WEST NEW YORK, N.J. (BVM) — West New York Police Sgt. Kareem Shabazz is a 13-year veteran of the force and a father of three boys. When he decided to jump in as a coach for one of his son’s traveling soccer teams, he figured it would be fun to spend some time with his son and teach him about teamwork, something Shabazz knows well working on the police force . 

“We play for a team; all individual achievements are only relevant to the betterment of the team.” Shabazz says about working in law enforcement.

For Shabazz, however, the mindset quickly went from what he could bring to the field as a new coach, to learning the importance of the kids being on that field, before they even got the season started.

Covid-19

The pandemic has affected all of us in different ways. Shabazz, working in an overpopulated urban setting, experienced first-hand the effects of Covid-19 on the general public, and was also able to understand them through the eyes of his wife and children. Not only was Shabazz out on the streets handling the job and interactions with infected people, but he also had the essential worker struggle of keeping his family at home safe and healthy. 

“Although I knew my family was safe,” Shabazz said, “I had to basically strip down at the door, leave my shoes outside and bag my clothes, before taking a shower, as a requisite to interact with them.”

School

While his wife and boys transitioned to online schooling, like most, the long days at work kept Shabazz from being there for a lot of the initial issues they were having adapting to the new way of learning.

“The two older children had little problem with adapting to online classes, as technology was already an integrated aspect of their normal school life,” explained Shabazz. “The distance from friends was addressed with increased hours of online gaming and chat.”

The real difficulty was in the youngest one, Harun, who was not as socially involved yet. 

“My wife’s job was closed for months leading up to summer, but an energetic 8-year old with no outlet for said energy, was a job in and of itself.” Shabazz admits that his wife, “had to bear the brunt of this duty as he required and demanded more attention from everyone.”

Summer

As the summer approached, the streets were crazy again for Sgt. Shabazz at work, and the kids were getting restless at home. Besides one trip to visit family out of state, Shabazz made sure to keep the boys busy, since they still couldn’t get out and do much due to the pandemic. 

Shabazz decided it would be “educational and fun to have a project to work on together that they would all be vested in.” The Shabazz men occupied their time by building gaming PC’s.  

“Being a cop, I know the trouble that young kids with idle time can get into. Sure I’d love for them to be out and about in a normal world, but given the alternative we had at the moment, we bonded over tech toys and computer equipment,” added Shabazz. 

Back to School

By September, the two older children were on a hybrid schedule and the Shabazz’ were informed that Harun would be 100% virtual.  This was after being told all summer that the school would go back to full time in person instruction.  

Once again, his wife had to change her schedule again to accommodate their 8-year old being home every day, and the two older boys at school 2-3 days per week.

Shabazz braced himself for the seasonal changes at work and the possibility of  Covid-19 cases resurfacing.

Soccer 

The silver lining in September came with the news that the Fall Select Soccer team would begin practices. This was exciting since spring soccer was canceled due to the pandemic, before the team even picked up their uniforms. 

“Harun’s joy of making the travel team was upended, but now, it returned with rules,” Shabazz remarked.  “All players must wear masks onto the field and when leaving, but not during actual practice or a game.  Temperatures taken by coaches before practice and games.  All coaches must wear masks at all times.  Players’ bags must be placed 6 feet apart and drills must be conducted in a socially distant manner whenever possible.  The worst one was that parents must wait in their cars during practice and games.”

“Remembering the rules is one thing,” shabazz noted, “but enforcing them on parents that want to see their sons play is another.”

Overall, Shabazz feels the best thing from this entire experience has been watching his son meet new kids and “foster new friendships with the bond of a team, which is unique to sports and why we love them by nature.”

“The touch less socially distant huddles and cheering on by coaches, who struggle to instruct in real time from behind a mask,  does not detract from the comradery and lessons that sports brings us, especially youth that have been locked down since mid-March, with little to no contact with the outside world,” added Shabazz. 

Although this year’s soccer season came with delays and extra guidelines, soccer has brought back a sense of normalcy to the Shabazz family and gave Harun a place to, as his father says, “burn the energy.” 

Shabazz says that amidst the “chaos and confusion,” he has enjoyed spending more time with his son and being on the field, coaching and mentoring Harun and the others, and looks forward to the rest of the season.