High school team holds midnight training for Ramadan (Feature)

By Anne K Walters Aug 27, 2010, 3:19 GMT

Washington - Teenaged boys across the United States are strapping on their helmets to prepare for the American football season, but the training schedule is a little different at one Michigan high school.

The sport typically requires long daily practices as students train for the season in the heat of August, but the timing posed a problem at Fordson High School in Dearborn, just outside Detroit.

The city of 85,000 is home to a large Muslim population, and coach Fouad Zaban, 40, knew the most intense preseason training would fall squarely during the holy month of Ramadan.

With more than 90 per cent of his team being Muslims, who fast by refraining from eating and drinking during daylight hours during the month, Zaban worried that the teens would easily become ill from running and doing drills for the six or seven hours of typical preseason practice. This August also happened to be among the hottest on record in the northern state, with temperatures averaging 30 degrees Celsius.

So the coach, a Muslim who grew up in Dearborn and played football there, developed a unique solution: practice in the middle of the night, when his players could drink water and temperatures would be cooler.

'It was ultimately a health and safety issue,' Zaban told the German Press Agency dpa in a telephone interview, pointing to horror stories of dehydrated players during hot summer training sessions.

Preseason practices began at 10 pm and wrapped up around 4 am, he said, letting players break their fast before training began, keeping them healthy and still allowing them to fulfil their religious obligations.

The issue of what athletes should do during Ramadan can be a heated one and has even raised questions about the propriety of holding international sporting events during the month. The scheduling of the 2012 Olympics in London have sparked outrage among some Muslims because the contest falls during Ramadan, putting many athletes in a difficult position.

Last year, a German football club issued warnings to three players for fasting during the holy month after including a clause in their contract that such observances were not allowed. In Italy, a coach last year sparked controversy for blaming a player's poor performance on Ramadan.

Some religious leaders have said it is okay for players to eat during game days if they make up the fast later on, and popular protests this week forced an Iranian football club to backtrack on the dismissal of a star player who had taken a drink of water during training earlier this month.

But there was no controversy when Zaban proposed his practice schedule.

'We've been dealing with Ramadan during the season for the past 10 years,' he said, but noted it always fell later in the autumn when training sessions were less intense and when games typically take place in the, evenings allowing players to break their fast during halftime.

Knowing Ramadan this year would fall in August and September, Zaban consulted with school officials and city leaders to devise the practice schedule, which begins even later than accommodations made for other sports teams in the school district.

'Once I got approval the kids were up for it,' he said.

Most community reaction has been positive. Even the few non-Muslim players were accommodating and only one parent - a Muslim - questioned the schedule before coming around to the idea, Zaban said.

In addition to the religious benefits, the players got to play under the lights used during games, and the local Muslim community often turned out to cheer the athletes, he said.

In the meantime, Zaban has moved to a less intense training schedule earlier in the day to prepare for the schools' first game on Friday and to get the players ready for classes on September 7.

He says he wouldn't hesitate to hold the late-night practices again. The move has garnered attention from national media outlets, largely because football is seen as such an all-American game. He points out, however, that boys and girls in other sports at the school are equally dedicated to both their faith and competition.

'Football here in America gets the hoopla. It's a popular sport,' he said. 'But there are also other kids fasting in other sports.'