Story and photo by Brooke Meenachan
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Khayelitsha, South Africa was only a place Jared
Bomba heard of since the moment he set foot on Franklin & Marshall’s
campus.
A native of Newmanstown, Pa., Bomba attended
Franklin & Marshall studying history and Hispanic cultures while spending
most of his time on the soccer field.
“They used that space to run football and social
programming for the kids in Khayelitsha, which is one of the most impoverished
places in the world and has extraordinary rates of violence crime,” Bomba said.
His first trip to Khayelitsha came his senior year.
Bomba says his group did a lot of activities on the
trip, including bungee jumping and hiking. But he says nothing came close to
the feeling of standing on the artificial turf soccer field surrounded by ‘tin
shacks and dust’.
It was really just an unbelievable experience,” Bomba said.
Bomba says the experience holds close to his heart as he’s
always seen himself working in sports for development. However, he’d like to
combine that passion with writing.
That passion brought him to Syracuse University to study Magazine, Newspaper and Online Journalism.
That passion brought him to Syracuse University to study Magazine, Newspaper and Online Journalism.
A transcription of my conversation with
Jared is below. You can also listen to the audio version by clicking here.
Interview: Q&A with Jared Bomba
Q: We talked a little bit before this interview
about your trip to Africa. What was that experience like for you. What
possessed you to go there in the first place?
A: Sum it up as
quickly as possible. Ten years ago, a rising senior and team captain in the
program of the soccer team I played on at Franklin & Marshal College, he
passed away in the summer while running a conditioning test. Money was coming
to the school and to the family after his death and the family didn’t really
know what to do with it. The head men’s soccer coach at the time, and he still
is the head men’s soccer coach at F&M, Dan Wagner, decided the best way to
do it was to launch a sports for development program somewhere where it was
needed overseas. He decided on Khayelitsha, South Africa. It’s a black township
just outside of Cape Town. Essentially, they used the money to build a turf
replica of the field Franklin & Marshal plays on in Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. They used that space to run football and social programming for
the kids in Khayelitsha. Khayelitsha is one of the most impoverished places in
the world and has extraordinary rates of violence crime, but they’ve seen a lot
of improvements since putting the field there. So, every three years the team
goes there to experience some of the programming they put on, meet the people
that run the programming and essentially see who they are connecting with and
raising money for when they do fundraising back home.
Q: So, did you know this person that passed away?
Were you close at all?
A: I did not. I began
school at Franklin & Marshall in the fall of 2011. He passed away in the
summer of 2007. So, while I know several of his teammates, I did not know Chris
Campbell, who is the name of the player.
Q: What was the experience like for you in Africa
the first time?
A: Well, I was a rising
senior when I went the first time and the field in Khayelitsha was something I
heard about since the day I step foot on campus. So, it was really just an
unbelievable experience. You walk onto the field and there’s just this green
emerald of artificial turf soccer field and around it are these tin shacks,
grey dust swirling. Visually it’s just incredible. And then you hear about some
of the work they’ve done and just how violent crime rate right around the field
is. It dropped 44%. We do a lot of other cool things on the trip. We went
bungee jumping, hiking in some beautiful parts of South Africa, but none of it
comes close to matching what it’s like to just be there on the field and see
what it’s brought to the community.
Q: How has it affected you?
A: There was a long
time that I wanted to go into sports for development. I actually applied for an
internship at the field following my graduation. I lost to a guy that had a
public health master’s from John Hopkins. Don’t think I had much of a chance.
But it’s something that I kept a hold of. I actually worked for a sports for
development program in Lancaster called the Benchmark program, essentially
using a gymnasium space to connect with at risk youth and give them some sort
of guidance, tutoring, and general help when they need it.
Q: What is your ultimate goal after here?
A: So, the last two
years I worked at Franklin and Marshall covering nine different teams and doing
all facets of it, directing broadcasts, writing recaps, writing previews, you
name it, I covered it for that program. I really liked it. I wasn’t getting
paid very much, but I was also able to do things like volunteer for the
Benchmark program. I think that my future lies in the written word, probably.
So, I would ideally like to do something like Rick Reilly, who I spoke about a
little bit. I’ve always admired the way he was able to take some sort of social
awareness, most notably in his Nothing but Nets program and really infuse that
with his work, probably the greatest sports writer of this century. So,
something near what his career looked like is probably where I would like to
be.
Q: So, you’ve been to Africa twice now. Are you
planning to go back anytime?
A: So the second time I
went was about two months ago. I went because I was covering it from a media
perspective this time as an assistant coach to the men’s soccer team and media
professional for the school. It just made a lot of sense, but I didn’t have to
pay to go that time. It was obviously an amazing experience again. I was able
to see a lot of cool stuff, take a lot of cool photographs and just connect
with people who I really bonded with last time I went, but I don’t anticipate
that I will get to go again. I didn’t anticipate that I would go a second time
though, so depending on where it takes me, I would love to go back, but as of
now, I just don’t have the money and I don’t think I’ll ever have the
opportunity.
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