Mein sarey punjabi mundey kudiyan nu ek benti karunge ke apne ilakey vich koi na koi khel jaroor shuru karo. Ehde naal jakeeni faida hoyuga. Khedan de naal tusi khud jawan rahunge, te tuhanu mauka miluga apne haan de mundeya/kudiyan naal khul mil ke kuch karn da.

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Goal! Soccer team at SJSU gives Punjabi immigrants an entry to Silicon Valley culture

By Lisa Fernandez at Mercury News
lfernandez@mercurynews.com
Posted: 08/21/2009 01:42:19 PM PDT
Updated: 08/21/2009 10:45:22 PM PDT

When Kirandip Riar moved from Punjab, India, six years ago and started high school in San Leandro, he was too nervous to sign up for the soccer team.

"I was too shy," the 22-year-old said.

But a few years ago, a Punjabi friend asked the computer science student to play soccer on a mostly Punjabi team at San Jose State University.

The pals have since joined a soccer league in Hayward, composed mostly of teammates from Mexico and some from Afghanistan. And this weekend, several team members from this diverse league will play soccer at a sporting extravaganza sponsored by the Sikh Sports Association at California State University-East Bay in Hayward.

Soccer has provided Riar an entry into mainstream Silicon Valley life.

"I'm more open now," he said. "I'm not shy any more."

This cross-cultural bridge is exactly what association founders had hoped for, said one of the organizers, Harpaul Singh, who also leads the Punjabi student club at James Logan High School in Union City. So far, about 950 participants have signed up to play tennis, soccer, golf, field hockey, basketball, track and field, volleyball, and two Indian-centered sports of cricket and kabbadi — Punjabi-style wrestling.

The games don't have any religious overtones, and welcome anyone to play, but the majority of players do hail from the northern Indian state of Punjab and are Sikh by faith.

Over the years, Singh has watched students born in rural areas of Punjab steer away from high school sports teams after they arrive in the United States.

"The kids from the villages, they don't have those kind of facilities back there," Singh said.

The Sikh sports event, he said, is to help those kids, and others, become more familiar with a variety of American-style athletics, which hopefully will lead to a more level playing field between new immigrants and mainstream society.

"We want them to learn how to play the games," he said, "so that they won't be frogs in a well. If they learn how to play informally, then maybe they'll start to play at school."