Somalia refugee ditches bad-boy image for starring role
Darren Zary, The StarPhoenix
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Ahmed (Romeo) Bwana has made a 180-degree turn in school thanks to basketball - Gord Waldner, The StarPhoenix |
Since arriving in Saskatoon, Bwana has learned a new language and a new game.
He credits basketball for helping him make an 180-degree turn in school.
"Basketball has changed my life," says Bwana, a Grade 11 student at Walter Murray Collegiate and star player on the Marauders senior basketball team. "When I first came to Canada, I never liked basketball or anything. I just used to play soccer. I never knew any English. I had to go to ESL (English as Second Language). In elementary school, I used to throw snow balls and that kind of stuff. I'd get in random fights. I used to get in trouble, always getting suspended.
"My mom decided to move so I could get away from the school (Brevoort Park). After that I went to (W.P. Bate). I saw a lot of people playing basketball. I thought I'd try it out, playing at lunch time with the kids. When I came to high school, I picked it up. Basketball has changed me a lot."
"I've had numerous other teachers, as well, say the change in his attitude around the school has been a 180 turn," says Marauders coach Trevor Mirtle. "He used to be in trouble and always be negative in everything. Now, he's one of our school leaders, hands down.
"He will help kids out, is very polite, will do anything for hard work. He stays after (school) -- all that stuff. He's grown leaps and bounds, not only as a basketball player but also as an individual and, ultimately, that's kind of what our program is about, not to be just a better basketball player and basketball team but let's become better people. That's what athletics helps us with."
Bwana actually chronicled his own life story in a semi-autobiography. He called his term paper Romeo Learned a Lesson. He read the story to a kindergarten class at his former Brevoort Park School.
"It's almost an example of me," he says of the story, "because I used to be in trouble and stuff like that."
Mirtle learned of the assignment through Bwana's English teacher, who was emotionally touched.
"I got this story from his English teacher, Mrs. (Diane) Gibson, about a month into the season. She kind of pulled me to the side and she goes, 'Have you noticed a change in Ahmed?' She said, 'Well, I want to show you something.' She pulled me into her room. She showed me he had a major project that he had to do. He had to write a children's novel, a short story, that he was going to go to an elementary school and read. He wrote this story about a little boy and his name was Romeo.
"When Ahmed entered Grade 9 here at Walter Murray, a lot of people really didn't know who he was, kind of where he came from and everything like that. He kind of nicknamed himself 'Romeo' -- I think because they took Romeo and Juliet in Grade 9. I think he kind of liked the character, so he nicknamed himself Romeo.
"So he writes this children's book about Romeo. It's about this little boy who got into trouble all the time. He used to throw rocks at kids, would bully them. He was always in the principal's office, getting into trouble, until one day, Mr. Mirtle -- apparently I was a character in his book -- asked him to try out for his basketball team.
Source: Star Phoenix, Jan 30, 2008