Michael Lahoud: My Passion Fuels Me
BIO: Michael is a former professional midfielder and NCAA Champion (Wake Forest). Drafted by Chivas USA of MLS in the first round, Michael also played in the NASL and USL. Civil War forced Michael to flee his home country of Sierra Leone as a young child. He lends his voice to several issues, mainly those surrounding social injustice. Michael is currently a broadcaster for Austin FC.
WHEN DID YOU FIRST RECOGNIZE THE POWER OF YOUR VOICE?
To understand how I found my voice, it’s important to know my unique story. I'm originally from Freetown, Sierra Leone. I grew up in a life at peace. Sierra Leone was freedom. It was nature and being outside with people, a beautiful place where I felt safe. Then, in the blink of an eye, life changed forever. There was a tragic civil war over blood diamonds. There was so much corruption. That vaulted me from the safe haven that was Freetown toward the journey of a lifetime to America.
I'll never forget where my life changed. I was in primary school, sitting there taking an exam. My grandma burst through the door. She doesn't say a word, grabs me by my arm, and we're off. We lived about two miles from where I went to school, and we ran. I remember getting to our village compound, and it was just absolute chaos. People were screaming at each other. I had no clue what was going on. I was really scared.
The only calming force in that moment was my great grandma. She said, ‘Hey. Everything's going to be okay. You're going to a faraway place. You're going to America.’ I had no concept of America. I thought I was moving to Hollywood, because when you're watching anything about the States, you're watching movies. I thought, ‘What could go wrong?’ What she didn't tell me was that in the next 48 hours I was going to leave my home country, and I wouldn't be coming back for 20 years. She also didn't tell me that the guerrilla soldiers who were threatening to throw my home country into turmoil were on the doorstep of our village and were capturing young kids, like me, and turning them into child soldiers and using things like drugs and violence and brainwashing and terror to have kids my age commit heinous crimes against their own families and against their own people.
My ticket out of Sierra Leone was because of my family. We were the only family in our entire village that won an emergency VISA through a lottery. No one else. I was the last one who got out.
My uncle and my grandma were the last two people I remember seeing in Sierra Leone before leaving for the states. There was a government run wharf where there's a ferry that took people to the airport close to the border of Guinea. My uncle was trying to get on the ferry and people were screaming and crying. I was in shock and just terrorized. A soldier kept screaming at my uncle that if he got on the ferry he was going to kill him. I saw a soldier put a machine gun to my uncle's head, and everything froze. It was almost like in the movies where there’s a ringing in your ears, and you see everything going on around you, but you don't understand what’s happening because everything is distorted. I came to my senses on board a flight heading from Sierra Leone to Paris, and Paris to Washington, DC. I remember sitting on this flight by myself for hours, not knowing how I got there. I was six years old.
Through a lifetime of therapy and counseling, I dug into my story and childhood and worked through some of the traumas that I still bear from the war in Africa. One of the themes that I've worked on with my psychotherapists is the journey toward finding my voice. Muting my voice has been a bit of a survival instinct at times, but there was always this warring inside of me. I fought the urge of living in the background with this other thing, this fire, this light that I knew was there. I wanted to speak up and be heard and be seen. That's always been a deep and core desire of mine. I didn't feel like I was honoring who I really am and who I was from childhood and as an adult.
I was encouraged by this feeling of wanting to be more than just the refugee kid that moved to the States. I wanted to be more than just a club soccer player. I wanted to be more than just a college athlete. I wanted to be more than just a professional soccer player, and even now, as a broadcaster, because I feel like there's more to me than just what I do.
You can be heard and seen through action, but more than anything, through using your voice. So, when I got drafted into MLS, I went to the front office and said, ‘Hey! I want to get involved in the community. I want to serve.’ I had no clue what was coming out of my mouth. I was just going on passion. I was passionate about it.
HOW DO YOU USE THE POWER OF YOUR VOICE?
I want to use my platform, or any influence that I have in this world, to change people's lives. One of my first experiences of getting involved was around the time of the earthquake in Haiti. I saw this third world country ravaged by natural disaster and heard the crying out for help. I know what it feels like to be in need, and I wanted to come through in any way I could. That was the first taste of it.
Then, in 2010, I was in Seattle to play the Sounders, but I don’t remember that trip for the game. I had the honor of meeting a woman named Cindy Nofziger from the organization, Salone. I remember she asked, ‘How would you like to change the world?’ I was just turning 23. I didn't know that I could, but it spoke to a burning passion that was already alive within me. Through that question, and that self-discovery process, I went back to her and said, ‘I want to build a school in my home country of Sierra Leone so that what happened in Sierra Leone, will never happen to another person, again, anywhere around the world.’ It turned out that that's what her organization does - builds schools in Sierra Leone to help to rebuild the education system.
I felt so passionate about the opportunity that I had to tell someone. I went to the head of community on my team and one of our vice presidents and said, ‘I'm going to build a school in Sierra Leone. Do you want to join me?’ I could not stop talking about it, and they eventually said yes. We did fundraisers and raised $25,000 out of the gate, just the three of us. I couldn't believe it.
