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Haitian players’ dreams rise from rubble
MELBOURNE —
Clifford Nau did not understand what was happening. Walking home from school, he could feel the ground beneath him start to shake. Within seconds, everything began to sway and the buildings around him crumbled to the ground, becoming powder. Unbeknownst to him at the time, that was the moment his path from the rubble of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, to the green soccer fields of Melbourne would be cast. Sometimes, for the fortunate few, luck can indeed spring from disaster. “It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Nau said. “I didn’t know what it was, what was happening. But I knew it was serious.”
Immediate casualties were limited to his mother’s cousin. And despite leaving his parents behind to rebuild their lives in a city of ghosts, the Melbourne High soccer star maintains close ties to his native land as a member of the U-17 National Team. “It’s been a good experience; we played two tournaments for the World Cup qualifications last year,” the broad-shouldered Nau said after leading his team in sprints this week during practice at Melbourne High’s Tom McIntyre Stadium. “We played games in the Dominican Republic and in Jamaica. It was pretty good.” The team was eventually eliminated from World Cup competition, but Nau — pronounced No — will no doubt eventually be considered for the Men’s Haitian National team. The high school senior plans to play soccer in college while he pursues a degree in medicine.
Meanwhile, he has scored 11 goals in 11 games — having missed a few games kicking field goals for the school’s football team and traveling back to Haiti. He trains with the Haitian national team whenever he goes home, most recently during the extended Christmas break. “He’s a good target forward, he’s a good athlete and he loves soccer,” said his Melbourne coach, Jerry McCabe, while working to get his team ready for the upcoming district tournament. “He’s a physical presence on the field and he has good leadership skills.” Nau looks more like a middle linebacker than a striker and has the speed of a fleet-footed wide receiver. Despite being named the All-Space Coast football kicker this season, anyone who knows anything about Haiti realizes that soccer will always be his first love.
Written by John A. Torres