By Omar Thabet
The Yemeni American News
For those of you don’t know, there is a new youth soccer club in town, and they are ready to take over your city.
The Hamtramck Warriors soccer club was established in 2015. They have been a part of the Michigan Association for two years now.
The Hamtramck Warriors Soccer Club consists of a U-8 team (will be added this year), U-13 team, U-15 team, and a U-18 team. They play in the Midwest region, which includes teams from Michigan, Indiana, and Canada. The Hamtramck Warriors are a part of the State Premiere League.
Their founder, Hesham Arobye, is also the coach for all the teams in the club.
Hesham graduated out of Hamtramck High School in 2008. After high school, he played semi-pro ball for two-and-a-half years. While playing soccer for his semi-pro team, he started seeing all of these other clubs that were growing from ages 8-10 years old. So he thought to himself, ‘Why don’t I start a club of my own?’
Hesham said, “I started strolling the streets of Hamtramck, going to all the parks and I would see kids play soccer but have no team to play on. So I figured this would be a great opportunity to start something new in Hamtramck.”
After that, the rest was all history.
Last year, the Hamtramck Warriors U-18 team went undefeated and won the State Premiere championship, while his U-15 team finished the season with a 7-1-3 record.
This year, his U-15 team finished their season undefeated, while his U-13 team finished their season with a 14-4-4 record.
The clubs’ success didn’t just happen overnight. As Hesham would tell you, most of the clubs struggles happened off of the field rather than on it.
One of the team’s struggles was transportation.
When the club first started, Hesham used three cars to get his players to games. One of them was his dads, the other two were his. He knew this method wasn’t going to work, so he decided to come up with a new method of transportation, that method being the Hamtramck Warriors Bus.
“I spent all summer of 2015 looking for a bus on Ebay and Criagslist,” Hesham said. “Once I found the right bus, it took me three-and-a-half months to remodel it. It’s safe to say that getting the bus was the biggest accomplishment for me.”
Getting the bright yellow 4-wheeler was definitely an accomplishment to say the least. According to Hesham, the number of players grew ever since he purchased the bus. The program started with only 10 kids. Now the program has up to 70 kids and is still growing.
Paying the small required fee won’t just get you in the club, though. There is a contract players have to sign before Hesham accepts them on the team. In that contract, there are two pages of requirements listed that all players on the Hamtramck Warriors Soccer club have to follow. Some of those requirements are:
Maintaining a GPA no lower than a 2.9
Must sit in the front of the classroom during the entire school year
Maintain perfect attendance and good citizenship in the classroom
Must arrive 10 minutes before practice time because 5 minutes before practice time is considered late
Must bring 100% effort to all practices and games and not arrive without interest
A failure to follow any of the requirements can result to a 2-4 week suspension; all depending on the severity of the failed requirement.
Kids love playing for the Hamtramck Warriors, as well as for Coach Hesham.
Hanley International Academy sixth grader Moatasem Fadhel plays center defender for the U-13 and U-15 Hamtramck Warriors team. He said the best part about the team is playing for Coach Hesham.
“Coach Hesham really does care about his players,” Moatasem said. “He’s also a very smart coach. We are always learning something new every day at practice.”
Hesham’s long term goal for the team is to establish a youth soccer program in Hamtramck that is going to be going on for many years to come and for many different generations.
He wants to give the kids something he wasn’t fortunate enough to have when he was growing up.
The Hamtramck Warriors Soccer Club has been approved to be a Non-profit organization for more than a year now.
There are a number of businesses in Hamtramck who have sponsored the club.
When I asked Hesham how much of his own money has he put in to keep the club going, he smiled and said, “You don’t want to know.”
If you are looking to donate to a Non-Profit Organization, look no further to the Hamtramck Warriors Soccer Club.
You can find out how to donate to the team by emailing Hesham at Hamtramckwarriorsfc@gmail.com.