More recently, I started figuring out what my voice was in the world we live in. As a soccer player, I was a leader. Then, the pandemic comes, and the soccer world I lived in stops. I had no clue who I was without a ball at my feet, and so, I went through this identity crisis.
We were all given the gift of time during the pandemic where we had to sit and watch the realities of this world. I felt like I had witnessed social injustices, but playing soccer directed my focus elsewhere. When the demands that come with performing at a high level were taken away, I couldn’t avoid what was happening. I felt that same fire ignite within me again, the same one that led to the passion of building a school in Sierra Leone. I also felt this sense of pain. I felt confused. I felt pressure. I'm Black, and yet, I'm also African. So, what is my actual voice in the midst of all this? I want to use my voice, but I don't know how. I didn't want to just say something for the sake of saying something. I wanted to be authentic in my voice. And then, life had a way of inviting me into the conversation.
My wife and I had an awful experience in San Antonio. Lara and I are an interracial couple. Before we were married, we were walking on the side of the street, and Lara was talking to me. I just had this sixth sense. I could see the police officer driving behind us, slowing down and tailing us. Then, he just cuts us off. He doesn’t say anything to me and turns to my wife and asks, ‘Are you okay?’ In that moment, I was fully awake to what systemic racism actually is. I experienced that microaggression where I wasn’t even seen as a human being. The officer didn’t ask me anything. I felt like nothing in that moment.
It was significant for us as a couple. We felt humiliated, angry, and sad. We had the personal experience that was traumatic, and then, there were all the protests. It was difficult to see what was happening politically.
I knew I could not keep quiet, not just about the incident, but about the larger story. I talked to different friends and mentors. One of my mentors said that every generation has their moment in time to do what's right and to use their voice for change. He challenged me and said, ‘When your time comes, will you use your voice not to condemn people, but to invite people into a conversation?’ Ultimately, conversation is what creates equity, and equity is what drives change.
It took awhile, but I recognized what my moment was. One was voting. I’ve never been so inspired to vote. It was an honor to see so many friends and family go to the polls and stand their ground on things they value and stand against social injustice and social inequities. These experiences reminded me to be more than just a broadcaster.
The first home game in the history of our club, Austin FC, happened to be on Juneteenth. When I saw that, I raised my hand and said, ‘I'd like to speak on this matter.’ I wanted to honor Juneteenth so bad. I ended up writing a script on every single thing that happened between the Emancipation Proclamation and the surrender at Appomattox and poured my heart and my voice into it. Although we had a game, and we called it, one of the coolest things was hearing people within the club, hearing people within the community, hearing family members and friends say, ‘I didn't know anything about Juneteenth. That inspired me.’
That day made what I do in the booth worth it, the ability to experience these moments of humanity, through a really unique platform. I get to talk about the game that I love for 90 minutes, but also invite people into a larger conversation. For as long as I live, and for as long as I'm doing what I'm doing and beyond, it's not enough to just do work. I want to be the first to speak up on things that really matter to me, and social justice is one of them.
WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR OTHER ATHLETES LOOKING TO USE THE POWER OF THEIR VOICES TO MAKE AN IMPACT?
I think one of the scariest things is to show the world who you really are, and there are people you're going to disappoint along the way. It's going to feel like a risk, to say, ‘This is what I value. These are my passions. These are the things that move me.’
We all have this image of who we are. Some people have this grandiose image of who they are, and a lot of us are our own worst critics. As we grow and evolve, we learn that the old Christopher Robin line is true, “You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
I remember just being here in Texas, talking about something like Juneteenth in a hot political climate around the country, in this state. That was a risk. But, I had the feeling that I want to look my future children in the eye, and when they ask, ‘When this happened in this moment in history, where were you? What did you do?’ I can answer.
It's amazing to see how we surprise ourselves when we do speak up, when we pursue our passions. That's the outlet. Then, do something, continue to do something, and continue to speak up.
WHAT DOES ATHLETES’ VOICES MEAN TO YOU?
You never know who's listening or who's watching, whether the microphone or the camera are on or not. It can be the local waiter at the deli. It can be your boss. It can be the president of a club or the owner of a club. But speaking out invites people into your story, and it creates space for them to realize things that they actually value. Maybe it gives them the courage to say, ‘If he can do it, it's okay for me to speak up and stand for what I believe in.’
I found using my voice impacted me on the field, even. Being able to have the courage to go into a front office and say, ‘Hey! I'm doing this thing. Come follow me.’ I found myself being elevated into leadership positions in the locker room where now people are coming to me and saying, ‘Hey, I heard you're building a school, right?’ I was able to engage different people by talking and having conversations. With conversations, that's where you have change. That's where you have growth, whether as an individual, or as a group of friends, or as an organization, or as a human race.
All of that opened my eyes to the power of sport, the power of Athletes’ Voices. It's more than just the 90 minutes in a soccer game or the four quarters in a basketball game. It more than just being an athlete. The opportunities that present themselves are amazing when you're faithful to your voice.
