The small college near Santa Barbara, devastated by last week’s Montecito fire, begins healing with help from upstart team’s 2-0 victory over defending NAIA champion Azusa Pacific.

“I couldn’t even believe we were here,” said Zach George, a freshman whose dorm room burned down, leaving him with nothing, not even his wallet or keys. “We had lost so much.”

Great story.

Image via LA Times

The Olympic Games have shown that sports and national pride are still tightly intertwined, and perhaps nowhere more so than in the minds of Chinese leaders. Now, the government is taking a step to shore up the reputation of that most dubious of national sports icons: the men’s soccer team….After the Chinese team lost its final match on Aug. 13 to Brazil 3-0, the Propaganda Department apparently got fed up with all the jokes about the men’s team.

One major newspaper received an order to stop criticizing the men’s team, a reporter for the newspaper said. Another Chinese journalist confirmed on Wednesday night that a general order along those lines had been issued by the government.

The journalists spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal.

Image via Daylife

Despite the fact that Scottish gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson looks set to boss a Great Britain Olympic soccer team at London 2012, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond isn’t impressed. “The whole concept’s ridiculous and only could be put forward by somebody who’s seriously out of touch with Scotland. Who on earth would really want to jeopardize or sacrifice the future of Scotland as an international football country so we could have a couple of players in an under-23 team in four years’ time?”

This story seems to be getting bigger, and everyone is chiming in with an opinion, from PM Gordon Brown (pro), to David Beckham (pro) to Sir Sean Connery (against) and Sepp Blatter (changes daily).

Image via CTV

The New York Times investigates what happens when some Brits go abroad. “They are the ones, the locals say, who are carousing, brawling and getting violently sick. They are the ones crowding into health clinics seeking morning-after pills and help for sexually transmitted diseases. They are the ones who seem to have one vacation plan: drinking themselves into oblivion.”

British Celebrity Chef Jamie Oliver adds fuel to the fire. The 33-year-old describes his fellow countrymen’s materialistic attraction to widescreen TVs, cars, mobile phones, and - above all else - beer as being symptomatic of “the new poverty” blighting the UK.

Even The Chambers Dictionary has added the term “WAGs” to their latest edition. And there is even talk in the EPL of no relegation.

What is happening here, what does any of this mean…?

About a year and a half ago a remarkable article you may have read came out in the Sunday NY Times about a group of young soccer players in Georgia. Called “Refugees Find Hostility and Hope on Soccer Field“, by Warren St. John, it was a sad but ultimately hopeful piece about overcoming obstacles and finding success in a new country. The story got a lot of play and was quickly sold to Universal for $3 million and will be made into a movie tentatively called “The Fugees” (writer Andrea Berloff is attached).

I was interested in what happened to the kids a year on, and found this recent write up. Many positive things have come from the story: fields have been built, uniforms donated, etc. Perhaps most importantly, several of the players have been accepted to private schools in the area and others are going on to college and building on their success.

When the movie comes out, this story will blow up huge. BTW, I can’t imagine that every actress in Hollywood won’t want the part of that coach.

http://www.fugeesfamily.org/

Most if us live in a pretty insular world and forget that things like this are going on. But this is clearly a huge problem worldwide and it looks like some big time folks are getting involved and trying to do something about it.

Thanks to Graig for the heads up on this.