The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-25)

D4 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, OCTOBER 25 , 2021

Darren Buchanan from D.C.’s Wilson High on an official visit. Buchanan played on Kevin Durant’s AAU team, and as a 6- foot-7 small forward entertaining offers from a slew of Division I programs, he would be a coup for the HBCU. During the game, Buchanan stood on the sideline, but hopefully head basketball coach Kenneth Blakeney swung him by the tent encampment so he could see all of Black excellence. Because it has to be more than words. Students cannot journey to a place called “The Mecca” and live in substandard conditions. It isn’t hiding the warts to maintain or provide cover for a reputation that people think you have. Excellence is embracing the responsibility and legacy that come with being the university that produced the first Black Supreme Court justice, the first woman elected as U.S. vice president and the actor who transcended a movie role and became a hero. The members of the homecoming court adorned in their crowns and the protesters wearing sweats — they are the beautiful and the confrontational, and they can both be true and accurate depictions of Black excellence. [email protected]

For more by Candace Buckner, visit washingtonpost.com/buckner.

connection in the Black experience. We learn about loyalty at a y oung age, and what happens between family — any discord or dysfunction — is family business. You don’t broadcast family business, not even to friends next door and especially not to neighbors of a different hue. You work out family business inside your own home. But the protesters camping outside the Blackburn University Center are airing the dirty laundry, no ma tter how shameful it makes their beloved family look beyond these iron gates. F or Olmo, that meant ripping away the curtain and revealing the mold that she said she found in her dorm bathroom vent and decrying how on the night before classes began at Howard, she said, the school had not sent her class schedule. It may be messy, but Black excellence doesn’t have to be concerned about what anybody on the outside might think. “This is a big-name school, and I understand they only want to [uphold] the image,” said Corren Brown, running for D.C. mayor as part of the Statehood Green Party, who visited the tent encampment with her brother and daughter to drop off supplies. “But to keep that image, you have to make sure every student’s voice is heard.” On Saturday, Howard hosted three-star basketball recruit

It streamed from the disappointment of freshman Kymora Olmo. She abandoned her dorm room for an air mattress and a camping tent. She has her essentials: a m akeshift food pantry, a c hange of clothes and, naturally, a bullhorn. Her mom in New York City only advised she not drop “F-bombs”; her dad promised bail money if she got arrested for protesting. “I thought I was going to Black Harvard, essentially. I thought I was going to ‘The Mecca,’ the epicenter of Black excellence, Black higher education. But that’s not really what I got,” Olmo told me. “We’re out here because we want ‘The Mecca’ to be better for us. We want ‘The Mecca’ to live up to its great legacy. We want our school to be what it was supposed to be.” Because Black excellence can be tough love. It was Mr. and Ms. Howard — he in a jacket, she in red — and the royal court striding in pairs and smiling and waving on cue anytime a cellphone aimed their way, and Olmo and her friends shouting one of their demands for legal and academic amnesty as spectators streamed from the stadium exits following Howard’s 45-31 loss. Black excellence, also, can multitask. Though as a people we are plentiful and diverse, there is a

“Showtime!” moniker and a thrilling fourth quarter between the Bison and Norfolk State — illustrated the best of the private institution. It was the front-facing image of a home its alumni affectionately refer to as “The Mecca.” Still, no matter how loud the brass instruments echoed across the stadium, they could not drown out the discontent from the hundreds of students who couldn’t care less about preserving optics or laying low so Howard could play a football game in peace. And through this dichotomy on a picturesque fall day when the sun played peek-a- boo through the clouds, Howard offered a different demonstration of Black excellence. It was seen in the fans grooving when Yo Gotti’s “Rake It Up” blasted over the loudspeakers, then later watching in revered silence while the marching band played “Amazing Grace” as a tribute to Colin Powell. It was Howard falling into a 28-3 deficit and a rowdy fan standing, yelling and provoking a few players to turn around and stare, and the same man applauding approvingly when the Bison scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. There can be a duality to Black excellence.

