Sport makes everything else irrelevant

Maximilian Schuler

Whether rugby, ju-jutsu, fishing, boxing or frisbee: with its 28 departments and sports groups and almost 2,000 members, the Universitätssportgemeinschaft Chemnitz e.V. is the largest sports club in Chemnitz. Maximilian Schuler has been running the multi-faceted sports club for two and a half years and a few days ago accepted the 15,000 euro prize for the "Get in Touch" project. In this interview, he explains what the project is all about and why he even received support from India.

How did the idea for the "Get in Touch" project come about?
Maximilian Schuler: To be honest, the whole thing was pretty much knitted with a hot needle. In November 2018, a colleague who is the father of a rugby player called me and told me about the "Chemnitz is neither grey nor brown" initiative. We then thought about it: After all, we have all kinds of departments with people from a wide variety of nations and backgrounds. That could be a good fit.
As we were in the process of setting up courses in sports such as frisbee, cricket and rugby at schools at the time, we thought that taking part in the competition would be good for publicising the sports. So we finalised the idea and finally took part in the tender. One of the reasons why it worked out so well is that our sports are supported by many international people. So we almost automatically stand for tolerance.

The "Chemnitz is neither grey nor brown" initiative is committed to promoting democracy in the city. A pot of money was collected from various campaigns, which was distributed among several tolerance-promoting projects through a competition. The initiative's stakeholders made a shortlist and one of the winners was chosen in an online vote via Facebook. In addition to USG Chemnitz e. V., the initiatives Berufliche Integration and the Begehungen association received 15,000 euros. Nine other committed groups received awards worth 1,000 euros.

How did you experience the competition?
To be honest, I didn't follow the whole thing very actively after we submitted the application. After the turn of the year, we received the news that we had made it through to the next round. We were already totally surprised and happy about the bonus for making it to the next round.
As the online voting was for the most votes, we joined forces and tried to mobilise all departments, the parents of the athletes, friends and acquaintances. Our cricket department head Deep Prakash even got his family in India to vote for us. In the end, we won the audience award. That makes us very proud.

What is your aim with the project?
Of course, it's great that we got the money, but our primary aim is for pupils to break down invisible barriers through sport. For example, when a few of our dark-skinned athletes stand in front of a class and then introduce a sport that none of the pupils know, it has a very different effect at first, but hopefully also an interesting one. At some point, the children realise that these are just normal guys and it's even fun what they've shown us. Ideally, at a certain point, the children don't even think about it any more, but simply enjoy the new sport. It's very important to us to bring tolerance into the centre of society in this way.
Ultimately, it's also about sending a different image of Chemnitz out into the world. It was important to us to be involved in ensuring that Chemnitz is perceived differently to the way the media portrayed it at the end of August last year. We want to stand up for solidarity and tolerance and positively influence the cityscape.

Which schools are involved in the project?
So far, we have organised sports courses for rugby, cricket and frisbee in four schools. These include Schönau Primary School, Rosa-Luxemburg Primary School, Kepler Grammar School and Montessori School.

The prize is worth 15,000 euros. What ideas do you have for the money?
Firstly, of course, we want to push ahead with the "Get in Touch" project and buy additional equipment for the school courses, for example complete sets for cricket or disembodied rugby. The prize money will also allow us to reward the trainers' efforts with a small contribution. Secondly, we want to provide cricket and rugby with an adequate pitch of their own. The cricketers in particular currently have to travel all the way to Potsdam for home matches in order to be able to play there under Bundesliga conditions. The cricket team currently uses a temporary pitch for training. We can therefore also use the profit to help finance the expansion of the pitch. We are in contact with the sports authority to reorganise a pitch so that the sport finally has an adequate home here. This brings us full circle to the initiative. We have christened our efforts to create a presentable and league-compliant pitch for cricket and rugby as the next step "Stay in touch". If we can get enough pupils interested in the sport with this project, they will actually be able to play on a pitch here in our city. The pitch and the improved training conditions should keep up the interest that our school projects generate.

How are niche sports such as frisbee, cricket or rugby generally received?
Most pupils and teachers haven't heard much about them. But these three sports are predestined to communicate other cultures, precisely because they are the number one sport in other countries, just like football is here in Germany. In addition, these sports have committed themselves to values such as tolerance and integrity in their world associations. That makes it all the easier for us, and the players live by them. In sport, it doesn't matter what someone looks like or where they come from. People stick together and that's that. If this is exemplified, it becomes a matter of course.

Young people are often fascinated by sports that they associate with idols from the media. What is the situation with sports like cricket?
Cricket is a very complex and fascinating sport, in which our team has already achieved great success, but unfortunately nobody recognises it because there are no celebrities playing or television broadcasts. Reaching a wider audience for the sport is very important in order to be able to do more youth work.

The rugby team finished the last season in second place and had only been promoted the year before. The women's frisbee team recently started playing in the second division. In cricket, we are in our third year in the first national league. Hardly anyone in Chemnitz knows that. But it's a great sport that is played there.

In what way does sport communicate other cultures?
Cricket, for example, is the number one national sport in India and Pakistan, rugby in Oceania, Ireland and Scotland. So it's part of life there, it's their sporting culture. And when an Indian, Brazilian or Georgian player teaches his sport to children at German schools, it is also a valuable personal exchange and helps people to get to know each other.

What does sport achieve in terms of integration that school or family cannot?
When you're doing sport, you concentrate on what you're doing. It's not about who's standing next to you, who you're playing against, what they look like, where they come from or what they've said. Team sport in particular is about a common goal, you pull together and everything else doesn't matter at that moment. In sport, the boundaries that otherwise exist in everyday life dissolve. The university makes a real effort to integrate people, but what happens there is more cognitive. Sport is often done more from the gut, intuitively. After a game, you high-five each other and automatically socialise with people you would otherwise never get to know outside your social groups. My dream is for the projects to work in such a way that an Alex, an Oleg, a Christian and a Youssef do sport together and it doesn't matter where they come from or what they look like. Sport makes everything else irrelevant.

Chemnitz is applying to be European Capital of Culture 2025. What do you hope for the city and your club until then?
For the city, I hope that the peaceful atmosphere and cohesion that prevailed at the We Are More concert can be felt more often. Resistance to and fear of change must be overcome. It's a horror that my siblings who don't live in Chemnitz ask me what's going on here. The image of Chemnitz has to change. I hope that the city will have a better image by 2025. The values that are lived in Chemnitz and the quality of life deserve more attention.
I would like to see a clubhouse for the association. It would be ideal if we had our own headquarters, which would also serve as a meeting place for all sports and generations in the club.