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"In the Zone: A world away, but still at home"

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This article appeared in The Cape Cod Times on November 4, 2011.

Written by Jen McCaffrey.</em></p>

The Harwich boys soccer team was playing South Shore League opponent Carver last week at home and, at the time, with just three games left in the season, needed three points to qualify for the MIAA tournament.

The Rough Riders were down 1-0 heading into the second half and in jeopardy of squandering an opportunity to inch closer to the postseason.

That’s when junior forward Mert Ilter, a foreign exchange student from Turkey, took control of the ball around the 20-yard line and blasted a shot at the net. It ricocheted off the goalie, but Ilter applied pressure, almost barreling into the keeper, and knocked the ball in to tie the score.

The game ended in a tie and gave Harwich an important point. The Rough Riders clinched the tournament berth in their next game.

The goal was Ilter’s first of the season and came just two days after the devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake in his home country that killed more than 600 people.

While his family, living in the capital city of Ankara hundreds of miles west of the center of the earthquake, wasn’t affected, it nevertheless was an eye-opener for the 16-year-old living more than 5,000 miles from home.

“I was very (nervous),” Ilter said. “I heard the East Coast of Turkey, but I called them (via Skype) one day later and they were good. They were upset, too. I just felt bad.”

Ilter was comforted by the outpouring of support from friends at Harwich High on Facebook and in school, but it is his soccer coach, Tony Catanzaro, and teammates who have made him feel at home in the two months he has been in Harwich.

Soccer has been a lifeline for Ilter, who finds familiarity and comfort in the sport he played in Turkey. As he adjusts to life in America, the game has helped him forge friendships and made his transition easier.

But none of this would have been possible if not for the compassion of the Comeau family of Harwich, which is hosting Ilter during his year abroad.

The Comeaus had a Turkish exchange student two years ago through American Field Service, an international exchange program for students and adults operating in more than 50 countries.

AFS placed Ilter and five other international students at the Harwich and Chatham high schools this academic year. Ilter was accepted into a program within AFS called the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program. YES was created after 9/11 to provide scholarships for high school students from countries with significant Muslim populations, like Turkey, to spend up to one academic year in the U.S.

Ilter found out about the program through his English teacher at his high school in Ankara and had to pass five exams to be awarded the scholarship. But then, even though eligible to study abroad, he needed a host family.

In came the Comeaus, who had not considered having another student this year until being contacted by AFS.

“Obviously to be able to give a kid this opportunity to be here in this country for a year, something they’ve already chosen and want to do, you can’t tell yourself ‘if I don’t do it someone else will,’ because that doesn’t happen,” Melissa Comeau said. “There are kids every year that don’t get placed and don’t get to come, so that was our initial motivator.”

When Ilter arrived at Logan International Airport in Boston in early September – delayed a few days by the wrath of Hurricane Irene – he was greeted by Melissa and Perry Comeau and their three children, ages 12, 10 and 8.

One of the first things the Comeaus did, after organizing his enrollment at Harwich High with AFS, was sign him up for the soccer team.

“We’re so grateful for soccer,” Melissa Comeau said. “He loves soccer and he’s a great player so it brought him right in with a group of kids and they have been wonderful. My husband says love doesn’t express (his passion for soccer) enough. He told us even before he came that soccer is his life so to be able to play, and have all the guys be so welcoming to him, has been a really good start to his stay here.”

Ilter’s new teammates included him immediately.

“I’ve got a great bunch of kids,” said Catanzaro. “We won the (South Shore League) sportsmanship award this year and that’s huge for us. Having those kind of kids makes it easy to take on someone else (like Mert). We also have a few other players from Jamaica. Mert joined us and is right in the group with all of the guys.”

Harwich junior captain Tommy Birch, the Rough Riders’ goalkeeper, hosts cookouts and family-style dinners for the team at his home and made sure to include Ilter. “Our family has always been open to people who are new to the community so once he got here we knew to invite him over and keep in touch,” Birch said. “It’s just amazing how he can come over from Turkey, play soccer and we can be good friends because most foreign exchange students are singled out. My objective was just to get him into the community so everyone knows him.”

The Comeaus make an effort to attend most his games, even with their three children also playing soccer.

While Ilter has gelled with his teammates off the field because of his easy-going personality – they call him “Hollywood” and he is often flashing a broad smile – he has had to adjust to a new style of soccer.

“In America, soccer is more physical,” said the lanky 5-foot-8-inch Ilter.

“In Turkey, you play very tactically. It’s different, but I like American style. It’s important for my skills.”

Catanzaro has seen Ilter improve dramatically from the beginning of the season. “European soccer, as soon as you breathe on someone, it seems like they go down or there’s a card or foul,” Catanzaro said. “These high school games can be very intense and we play in a tough league. We tell our guys to run shoulder to shoulder and don’t back down, don’t take anything. So I think the first half of the season he was in awe of how much contact there was in American soccer.”

But Ilter broke out in the game against Carver and scored his second goal on Monday in the last game of the regular season against Chatham.

He’s also making other adjustments, like celebrating the holidays here. On Monday, he tagged along with the Comeau kids – who call him their “big brother” – to experience Halloween and trick-or-treating.

He’ll soon learn about Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions, too. But the education is mutual as Ilter teaches his host family about his Muslim culture and life in Turkey.

Ilter hopes to come back to Harwich next year and his dream is to attend and play soccer for a college in the U.S.

But for now, he’ll experience one new thing at a time. Next up: the soccer tournament.


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