BUCKNER FROM D1

CANDACE BUCKNER

At Howard, pageantry and protest exist side by side

As we might exult prematurely about the two Oregons playing each other up the road (Nov. 27) maybe for national meaning, and the two Michigans playing each other right now and absolutely for national meaning, how about those two Pennsylvanias and those two Oklahomas? There’s noise there, too. The Nittany Lions have to head for Ohio State after toppling from No. 7 to No. 20 by losing the best, worst and only nine-overtime game in NCAA history, 20-18, to Illinois. In the new rule mandating two-point conversion attempts after the second overtime, the game endured this sequence from the third overtime to the seventh: pass failed, pass failed, pass failed, pass failed, run failed, pass failed, pass failed, pass failed, run failed, run failed. It’s too bad nobody could try something other than pass or run. Not all that far west, Pitt’s loud 27-17 win over Clemson (4-3) provided a further reminder that Clemson’s dip this season flatters others but also Clemson, because the oddness of the dip should help accentuate the stunning might of Clemson’s six previous seasons (six playoff berths, four national-title games, two titles). You go along like that, and then one day your five-star quarterback, DJ Uiagalelei, gets intercepted on a shovel pass that SirVocea Dennis returns for a jarring third-quarter touchdown,

RECORD PTS PVS

Georgia (64) 7-0 1600 1

Cincinnati 7-0 1469 3

Alabama 7-1 1439 4

Oklahoma 8-0 1430 2

Ohio State 6-1 1338 5

Michigan 7-0 1313 6

Michigan State 7-0 1208 7

Oregon 6-1 1139 10

Mississippi 6-1 1019 12

Iowa 6-1 1008 11

Notre Dame 6-1 950 13

Kentucky 6-1 857 14

Wake Forest 7-0 838 15

Texas A&M 6-2 736 17

Oklahoma State 6-1 684 9

SMU 7-0 535 19

Penn State 5-2 517 8

Baylor 6-1 509 20

Pittsburgh 6-1 487 23

San Diego State 7-0 431 21

Auburn 5-2 418 22

Texas San Antonio 8-0 219 25

Iowa State 5-2 190 NR

Coastal Carolina 6-1 134 16

North Carolina State 5-2 73 18
O thers receiving votes: L ouisiana Lafayette 42, BYU 42,
Arkansas 4 1, Houston 27, Arizona State 27, Virginia 2 3,
Oregon State 1 3, Florida 13, Fresno State 1 0, Air Force 9 ,
Appalachian State 5 , Texas 3, Liberty 3, Utah 1.

By late October in a college football season of above- average tumult, a wacko might end up looking ahead and asking some wacko questions unforeseen in August. Wait, what’s Wake Forest’s schedule from here? Can the Ducks waddle their way through five more, especially when the fifth is the Beavers? Wait, am I about to spend ample time thinking freshly of Pitt? And: Can a person either spend or misspend a life watching American football week after week and year after year yet still see something never seen before, such as a big fourth down when a running back rams into trouble but then a quarterback rips the ball from a running back’s arms and forges forward? The final answer is yes — Caleb Williams, true freshman sensation, No. 3 Oklahoma, vs. Kansas on Saturday — and that became another woolly moment on a national season- long road that looks plenty woolly. It will reach a big bang next Saturday, when No. 6 Michigan (7-0) visits No. 8 Michigan State (7-0) for a loud occasion promising the mutual bad vibes we’ve all come to adore. “Yeah, all focus is there,” Michigan Coach Jim Harbaugh said moments after his team felled Northwestern, 33-7, and it ’s hard to believe it has been six years since that punter... Oh, gosh, never mind. Giddy Wake Forest (7-0) has these tasks up ahead: Duke (3-4) at home, at North Carolina (4-3), North Carolina State (5-2) at home, at Clemson (4-3) and at Boston College (4-3), and what a fine wonder even to get to observe those tasks. The Deacons probably can’t win out, but maybe they can, and either way we’re all better off for the high presence of the school with the enchanting name. The charm just rains with them. They just wrung 70 points out of 17:17 of possession — really? — in their 70-56 win at Army, after which Coach Dave Clawson told reporters, “That was about as clean a performance as I’ve ever seen.” Wide receiver Ke’Shawn Williams caught one of their two 75-yard touchdown passes in the third quarter alone Saturday, answered a few questions about it and then said, “I appreciate y’all’s time and wanting to speak to me as well.” Traveon Redd returned an interception 83 yards for a big third-quarter touchdown and said: “I really can’t even explain it. I can’t believe I made the play.” Now any wacko has to eyeball Duke at Wake Forest at least somewhat next Saturday, in a world always improved when wackos ought to eyeball Duke at Wake Forest in late October. Can those Ducks, Oregon, win out? That’s a demanding question, but they’ll probably have to for the Pac-12 to end its five-year absence from the College Football Playoff. If Oregon and a madly resurgent Ohio State were 11-1, that might cause quite some national hand-

