I had an opportunity to attend the premier of In the Game, a film produced by the same company that produced Hoop Dreams. This film held special significance for me, however. It focused on the girls' soccer team at Kelly High School, a Chicago public high school I attended nearly 40 years ago. At the premier, I was also able to meet and speak with the producer, the principal of the school, and the coach and players that were featured in the film. A large part of the experience was a nostalgia trip. While the ethnicity, sport, and gender were different, the struggles of trying to be an student athlete, in an underfunded school with few resources in blue collar, immigrant neighborhood resonated with me. The film centered on these beautiful, spirited young women, trying to make something of themselves, using soccer to build the life skills needed to succeed in life and transcend this tough, poor, gritty (and now gang infested) neighborhood. The movie struck a chord of both empathy for the girls and a deep sense of nostalgia.
The film did a great job of depicting the Brighton Park neighborhood and highlighted it as an immigrant gateway, showing the transition from a primarily Polish and Lithuanian enclave to a Mexican one. The houses and parks still looked very familiar to me decades later, although most of the stores have changed and the red, green and white colors of the Mexican flag adorn many of them and many houses have symbols of Catholicism both inside and outside their homes. The neighborhood is appreciably poorer (the head of the Brighton Park neighborhood council asserted an 86% poverty rate). Many of the manufacturing companies that supported families in the 50's, 60's and 70's have moved out. It appears that many people support themselves with little micro businesses and retail shops. Of course, the other significant change since I grew up is the infiltration of gangs and gang violence. Just last week, there was a gang related killing at 47th and Western, just a few blocks from my home. And the film noted that the soccer team was forced to change practice fields because of the threat of gang violence.
Still, I couldn't help feeling a connection with these athletes. One girl noted, "When I am on the field, everything else disappears." It was inspiring to see these girls battle through family difficulties, poverty, and lack of infrastructure and resources to work hard and play hard every day. In the suburbs, similar girls start with travel soccer, have personal trainers, and sometimes tutors. These girls have to do it largely on their own grit and determination and a very devoted and dedicated coach. Most of the girls at Kelly do not have money to go to college and have to rely on aid, loans and part time jobs. It's very difficult for any to go straight through to a 4 year college. It appears most start and stop through community college. You can't help but cheer for these girls, any one of which you would be proud to have as your daughter. The coach, a Kelly graduate of Polish heritage is a both a beacon of hope for these girls and a bridge between generations and waves of immigrants. His unyielding optimism and can-do spirit clearly infects his players.
Of course, as Orwell put it, "all art is propaganda," and this film has a political message to it, both in terms of immigration policy and school funding. Some of the girls are undocumented and Kelly was subject to pretty draconian budget cuts. Ironically, the very next day, the Chicago Tribune ran a long piece on the financial condition of the Chicago Public School system and the gross financial mismanagement of it and its pension system.
These girls deserve so much more. It is heartbreaking to see them caught in a system that was largely constructed and run for the benefit of the unions and politicians and not for the kids. But simply giving more money to a broken system will not solve the problem. Twenty percent of funding now goes to pay pension costs and service debt. That leaves precious little for aspiring student athletes like these girls.
The film underscored for me that the system needs radical reform, not just meddling at the edges and taking holidays from payment into the pension system. The system needs to go into bankruptcy, with material adjustments to the union contract (so bad teachers can be fired more easily), the pension system, "sweetheart" contracts, and the like and the system needs to be rebuilt under court supervision. That is the only way I see these kids getting a fair shake.
The filmmakers did a good job of evoking an emotional reaction--it is what good films do. But the solution that has a chance at fixing the problem may be different than the one they intended.
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