In one game, Luma instructed her players to smile no matter what. The team obliged, even when the opposing coach got ejected for calling one of them the "n" word.

“How do you smile when somebody’s — you know, putting you down?” 

More than a coach
Luma has become more than just a coach to her players, who range in age from 9 to 17. She has become an advocate, fighting for better fields; she is a source of income, having started a cleaning business that employs six refugee women; and she is a pivotal figure in her players' attempts to integrate. She knows the soccer field may be their refuge, but the classroom is their future. So with the help of volunteers, she’s instituted tutoring sessions after each practice. Attendance is mandatory.

“You know, some days it is overwhelming because the families don’t have much so a lot of it rests on you,” she said.  “I mean, sometimes it scares me ... the responsibility.”

On the day she told her father she wasn’t coming back home, Luma never imagined she would have embraced such a responsibility.

She had barely talked to her dad in years when he came to the U.S. for a visit.

“We went over to one of the families’ houses for dinner. And we’re sitting there eating,” Luma said.  “And the kids don’t eat the fish 'til my dad is done. And then they eat the fish, and they’re sucking off the bone. And he’s just — my dad always has something to say. And he, you know, didn’t have anything to say. And we walk out after it’s done. And he — puts his arm around me. He’s like, ‘I’m proud of you.’" 

Luma says her relationship with her father is better than it’s ever been, although she has not been back to her family’s home in Jordan in 12 years.

“You can’t just take two weeks off to go home,” Luma said. “I don’t know if my dad will fly 50 kids home with me.”

That’s what she says it will take to get her back; she can’t imagine leaving the the Fugees for more than a few days.  But if her father wants her home, he better act now or else he might be buying a few more plane tickets. The Fugees seem to be growing exponentially, and in February Luma added a girls’ team to her three boys’ squads.

She, and The Fugees, show no signs of slowing down in the future.

“These kids are my life. These families are my life,” she said. “I mean is it destiny? Is it fate? Is it — did I just land here by accident? I don’t know..."

"I mean I belong here. I can’t see myself doing anything else.”

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