wringing — another joy — given Oregon’s win at Ohio State on Sept. 11. “I mean, right now I’m exhausted,” said defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux, possibly the nation’s best football player, after the Ducks weathered UCLA’s 90 offensive plays on the Rose Bowl floor — and weathered them largely with his two sacks, his whopping 4.5 tackles for losses and his nine tackles overall. “I feel like I’m running low on sugar,” and then he laughed briefly. His and their look up the road goes Colorado (2-5), at Washington (3-4), Washington State (4-4), at Utah (4-3) and Oregon State (5-2), one game at a time of course, with those Beavers fresh off both a 42-34 win over Utah and a towering compliment from the dean of Pac-12 coaches, Utah’s Kyle Whittingham. “I think they have the best offense in the conference, and statistically that will bear out,” he told reporters. “They run the ball better than anybody, they score more points than anybody, convert third downs better than anybody.” He called their offensive line “extremely efficient,” called the Beavers “well-coached” (with former Oregon State quarterback Jonathan Smith at the helm), and said they “have an identity, and they know exactly who they are and what they want to be.”

after which Uiagalelei sits awhile, which means both the top two preseason consensus Heisman Trophy favorites (counting Oklahoma’s Spencer Rattler) have gotten spelled this year, and good grief. You go along like that, and then one day a budding star opposing quarterback in his fifth Pitt season, Kenny Pickett, is saying of a touchdown, “It was one of those plays, presnap, I knew I had it, so I just had to make sure I didn’t overthrow, because he was so wide open.” Now that’s some of the eccentricity all wackos have come to cr ave, with Pitt 7-1 and would- be-unbeaten were it not for... Western Michigan. Quiz question: The previous time No. 1 Georgia took over No. 1, way back in 1982, whom did it replace? If you came up with Pitt without looking, you’re a wacko’s wacko. Further, the two Oklahomas kept looking like they might collide unbeaten way down the road, and Oklahoma continues to play the escaper (from down 10-0 at halftime at Kansas), after the dazzling 18-year-old quarterback Williams made his 40-yard wow of a touchdown run on fourth down, then ripped that ball from Kennedy Brooks on another fourth down, after which Brooks said, “I felt somebody tugging at it, then I saw it was Caleb.” That’s all while the whole struggle of the occasion had Coach Lincoln Riley saying, “I wouldn’t characterize our practices as alarming, but I wouldn’t characterize them as, like, unbelievable, either, and that’s what we need.” That’s how it goes when you’re a kingdom with huffy fans standing 7-0 and needing to explain a bad half, but then Iowa State wrecked unbeaten Oklahoma State, 24-21, and put Iowa State back in the Big 12 conversation, which always improves the Big 12 conversation. The Iowa State students and some other fans stormed the field, odd for a favorite, but then you go to school only once in life, and everyone wants to be part of the wacko. [email protected]

In this wacko season, it’s always fun to look ahead

On Football CHUCK CULPEPPER

MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS Kayvon Thibodeaux, right, had nine tackles, 4.5 for l osses, and two sacks in Oregon’s win over UCLA.

