On the other end of the field, Ahmed Safi and Joel Musese warmed up with their new Edward Little teammates and felt their heartstrings pulling in different directions.
Safi and Musese were Lewiston freshmen last year when the Blue Devils took Maine soccer by storm and eventually stepped into the national spotlight after winning the first Class A state championship in the program’s history.
Both have maintained close relationships with their former teammates and coaches from Lewiston, and both are emblematic of the changing face and nature of the ancient rivalry between Lewiston and Edward Little.
Safi and Musese have already impressed their new teammates with their skills on the pitch. The latter assisted the former on the game’s only goal in the Red Eddies’ 1-0 win over Bangor on Saturday.
With their return to Lewiston on Tuesday, the former Blue Devils weren’t worried about impressing HBO’s cameras, either. They wanted to make Lewiston head coach Mike McGraw and his staff proud.
“They’re great coaches,” Safi said. “They taught us a lot and I learned a lot from them. I’m really close with them.”
“We’re planning to show them what they taught us,” Musese said.
Ever since his team caught the nation’s attention for its diverse makeup — the team was made up mostly of immigrants — and outstanding teamwork, McGraw has hoped it would teach others how to work together.
For the past week, a crew from HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” has followed the Lewiston boys’ varsity soccer team — not only the players and coaches, but their families, too.
Lewiston school officials hope the segment, which will air later in the fall, will show a community in which the players and their families are welcomed and accepted.
This is just the latest hint of major regional and national attention the team and school have garnered. Last year, filmmaker and Lewiston alumnus Ian Clough produced a documentary about the team, and its cultural significance in the city. A director’s cut of the film debuted at the Emerge Film Festival in April.
The film’s publicity also caught the eye of several national publications, which likened Lewiston’s melting pot to that of the nation as a whole, a hot-button topic in the election season. As recently as last month, the Boston Globe featured the team in a front-page Sunday feature.
With the camera lens now pointing to Lewiston’s rivalry with Edward Little, McGraw wondered if it could help redefine the Battle of the Bridge.
“I think this puts Lewiston-Auburn in a great position to show the community how people can get along, how teams can compete against each other,” McGraw said.
“I think it’s about time Lewiston gets some of the credit it deserves,” Lewiston Athletic Director Jason Fuller said. “Too often, you hear ‘The Dirty Lew’ and all that. I think we’re so much bigger than that. And I think we’ve done a really good job over the last 10 years of changing the identity of the community and the makeup of the community.
“I think that’s the real big story and not just the soccer team,” Fuller said. “It’s all of our programs, and our entire community went out of its way to make sure people feel welcome and a part of the culture here now.”
Across the river, Auburn has welcomed many immigrants and has watched its school and athletic teams become more diverse, as well.
New Edward Little varsity boys’ soccer coach Tim Mains, a 2011 EL graduate, saw the changes on both sides of the river while starring in soccer and basketball. From his perspective, the rivalry has changed right along with the two cities — but it’s still a rivalry.
“It’s hard to root for Lewiston,” Mains said. “I grew up in Auburn. I played for Edward Little. It’s always hard to cheer for Lewiston. That doesn’t mean that I’m not happy for those kids (who won the state title). They had an amazing run. And just for the community to rally behind (them). That’s a really cool thing for those kids.”
The main difference in the five years since Mains last participated in the rivalry is that there are a lot players who have played for Edward Little and Lewiston.
“It’s different from when I played,” he said. “We’d never play for Lewiston, and Lewiston’s guys would never care to play for us, either.
“(Safi and Musese) are both key pieces to our program, so we’re obviously happy to have them,” Mains said. “It’s just different from what I’m used to.”
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