather than the grass that American soccer players are accustomed to.

“As players (Hector and Servando) have become a lot tougher and adjusted to organized soccer,” Joiner said. “But they had some other skills that were needed.”

Saul had more experience playing in leagues during his time in Mexico and that allowed him to step in and make a quicker impact for Oak Lawn. He had two goals against Oak Forest in the Spartans’ first win of the season back in September.

Soccer not only provided the three immigrants a familiar pastime, but gave them an easy opportunity to meet people. They noted that a number of their new friends have come from all the time spent at practice after school, riding the bus to away games and competing together as a team.

Joiner is happy to see the three immigrants socialize with people of different backgrounds and students they may not normally become friends with.

“They are making friends with people who aren’t Mexican or Mexican-Americans,” Joiner said. “The soccer team is so diverse it forces them to.”

Learning English Off and On the Field

Saul, Servando and Hector all came into high school with little English-speaking ability, but they were far from the only ones in that situation at Oak Lawn. Currently, there are approximately 50 students in Oak Lawn’s English as a Second Language (ESL) program and it’s composed of more than just immigrants from Mexico and Latin America.

“We have a great mix of kids,” said Mary Kerrigan, primary teacher in the ESL program at Oak Lawn. “I have students from Mexico, many countries throughout the Middle East, Poland, Korea and the Philippines.”

Making up around 30 percent of the group, Spanish speakers don’t even consist of the largest demographic. Arabic speakers are the biggest set followed by Polish and then Spanish. That diversity is a big reason why there are no bilingual classes being taught at Oak Lawn. Schools have to reach a quota of English language learners with the same native language before bilingual classes can be offered.

The state of Illinois requires high school students to have four years of English in order to graduate. Kerrigan teaches her ESL students for the first two years and then they move on to mainstream English classes for their last two years. Meanwhile, all of their other subject classes, like math, history and science, are taught solely in English.

“The hardest thing when I came was communicating with others, English,” Servando said. “Now just a little bit.”

At first, Servando said he leaned heavily on his friends to help with his English. Now, as a senior, Servando is much more comfortable, answering questions directly in English rather than relying entirely on one of his teammates to translate his Spanish responses.

A lot of that has to do with his experiences playing soccer at Oak Lawn. Kerrigan says she always encourages her ESL students to get involved in activities outside the classroom.

“It’s really exciting for me to see any of my ESL students involved in extracurriculars,” Kerrigan said. “They feel like they are part of the school, but they are also practicing their English skills with their peers.

“The more practice you have at it, the better you’re going to be and the easier it’s going to come to you. Once they know that, they seem to embrace it.”

Although several of Oak Lawn’s players are bilingual, not everyone on the soccer team knows Spanish. It makes for an interesting dynamic when it comes to on-field communication between teammates, but Joiner says it helps both groups learn from the other.

“The non-Spanish speakers pick up on some of the Spanish words and are able to say some things,” Joiner said. “It’s also good for the new guys. They learn a lot of English. It’s slow and not always the best, but they seem to find their way to communicate.”

‘A New Life’ as Spartans

Oak Lawn’s season likely will end soon as the IHSA playoffs get under way. The Spartans received the No. 15 seed in the Andrew Sectional, which looks to be one of the more competitive sectionals in Class 3A. They will face off against No. 2 Stagg on Tuesday in the regional semifinals.

The season may be coming to a close, but for Hector, Saul and Servando, the American chapter of their lives is just beginning. Saul has one more season at Oak Lawn, while Hector and Servando will conclude their high school soccer careers. Hector will play baseball for the Spartans before graduating with Servando in the spring.

“They have a lot of pride in wearing their jersey,” Kerrigan said.

 Servando will start to focus exclusively on getting into college.

“I want to go to college and that’s my dream,” Servando said. “I’d like to stay here.”

Seeing all three at a recent soccer practice, there were no obvious signs of a language or cultural barrier for the three Mexican immigrants. Saul, Hector and Servando blended in with every other player, laughing and conversing with teammates during warm-ups and listening to Joiner’s advice on free-kick drills.

They wore the same clothes, brought the same energy, showed the same competitiveness and expressed the same love of the game. They weren’t exclusively Mexican or American. They were Spartans.  

“I’m happy because I like this life, a new life,” Saul said. “At first when I was in Mexico, I was nervous about coming to the U.S., but at the same time I wanted to experience a new life and get to know the feeling that everyone was talking about.”

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