COACHES’ POLL

RECORD PTS PVS

Georgia (63) 7-0 1575 1

Cincinnati 7-0 1477 2

Alabama 7-1 1417 4

Oklahoma 8-0 1383 3

Ohio State 6-1 1311 5

Michigan 7-0 1270 6

Oregon 6-1 1165 10

Michigan State 7-0 1160 9

Iowa 6-1 1035 11

Mississippi 6-1 1034 12

Notre Dame 6-1 922 13

Kentucky 6-1 849 15

Wake Forest 7-0 801 16

Texas A&M 6-2 700 17

Oklahoma State 6-1 682 8

Baylor 6-1 513 20

Pittsburgh 6-1 510 23

Auburn 5-2 481 19

SMU 7-0 473 21

Penn State 5-2 471 7

San Diego State 7-0 390 22

Iowa State 5-2 298 —

Texas San Antonio 8-0 235 24

Coastal Carolina 6-1 132 14

BYU 6-2 44 —
O thers receiving votes: A rkansas 36, Louisiana Lafa-
yette 32, North Carolina State 28, Houston 12, Virginia 9,
Oregon State 7, Arizona State 7, Texas 6, Appalachian
State 5, Florida 3, UCLA 1, Minnesota 1.

AP TOP 25

BY GERALD NARCISO

There were Vespas humming
through the streets, tourists
crowding the sidewalks and this
old Gothic church that Sajjad
Husaini stopped to marvel at
each time he walked the cobble-
stone streets of his new neighbor-
hood.
Husaini, 30, was raised in the
rugged mountains of Afghani-
stan. But for weeks, he had been
living in a tropical climate in
Italy’s coastal Cagliari, swim-
ming regularly in the Tyrrhenian
Sea — a refugee and an athlete
hoping to soon be back where he
belonged: on the slopes.
Not long before arriving in
Italy, Husaini was a top slalom
skier in Afghanistan whose
Olympic dreams had garnered
international attention. He did
not quite qualify for the 2018
PyeongChang Games, which
would have made him the first
Afghan winter athlete to do so.
But he had his eyes on 2022, and,
as a tour guide in Afghanistan’s
Hindu Kush mountains, he was
building a l ife and career on
snow.
Then came this summer, when
the U.S. military pulled out of
Afghanistan, the Taliban roared
back to power and 130,000 civil-
ians fled, displaced all over the
world.
Female athletes were especial-
ly vulnerable; the country’s wom-
en’s soccer team fled to Australia
with the help of a global network
of supporters. But those women
weren’t the only athletes to es-
cape. And many, such as Husaini,
have found refuge in Italy.
Husaini’s family escaped with
the help of Italian tourists he had
met on the slopes, landing on the
island of Sardinia. Sayed Alishah
Farhang, his friend and skiing
partner at Afghanistan’s Bamian
Ski Club, has been living in
northern Italy’s Trento. Nazira
Khairzad, a rising female skier
and activist, is assigned to a small
town north of Bologna.
“We never expected the Tali-
ban” to return and “control Af-
ghanistan,” Husaini said in a
phone interview recently, “and
we have to leave everything be-
hind.”

A mountain of hope

Not even a decade ago, the
snow-covered Hindu Kush
mountains, located in the Bami-
an region and largely inhabited
by the Hazara people, were most-
ly unexplored terrain.
Though the range’s peaks soar
north of 24,500 feet, the coun-
try’s first ski lift, a dated cable
pull system at the Bamian Ski
Club, wasn’t even installed until

