Rachel Blount: Small soccer gifts become salve to soothe troubled past

As James Cave prepared for a trip to Rwanda last summer, the former Benilde-St. Margaret's girls' soccer coach considered what he could offer to the children still suffering from that country's genocide. He found his answer in a book by Romeo Dallaire, head of the United Nations peacekeepers who attempted to stop the 1994 slaughter.

"Dallaire wanted to create goodwill, and he begged the U.N. for soccer balls the troops could hand out," said Cave, who coached the Red Knights for 13 seasons. "The U.N. denied him. As soon as I read that, I thought, 'I know what I have to do.'"

Cave put out a call for used soccer equipment that could be donated to the boys of the Centre Marembo orphanage. His network responded with 400 pounds of balls, cleats, jerseys and socks, which were cleaned and carefully prepared by BSM students so they could be presented with dignity to their African peers.

Nearly 100 teenagers at the orphanage had seen their childhoods stolen by the murderous Hutu militias or the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Cave's futbol diplomacy helped them reclaim a tiny slice of it, by offering them the simple gift of play.

"Soccer is part of their healing process," said Cave, 38. "A lot of these kids had their families killed in front of them, but during the 90 minutes when they were playing a soccer game, they didn't think about it. Those 90 minutes belonged to them, not to the genocide or AIDS or anything else.

"Soccer is a global game that connects people who have different cultures and languages. In Rwanda, I could speak the language of soccer with these kids, and they understood."

The trip, taken with fellow BSM teacher Dave Kuntz, was planned as a way to enrich Cave's course on genocide and Catholic social teaching. He wanted to learn more about the massacre by meeting those who lived through it and experiencing their culture.

At the same time, Cave felt compelled to give something in return. He had played soccer most of his life, including at St. Mary's University in Winona and in adult leagues, and he coached the Red Knights to two second-place finishes in the Class 1A tournament before resigning last fall to give more time to his five children. His game's cross-cultural sensibility made soccer a natural bridge between the tall white American with the shaved head and the orphans of Rwanda.

Students from Benilde-St. Margaret's and Totino-Grace donated to the equipment drive, as did Soccer Express, a St. Paul store that gave 10 balls. Northwest Airlines shipped the gear without charge to Kenya, and friends gave money to send it the rest of the way.

The boys of Centre Marembo usually play in bare feet with balls made of banana leaves on fields where they dodge townspeople going to the market. When Cave and Kuntz arrived, the kids carefully unpacked and distributed the goods, then invited the teachers to return for a game.

"The kids were wearing their Minnetonka United and Edina and Benilde-St. Margaret's jerseys," Cave said. "They have to walk 25 minutes to get to the field, and people were calling out, 'Look how fancy you are!' They were so proud. And they really loved playing against two big white guys."

Cave and Kuntz saw many reminders of the genocide, including mass grave sites and churches where racks of bones and bloodstained altar cloths spoke to the atrocities committed there. On the dirt soccer pitch, though, the survivors' hearts became as light as their feet in a game marked by skill, energy and a celebratory air.

The Minnesotans were touched by the impact of the modest gifts. In a place with such meager resources, simply owning a pair of shoes carries great meaning. So does the universal language of sport, when it is spoken with friendship and compassion.

That tongue made conversation easy in other villages Cave and Kuntz visited; they carried an extra ball with them for impromptu games. The boys at Marembo didn't need to voice their gratitude. They showed it by gently placing their socks on a cactus to dry, washing their cleats in an outdoor basin and allowing a game to keep the past at bay, if only for 90 minutes at a time.

"My soccer family has been growing my whole life, and now it extends all the way to Africa," said Cave, who hopes to continue his relationship with the people of Rwanda. "I'm forever connected to them."

Rachel Blount • rblount@startribune.com