“The beautiful thing about high school football is it’s pure Americana.'
In a dimly lit parking lot Friday night, with bags and suitcases sprawled on the ground and the loud, clanking sound of a bus engine rattling in their ears, 45 football players from a high school in one of Chicago‘s toughest areas shed their shoulder pads, removed their blue helmets and abandoned their sparkling clean white jerseys while trying to make sense of their latest challenge.
Muzikowski was the inspiration for the 2001 movie “Hardball” in which Keanu Reeves plays a Little League coach from the Cabrini-Green housing project in Chicago. Muzikowski says he is on a first-name basis with Barack Obama, whom he calls Barry, and Mark Walter, managing partner of the Dodgers. Both are supporters of Chicago Hope.
“I will swim in the Pacific Ocean before I leave,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what time or how cold. I just need a picture with me in it.”Chicago Hope, a nondenominational coed Christian school of 287 in the Near West Side, opened in the fall of 2005 on the former grounds of a Catholic parish. It’s located in one of the most crime-plagued of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. Two years ago, there was a shooting outside the school’s stadium and the teams forfeited rather than play there.
The Maho triplets all play football. They took two Hope players to In-N-Out on Friday night and treated them to their mother’s French toast casserole Saturday morning.“I just want to learn about their background and story and what Chicago is like, and how it’s different than Santa Barbara,” he said. “With the barbecues and team meals, it’s going to be able to expand our knowledge who they are, not only as players but people.”“I was excited to see California palm trees,” Land said.
Then Luckhurst, wearing a Hope polo shirt — Muzikowski wore a Bishop Diego shirt — had all the Hope players gather under a “Welcome Chicago Hope Football” sign attached to two palm trees next to the pool. He called out names of the players and their host families. Everyone began to dine on tacos and hot dogs. Soon, players were looking at each other’s cell phones, asking about the “L” train and inquiring how far they lived from school.
On Friday afternoon, the teams got together at Bishop Diego’s lunch tables for a meal of tri-tip, chicken, salad and homemade chocolate chip cookies. The coaches were in uncharted territory, having never hung out with an opposing team before a game.The teams stood awkwardly apart until Bishop Diego coach Tom Crawford suggested the players from his team, serving as hosts, get together with the Hope players. That broke the uncertainty, producing handshakes and lots of talking and eating.
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