But Afghan ski culture has
grown over the years as adven-
ture seekers from Europe and
Asia increasingly make the trip.
It was on those slopes that
Husaini and Farhang, in 2017,
started to draw attention on the
professional skiing circuit, com-
peting in events in Italy and
Switzerland and appearing in a
documentary about their Olym-
pic pursuits. As ski instructors at
the Bamian Ski Club, they also
helped evangelize for their home-
land as a tourist destination.
“It created a lot of hopes and
opportunity for the young gener-
ation of Afghanistan,” Farhang,
31, said of the country’s burgeon-
ing ski culture. And for those
outside Afghanistan, Husaini
said, it showed that people could
see in their country “something
positive — not all on the war,
explosion, killing, Taliban, al-
Qaeda or other things.”
That progress wasn’t without
pushback. Khairzad, 17, faced op-
pression as a female athlete in a
conservative Muslim country. “I
was always seen as a bad person,”
Khairzad said. But she endured,
taking third place in a tourna-
ment in Pakistan in 2020. In her
last competition, in March 2021,
she won the Afghan Ski Chal-
lenge.
For Farhang and Husaini, their
once-promising Olympic dreams
were already fading before the
coronavirus pandemic as spon-
sorships and other support that
had allowed them to train in
Switzerland dried up. The pan-
demic eliminated many training
and travel options.
Then, in August, as the Taliban
advanced on Kabul, athletes
moved to get out. Husaini
reached Italian tourists he had
befriended on the slopes. They
connected him with the Italian
army. With just two backpacks
filled with documents, diapers
and snacks, his family boarded a
plane out of the Kabul airport
four days before the explosion.
Khairzad and Farhang leveraged
the same Italian connections to
help escape.
“I was scared,” Khairzad said.
“It was very dangerous to enter
the airport. We were trying for

three days before we got in.... I am still worried about my family.” “I asked American friends, I asked Canadian friends, German friends, Switzerland friends, I asked Italian friends,” Farhang added. “Finally, Italians did the job.” The Husainis flew to Tashkent, in Uzbekistan, then Frankfurt, Germany, then Rome. They w ere assigned from there to Sardinia, where they would wait for visas that would allow them to settle in a location closer to where Hu- saini hoped to land: in Varese, near the high-altitude Alps. In Sardinia, he passed time by watching Italian movies and so- cializing with fellow Afghan refugees, who also fled and were temporarily housed in a modest two-bedroom apartment provided by the Italian government. “At the beginning, it was very hot and really strange for me to live here, but it’s beautiful,” he said. “But I would like to stay in the mountains.”

New terrain Khairzad settled in Ferrara, an enchanting city outside of Bolo- gna that blends Medieval and Renaissance architecture. She and three other female Afghan refugees share a small room in a dormitory, sponsored by Caritas Internationalis, with windows tucked near the ceiling that offer only a sliver of daylight. Most mornings, she goes running or finds an empty pitch to practice soccer alone. In the dorm, she studies Italian on her own and talks with fellow refugees on WhatsApp. “Everything is still new to me,” she said. She still has ambitions to be a professional skier, honing her craft like her idol, former Austri- an gold medalist skier Hermann Maier. But there aren’t areas where she can properly train. “I really miss the mountains in Afghanistan,” she said. In Trento, Farhang is exactly where he wants to be. He forfeit- ed his refugee status and aid in exchange for settling near the mountains. With the help of his Italian contacts, he is applying for a five-year working visa in Italy. He and his family have settled in the upstairs of a home owned by a friend he met while avalanche training in Trento in 2013. Trento is within proximity of several mountains and ski re- sorts, and he recently completed the Trento Half Marathon. But sports are a hobby now. After losing two years of training, he no longer dreams of representing Afghanistan in this winter’s Bei- jing Games. “It’s just figuring out how to get integrated here to find the work to do and to make a living,” Farhang said. Husaini, too, is closer to the mountains again, after recently leaving Sardinia for Varese. He’s working on securing permanent asylum in Italy, improving his Italian and building his family’s new lives as European immi- grants. Skiing, though, is not part of his career plan. “As a refugee now... I think it’s very difficult for the future if I still continue skiing,” he said. He’s hoping to get a graduate degree in European and global studies. Husaini has been a refugee before: When he was 6 years old, he said, his family fled his village under the cover of darkness and under threat from the Taliban, settling in Iran before returning when he was 18. He hopes to return again — not to his Olym- pic aspirations but to the familiar mountains where he forged his identity as an Afghan athlete. “It’s still a big dream to go back to Afghanistan,” he said. “The families and the memo- ries and everything is back home.” [email protected]

From chasing O lympics

to rebuilding as refugees

Afghan skiers are starting their lives anew in Italy

SAJJAD HUSAINI Sajjad Husaini, with his family in Italy, was a top slalom skier in his native Afghanistan.

The Washington Post - USA (2021-10-25)

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