Abdirizaq Sabrie has a journalist drive him to his family’s Rochester apartment, then 10 minutes later comes jogging back to the car holding his life’s story.

Sabrie is all arms and legs, 5-foot-11, 140 pounds, and he’s wearing a bright red soccer shirt with his name printed on the back.

His story is plastic bound, with the writings two-and-a-half pages. This is obviously the condensed version of the 19-year-old’s life. Sabrie, a Rochester Mayo soccer star, came with his extended family from Somalia — via Kenya and a stint in one of its refugee camps — four years ago. Language remains an occasional obstacle for him. So this text, which Sabrie has written, helps clear things up.

The book’s paper is stark white and the text bold black. The contrast couldn’t be more appropriate. Sabrie is a teenager who’s life has been all about black and white, with him witnessing it from a lens of haunting evil and inspiring good.

If Sabrie had chosen to illustrate his story, he might have dotted his pages with blood and tears, and finally smiles.

“What I have gone through makes me stronger,” Sabrie said. “When things are hard (in Rochester), I keep in my mind that I have gotten through things that are so much harder.”

Sabrie and his family moved from Somalia to a Kenyan refugee camp when he was 1. They fled their homeland because of the country’s civil war and the horrific, indiscriminate killing that was going on. The Sabrie family was a witness to the worst of it. Abdirizaq’s mother, Sahra, was slain in Somalia, as was one of his brothers.

“I have not had the opportunity to see or witness the best of being raised by a mother,” Sabrie writes in his two-and-a-half page life reflection, “because my mom passed away due to the civil war.”

Abdirizaq, his 10 brothers and sisters, and his father Abdullahi lived in Kenya for the next 15 years. It was here that Abdirizaq learned the game of soccer, playing it on dirt, barefoot, with rolled up socks serving as soccer balls.

It served him well. So, in a tragic way, did his life in Africa. It made him stronger and appreciate all the more what he would find in Rochester. It also left him resolute to treat others so much differently than his family had been treated in war-torn Somalia.

“Abdirizaq is a really good person,” said Mayo assistant soccer coach Faiz Abdirahman, himself Somali. “I really like how he helps out our (Somali) community. If you need help, (Abdirizaq) is there to give you a hand. He likes to help people, and we love him for that.”

At Mayo High School, they’ve also come to love Sabrie for the way he performs on the soccer field. A senior midfielder, he is a rare four-year varsity player under 23-year Mayo coach Charles Abboud.

Abboud considers him one of the elite, with immense control of the ball, and speed.

“I’ve been blessed over the years to have coached lots of great players,” Abboud said. “But (Sabrie) is among the best I’ve ever had. He could be a Division I college player.”

What Sabrie would like most is to be a guy who leads his team to its second straight Big Nine Conference title and then to the state tournament. He helped nail down that league crown last year by scoring 10 goals and dishing out 11 assists. Mayo fell short on its state quest last year, losing in the section finals.

But whatever happens in soccer, Sabrie knows his life has taken a dramatic turn for the better the last four years.

“Now I live in Rochester, Minnesota,” he writes, “the most peaceful and beautiful city I have ever seen.”

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Soure: Post Bulletin

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