Since 2012, the women's national football team from Haiti has spent six months a year training near the regional airport in South Bend, Indiana, down a country road and just across the railroad tracks, mostly unnoticed. Each woman on the team has a story of despair about the 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere: a house folded like a wallet. A brother's shattered leg. An aunt crushed by the door of a church. An uncle lost in a building.
Each player, too, has a story of resilience and perseverance. No Caribbean nation has ever qualified for the Women's World Cup. Now Haiti is on the cusp of reaching the expanded 2015 tournament, to be played next summer in Canada. It is a quest of great ambition and meagre resources. There is no salary for the players. None for the Polish-American coach and his assistants. Players live eight or nine to an apartment. Even the captain sleeps on a thin mattress in the living room.
Haiti's football federation pays for a round-trip flight home each year and tries to help in emergencies. But even a $200 stipend paid to each player in 2013 was unaffordable this year, the federation said. The team tries to make ends meet by selling rotisserie chickens and T-shirts, and holding clinics for churches and schools. Benefactors have been generous. A local football club provides training fields at no cost. A repair shop does not charge for work on the team van. Anne Marie Wright, 17, a high school student, has helped provide cleats and socks and sports bras and even water bottles so that players training to reach the World Cup will not have to drink from spigots.
Marc Dume, 43, a businessman who immigrated from Haiti a decade ago, assists with the rent and money to buy plantains and rice and beans for aromatic legume stews. Last week, he donated a recreational vehicle to the team. "Football is all they have," says Dume, who runs a company in Elkhart, Ind., that delivers recreational vehicles from factories to dealers.
The Women's World Cup will expand next year to 24 teams from 16. Canada, as the host, has automatic entry. Three other teams from the North American, Central American and Caribbean region will qualify at a tournament in the United States that begins on October 15. A fourth team will enter a playoff against Ecuador, the third-place qualifier from South America.
The Americans, ranked No 1 in the world, are prohibitive favourites in the regional tournament. Mexico is also expected to claim a berth. That would leave Haiti, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago to try to reach the World Cup for the first time.
In Haiti, the women's national team is largely ignored and unappreciated. Women's football still carries a social stigma and can be viewed as unfeminine. Kencia Marseille, 33, the team captain, says that her mother spanked her with a belt when she caught her playing as a girl. Today, some mothers still want their daughters home, to study and help provide for siblings. "The Haitian people don't believe in us," says goalkeeper Geralda Saintilus, 28. "They say we're not good enough. We'll try to prove them wrong."
Even Haiti's coach, Shek Borkowski, did not believe in the beginning. The country's economy was dire. The football federation had little money. The 2010 earthquake collapsed the federation headquarters during a meeting, killing more than 30 people inside, including the women's national program coach, Jean Yves Labaze. Elsewhere, one or two top-level female players were killed, the federation said. The national stadium became a tent city for the homeless. Recovery from the quake was complicated by a cholera epidemic.
"You've got to be crazy," Borkowski says he told himself about becoming Haiti's coach. He reconsidered after watching online as Haiti participated in the qualifying tournament for the 2012 London Olympics. Haiti fell short, but Borkowski was intrigued by the individual skill of its players. He called Yves Jean-Bart, president of Haiti's football federation, and made a proposal: The women's team would largely fund itself, and mostly outside Haiti. It would train for six months at a time in South Bend, play exhibitions against college teams like Notre Dame and Ball State, and enter the second-tier Women's Premier Football League, a semipro circuit.
But Haiti remains a fragile team. Most players lost their homes in the earthquake. Natacha Cajuste, 30, a defender, was studying in an Internet cafe when the shaking began. She was the only one who made it outside; everyone else died or was injured. Manoucheka Pierre-Louis, 25, a midfielder, says she lived in a tent city for two years before being called to the national team.
"Football is the only thing that takes the stress away," says Marseille. "If we make the World Cup, I'm going to be so proud of me."
Each player, too, has a story of resilience and perseverance. No Caribbean nation has ever qualified for the Women's World Cup. Now Haiti is on the cusp of reaching the expanded 2015 tournament, to be played next summer in Canada. It is a quest of great ambition and meagre resources. There is no salary for the players. None for the Polish-American coach and his assistants. Players live eight or nine to an apartment. Even the captain sleeps on a thin mattress in the living room.
Haiti's football federation pays for a round-trip flight home each year and tries to help in emergencies. But even a $200 stipend paid to each player in 2013 was unaffordable this year, the federation said. The team tries to make ends meet by selling rotisserie chickens and T-shirts, and holding clinics for churches and schools. Benefactors have been generous. A local football club provides training fields at no cost. A repair shop does not charge for work on the team van. Anne Marie Wright, 17, a high school student, has helped provide cleats and socks and sports bras and even water bottles so that players training to reach the World Cup will not have to drink from spigots.
Marc Dume, 43, a businessman who immigrated from Haiti a decade ago, assists with the rent and money to buy plantains and rice and beans for aromatic legume stews. Last week, he donated a recreational vehicle to the team. "Football is all they have," says Dume, who runs a company in Elkhart, Ind., that delivers recreational vehicles from factories to dealers.
The Women's World Cup will expand next year to 24 teams from 16. Canada, as the host, has automatic entry. Three other teams from the North American, Central American and Caribbean region will qualify at a tournament in the United States that begins on October 15. A fourth team will enter a playoff against Ecuador, the third-place qualifier from South America.
The Americans, ranked No 1 in the world, are prohibitive favourites in the regional tournament. Mexico is also expected to claim a berth. That would leave Haiti, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago to try to reach the World Cup for the first time.
In Haiti, the women's national team is largely ignored and unappreciated. Women's football still carries a social stigma and can be viewed as unfeminine. Kencia Marseille, 33, the team captain, says that her mother spanked her with a belt when she caught her playing as a girl. Today, some mothers still want their daughters home, to study and help provide for siblings. "The Haitian people don't believe in us," says goalkeeper Geralda Saintilus, 28. "They say we're not good enough. We'll try to prove them wrong."
Even Haiti's coach, Shek Borkowski, did not believe in the beginning. The country's economy was dire. The football federation had little money. The 2010 earthquake collapsed the federation headquarters during a meeting, killing more than 30 people inside, including the women's national program coach, Jean Yves Labaze. Elsewhere, one or two top-level female players were killed, the federation said. The national stadium became a tent city for the homeless. Recovery from the quake was complicated by a cholera epidemic.
"You've got to be crazy," Borkowski says he told himself about becoming Haiti's coach. He reconsidered after watching online as Haiti participated in the qualifying tournament for the 2012 London Olympics. Haiti fell short, but Borkowski was intrigued by the individual skill of its players. He called Yves Jean-Bart, president of Haiti's football federation, and made a proposal: The women's team would largely fund itself, and mostly outside Haiti. It would train for six months at a time in South Bend, play exhibitions against college teams like Notre Dame and Ball State, and enter the second-tier Women's Premier Football League, a semipro circuit.
But Haiti remains a fragile team. Most players lost their homes in the earthquake. Natacha Cajuste, 30, a defender, was studying in an Internet cafe when the shaking began. She was the only one who made it outside; everyone else died or was injured. Manoucheka Pierre-Louis, 25, a midfielder, says she lived in a tent city for two years before being called to the national team.
"Football is the only thing that takes the stress away," says Marseille. "If we make the World Cup, I'm going to be so proud of me."
©2014 The New York Times