FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — To see South Florida families come out to brave the hellish Florida sun to watch mostly aging men play football, seems ridiculous looking on from afar.

But a closer, deeper look reveals something more.

The annual Jamaica High School Alumni Sports Network’s (JHSASN) sporting festival staged at the Lauderhill Sports Complex, is an event that brings the Jamaica diaspora together over two days during the American Labour Day.

In its six years, amazing stories have been told of how old school friends have been reunited following many years of separation.

And a recent testimony of the power and purpose of this diaspora reunion party through sport, occurred when Irie FM sport journalist Nicholas Evans reconnected with a boyhood schoolmate and friend, Marco Brown, he had not seen since 1985.

“It was a good feeling seeing him after all these years. After we took the Grade Achievement Test at Somerton All-Age School in St James, we got separated as he went to a school in Kingston.

“I have always asked about him, but couldn’t locate him, as he was a ‘sparring partner’. So to come here and meet is just amazing and that speaks to the power of the JHSASN football extravaganza here,” said, Evans, who covers the event for Irie FM.

He said he and Brown talked about their boyhood days and both vowed to rekindle their friendship.

Every year at this time, mainly alumni of Jamaica’s high schools converge on South Florida for the football and netball tournaments, but for some, it’s a place where Jamaicans missing home meet to reminisce of the proverbial ‘good old days’.

President of JHSASN, Lavern Deer, is delighted as she has a front seat watching her vision taking shape.

“The re-union part is very big in all this, because that’s where the idea came from. I recall that a mainstream newspaper did a story on us, and the headline read ‘The reunion of a country’, and that was so appropriate.

“People have been able to reunite with people they have not seen in 30 years, so this is a wonderful feeling for people who come here and they are able to walk away with those stories and the memories,” she said on yesterday’s final day of the sporting fiesta.

Everybody comes to the event each year for different reasons, but they all find common ground as Jamaicans.

“The players are also motivated to know they can come here and play football, link up with old schoolmates, and to possibly win money that they can give to their alma mater back in Jamaica. The cash prize for the winner is only US$2,000, but they know when that goes back to a school in Jamaica, it can do so much more for the sport programme for that school,” Deer explained.

With the product still a work in progress, Deer has a clear vision where she wants to see the event go.

“My vision is to see more schools participating, and I don’t mean just the players in the USA, but I would like to see more players travelling from Jamaica, younger alumni players participating in this tournament,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

She is confident that her vision will be realized as people are being made more aware of the event, and this year’s turnout speaks volumes to its growth.

“People are starting to gravitate to it, and one of the things that I have worked on over the years, is to get people to see the value of this event. What is good is that the media is catching onto the value of the tournament, then the people themselves will see what’s happening.

“Our social media are blowing up with the kind of stories that are being posted there, so it’s showing that people are starting to gravitate to it, and this is the first that this has ever happened. Before only the National Weekly (Florida newspaper) that promoted it, but now with international media showing an interest in it, the people here are seeing more the value of it and they are now catching on,” she added.

As another demonstration of the growing significance of the event, people have supported it even through ugly weather which is common in the Sunshine State at this time of the year.

In the past, rain and thunderstorms have affected play on the field, but have never dampened spirits.

This year, the weather has been more co-operative.

“Although it’s hot, it’s better than rain as in the past it has always rained as this is the time of year for hurricanes, but this year we barely had hurricanes to this point and little rain.

“Yesterday (Sunday) it was the first we had so many people coming out, so that’s saying to me that gradually we are growing and I can only expect now that next year will be better,” said Deer, who also heads the Florida-based Jamaica International Female Football Development (JIFFD), a non-profit organisation committed to assisting Jamaica’s women’s football programme.

Meanwhile, at press time yesterday, Dinthill High and Mannings High were due to meet in one semi-final, while Cornwall College and Kingston College were down to do battle in the other of the marquee football competition.