As anyone who drove through east Dearborn during the World Cup this summer and saw the parade of favorite nations’ car flags knows, soccer is a big deal in the Arab American community, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is hoping that it becomes just as popular in the campus community in the coming years.

(L-R): Hamoody Saad, Justin Meram and Soony Saad represent the three leading scorers for Michigan-Ann Arbor’s soccer team. Photos Courtesy of UofM Athletic Media Relations

The university recently upped the ante for the soccer program with the dedication of its brand-new, state-of-the-art $6 million University of Michigan soccer complex on Friday, September 17, and on the field, a new generation of stars is hoping to lead the maize and blue to a new era of success.

Leading the way so far for the 2010 season is a trio of Arab Americans: brothers Soony and Hamoody Saad of Dearborn along with Justin Meram, who grew up in Utica.

The Saad brothers and Meram represent the top three scorers for a Michigan team that Hamoody Saad believes has a chance to grow into one of the best teams in the always-tough Big Ten Conference together.

“As we continue to practice and play more games, this Big Ten season is going to look good for us,” he said. “We think we’ll be at the top and contending for a Big Ten championship.”

In the first game of the season, Hamoody Saad, a 19-year-old Lebanese American and sophomore who plays as an attacking midfielder, and his brother Soony, an 18-year-old freshman striker, became the first set of brothers to score in a game for Michigan as the Wolverines beat the University of Detroit 2-1 in overtime.

Soony Saad, one of the top freshmen in the nation coming off his state-record 172 career goals in high school, leads the team with 14 points including seven goals while Meram has eight points and Hamoody Saad has four points including the game-winning goal against Detroit in overtime.

“We were really excited and happy to get the win, but it was a team effort so the record didn’t really matter as much,” said Hamoody Saad, who played alongside his brother at Dearborn High School.

Hamoody Saad has helped mentor his younger brother on the finer points of major college soccer, a transition that’s been tough but rewarding.

“I was really surprised, when you get to the next level of college it gets a lot tougher than high school, every team is out to win and every player is out there demanding playing time,” Soony Saad said, who came in as perhaps Michigan’s biggest recruit ever as the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year.

“A big reason why I came here is because Hamoody’s over here and to play with him again has been amazing.”

Hamoody Saad has helped mentor his younger brother much the way that Meram, a 21-year-old Chaldean American who plays forward, has mentored  him and the rest of his teammates as one of the few starting seniors on the team, which currently has a record of 4-2-3 heading into their second Big Ten game of the year on Sunday, October 3 at 1 p.m. in Ann Arbor against Penn State. The game will also be shown on TV as the the Big Ten Network will run it on tape-delay at 7 p.m.

Meram knows what it takes to play winning college soccer, as he won a national championship at Yavapai Junior College in Prescott, Arizona, where he played before transferring to Michigan before last season.

“I’m one of the few seniors to start and play so I try to lead by example; I have a little more experience but we all learn something new from each other every day so it’s good to keep an open mind and go with it,” he said.

Meram lives off-campus in an apartment just down the street from Hamoody Saad while Soony Saad lives in a dorm room on campus. While the three have tight schedules between practice and schoolwork, they maintain a good relationship on and off the field as three Arab Americans playing the sport they’ve always loved.

“We were all born with great talents and it’s just great to have us on the same level, we’re all so close and play so well together and it makes it easy to know where we’re all coming from on and off the field,” Meram said.

“I have a lot of family up here that come watch me play and I also know that the Arab American community is very strong with us as well.”

Soony Saad said that he’s looking forward to sharing his love for the game with members of the Arab American community in Dearborn and across Michigan as well.

“We want to give back to the community as much as we can, we’re very thrilled to see a lot of guys from Dearborn High coming out to watch us now it makes me so happy to know I have a community behind me, we need more of them to come out and fill up the stands too,” he said.

“Michigan has a lot of youth camps in the summer and we want to help as many kids as we can, and if they’re from Dearborn and Arab American that makes me want them to come up and have the same success we’ve had.”

For now, as is the case with most college athletes, schoolwork and winning come before individual success for the Wolverine trio. But Meram and the Saad brothers hope to keep their own personal goals high as well in order to be an example for the next generation of successful student athletes.

“I feel like what me, Soony, and Justin are doing is going to spark an interest in the Arab American community and I feel like it’s already started to get many kids paying more attention to soccer and to get them interested so that hopefully will make them want to do better and try to go to college to get scholarships of their own,” Hamoody Saad said.

For more information about Michigan soccer, visit //www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-soccer/.