June 6, 2003

BY TOM LANG
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

While top girls soccer teams battled it out this week in the state tournament, five Detroit Public School League teams were simply thankful for the chance to play.

The chance to learn and improve basic soccer skills.

The chance to proudly wear team uniforms.

The chance to grow as teams, and to better appreciate others and themselves.

Think Detroit gave them that chance by forming a high school soccer league this spring in partnership with the PSL.

Think Detroit, a nonprofit organization, aims to help kids through sports and computer technology. It has more than 3,000 boys and girls ages 4-19 playing basketball, baseball, softball and soccer in the city. Grants from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan and the Detroit Empowerment Zone helped start girls high school soccer.

"We saw a great need for the older age groups to have opportunities in sports," said Mike Tenbusch, co-founder of Think Detroit with Dan Varner. "After age 12 there seemed to be a drop-off (in organized sports). We've demonstrated great growth of soccer in the Detroit community, so it made sense to help grow it at the older age levels where there were the least opportunities."

The PSL was a good fit. Five schools joined the program -- Western, Renaissance, Cody, Mumford and Chadsey -- and drew about 100 girls total, most of whom had never played soccer before.

"We had about 25-30 young people show up at the initial practices," said Cody athletic director Richard Carter. "As they went along they got better and would practice some days the other teams thought it was too cold or rainy.

"As you can see, we have about seven Arab-American girls out there. It's a nice mixture of youngsters who have just merged into a group of competitive girls who enjoy playing soccer. If they lose a game, they appear just as happy as if they won. The feeling of camaraderie is there, and what else can you ask for?

"Thanks to Think Detroit we hope this will grow into something bigger."

This season, only Western was registered to play in the Michigan High School Athletic Association tournament. However, the remaining teams plan to do so next season.

Think Detroit is planning to continue the girls' league next season and would like to start one for boys as well.

Western played Dearborn in its first game of the season and was routed, 14-0. In the first round of the Division 1 districts, Western again faced Dearborn and lost, 7-0.

"We improved mightily as a result of the Think Detroit-PSL season," Western coach Mike Polonski said. "The improved quality of skills and decision-making was wonderful to see, even though we are years away from being a Dearborn-type team."

In the Think Detroit-PSL tournament, Renaissance was crowned the champion after defeating Cody, 2-0, Tuesday at U-D Jesuit. Sophomore Jasmin Pruitt scored both goals for Renaissance.

"Think Detroit came in and provided things we wouldn't have, like uniforms and facilities and just being able to bring teams together," Renaissance coach Medvis Jackson said.

"It's changed me," said Shaundra Crittenden, a sophomore at Renaissance. "It's helped me to have to lean on someone, and that's helped me a lot. We learned to depend on each other. We came out as a bunch of girls who didn't know what we were doing and we were each just trying to get noticed, wanting to be the top (player). Then a lot of us became more dedicated as the season progressed and we showed much more teamwork."

Cody teammates certainly learned from their experience.

"At first our team had no connection, we were just separated in groups," said freshman Ashley Hill. "But we learned how to better communicate with each other, and share, and do things with each other. At first I was a ball hog, but my teammates opened me up to sharing and passing."

"We started off with girls who never played soccer, who were chasing the ball and just kicking it, not knowing what a hand ball was," Cody coach Erica Deam said. "By the end of the season they were passing correctly, they were shooting, they knew what the officials' calls meant. The girls really enjoyed themselves, so we see it as successful.

"The girls have built some friendships, they seemed to really have enjoyed each other and the different cultural things that each group brings."

The results are exactly what Tenbusch had hoped.

"All statistics prove that high school athletics produces a higher desire to stay in school, to work harder at grades, to stay out of trouble and away from drugs, and to improve self-esteem," Tenbusch said. "It's so important for our girls in Detroit to work together on teams and see each other as friends and teammates -- rather than as strangers and adversaries."