Move by Parents Gives Junior Najma Homidi a Chance on the Pitch

Sometimes the best thing parents can do for their family ends up being the toughest, something that Mukhtar and Nasima Homidi realized one night in the 1980's, as the Soviet Union occupied their home country of Afghanistan. With over 100,000 Soviet troops occupying Afghanistan, the Homidi family packed up what they could and took off for the United States in the middle of the night, not telling friends where they were going, and moved on to a new life. "It was really rough," Beavers junior midfielder Najma Homidi said. "My parents were rather well-off in Afghanistan, and they had to leave in the middle of the night, pack up what they could. They couldn't tell anybody, not their best friends, just their immediate family. They took a boat to Pakistan, then came to the United States." Her father, Mukhtar, a professor in Afghanistan, was in contact with a fellow professor from Montana. After corresponding with him and attempting to find a place to stay, the unnamed professor helped the Homidi family bring their hopes and dreams to the United States; they eventually ended up in Fremont, California. "They came here with absolutely nothing," Najma said. "My dad had to get three jobs, and my mom had three kids at the time, I was not born yet. Imagine treating a family with three kids, two parents and nothing." Today, Homidi is a key centerpiece for the Oregon State women's soccer squad, leading the Beavers in scoring with nine points and two game winning goals, which came against Utah and Utah State in the early stages of this season. Prior to coming to Oregon State, Homidi led Washington High School (Fremont, CA) with 74 goals in 48 games. She was an all-league pick all four years of her high school career, and led the league in scoring three of those four years, all on top of graduating in the top ten percentile of her graduating class. At the beginning of the season, Beavers head coach Linus Rhode named Homidi co-team captain alongside friend and teammate Red Nixon. The leadership role is nothing new for the Junior, as she was named league player of the year three of her four years in high school, and led WHS to four straight league titles. While her success in high school hasn't exactly translated to the college pitch, Homidi still remains optimistic, as the Beavers are a tremendously young team. "We have the same goals (as any other team), but we have to be realistic since he have such a young team," Homidi said. "We're not saying the first thing we want to go out and win a national championship. We have steps along the way. We want to go out there and play the full 90 minutes and not just one half, and once we get there we want to win some of the bigger games so we can get to the tournament." Although she leads the team thus far this season in scoring, Homidi still doesn't see herself as the clear-cut leader for the squad. With seven other upperclassmen on the squad, there are many opportunities for other players to step-up into that leadership role, which will be a neccesity with the tough schedule the Beavers have facing them the rest of the season. "I'm not going to be the one that shouts if someone does something wrong, not going to put them on blast," Homidi said. "I don't want to say that I'm a leader, I just try to work my hardest, and if they appreciate that, then that's great." Although every soccer player attempts to create their own style of play, Homidi mentioned she tries to emulate the style of Portugese soccer sensation and Manchester United superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who had a hand in leading Man U to the English Premiere League cup in 07-08. Through the first two seasons of her career, Homidi was able to record six goals (14 points) and was the Beavers returning highest scorer, a feat that not many pre-med students can say they have done. With aspirations of becoming a brain surgeon after she has completed her degree, Homidi would like to think there is a future in soccer, but with the hectic schedule of an athlete, and the 3.7 high school GPA she brought with her to Oregon State, Naj has plenty of options laid out for herself. "I used to see this as a career for me, because I love it, and my love for it hasn't changed, but I have to look at my family, the family that I'm going to have," Homidi explained. "I don't want to be traveling all of the time, I want to be there for my kids, and that's probably going to be around the time where I get married, I don't want to get off to a rocky start. I want to make sure whatever I do, I'm going to take care of my family, money-wise, housing-wise, and I can do that with the major that I'm in, so it's not like I'm compromising." With plenty of time left in the season, Homidi has plenty of time to show off her talent, and will continue to do so as the Oregon State women's soccer squad hosts the Washington schools this Friday and Sunday at Lorenz Field.