First Bhutanese Interstate Soccer Tournament (Day One Video)

Guest author: Tamar Orvell

Georgia's Red Team huddles in a tent as thunderstorms
drive hundreds of players and spectators to sheltering cars,
tents, and Porta-Potties to await the final game on Day Two

The First Bhutanese Interstate Soccer Tournament in the USA featured twenty teams that drove or flew from coast-to-coast, north and south to join more than 350 players in Atlanta, Georgia. The two-day event on Friday and Saturday, June 17 and 18, showcased brilliant athletes, organizers, coaches, and managers in a celebration of teamwork, community, fair play, tireless dedication, and hard work over decades of nearly insurmountable obstacles. The event was a reunion of family and friends, many of whom played soccer together as children in seven Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal, following expulsion from their homeland, Bhutan. For nearly two decades in the camps, their 100,000-person ethnic-Nepali community relied on the same teamwork and life-affirming beliefs and practices witnessed this weekend.

Watch the video (8:45 minutes).




Updates from the soccer field (include photos and videos)

• First Bhutanese Interstate Soccer Tournament (Day Two Video)
• Bhutan News Service: Texas bags winner trophy
• Bhutan News Service: The beginning of a new chapter
• The Tournament Facebook event page and other social media

The back story
Bhutanese Interstate Soccer Tournament: June 17-18, 2011, in Atlanta