Refugee finds two homes

East Wake high school soccer star Mike Paye traveled thousands of miles to get here. He survived wars and endured heartbreak. Along the way, he found a new family, a new country and perhaps a chance to fulfill a slain father's dream.

"I know it is supposed to work the other way, that the coach is supposed to inspire the kids, but Mike inspires me," said East Wake soccer coach Delane Hayes. Paye is a refugee from war-torn Liberia who came here in 2003. Known as Mike or Mikie to almost everyone, McAmos Paye, 15, is a sophomore at East Wake High near Wendell and is one of the country's best young soccer players.

If he can raise about $1,100 for application fees, he will become a U.S. citizen and hopes to be invited to the U.S. national soccer training camp in Florida, where he would compete with the best players in the country and eventually, perhaps earn a spot on the U.S. national team.

Mike's family was among the millions who were displaced by civil wars in Liberia. His grandparents were granted refugee status and came to the United States in 1997, first to Minnesota and later here.

After arriving in the U.S., they immediately began working to get their daughter, Paye's mother, Otu, and the rest of the family into the country. It took six years. Before they could make the arrangements, Mike's father, Amos, a civilian, was killed during fighting, one of more than 200,000 who lost their lives during the conflicts.

Before coming to the U.S., Otu, who is now a hospice nurse in Minneapolis, fled with her four girls and two boys to Côte d'Ivoire. There, Mike played soccer. The game became a refuge, a sanctuary, for him.

"Soccer is more than a game," he said. "It is a part of who I am ... But soccer is so much more to me than just a game I play. I feel at home on the field."

Soccer is also a connection to his father, who dreamed that one day his son would play on a national team.

"Mikie is trying to make his father's dream come true," Debbie Johnson, Mike's legal guardian, said.

Immediate connection

Soccer has opened doors for him, but his friendship with teammate, friend, and now brother, Trey Johnson, has given Mike a new life. He met Trey at a soccer clinic in January 2004, a few months after entering the country.

"Mikie just sort of attached himself to Trey. They connected immediately. How do you explain something like that?" asked Debbie Johnson, Trey's mother. "They formed a bond."

Soon she was taking Mike to practices and games. He ate meals, slept over and was quickly accepted as a part of the family.

"Basically, we connected first through soccer," Trey said. "We sort of feed off each other. As we got to know each other, we developed a real caring for each other."

Keeping family together

Mike is A-mos to Trey and to him only. To Mike, Trey is T-Rex.

The two boys became so close that when Otu Paye remarried and moved to Minnesota, Mike stayed here, near his grandparents, Benedict and Anelie Wittezeen, and with Trey.

"I feel very comfortable here," Mike said. "Staying was not that big of a deal. Trey had become the big brother that I had never had. He's the best."

Debbie Johnson, is a single parent, but when Otu Paye was leaving for Minnesota it felt as though the Johnson family was being pulled apart. It seemed natural to make Mike an official member of the family. Debbie Johnson gained legal custody in August 2007.

"It is an amazing thing to watch," she said. "We brought another person into our family, and Trey had to make some sacrifices. He wasn't the only child anymore. He had to share his mother. We had to give up things. But Trey truly had a brother."

No sibling rivalry

Trey said there have been a few times when he couldn't get something he wanted but doesn't feel Mike has deprived him of anything.

"Mike is just a part of the family. I don't think we've ever fought. There have been times when I told him to just give me room, but we hardly ever argue. He is just an amazing guy."

Trey has helped Mike in many ways, tutoring him in school subjects and helping him to improve his academics and generally helping him to be a kid, Debbie Johnson said.

"Mikie had to grow up so quickly," she said. "He had so much tragedy, so much pain. But Trey taught him how to be a kid."

Paye, who stands 5-foot-6 and weighs 135 pounds, was a captain of the national under-15 team and played on the under-17 national team last year.

Officials at the United States soccer training facility in Bradenton, Fla., have expressed interest in having him come to try out.

One of the last hurdles between him and an invitation to the national camp, becoming a United States citizen, is in the process of being rectified.

The processing fee for the two forms is $1,135. But Mike has sent a letter to friends, relatives and the North Carolina soccer community asking for help.

"People just want to help Mike," said Janice Drimer, the team manager of the TUSA team. "Debbie took him in. She is a wonderful person, and Mike has touched all of us."

A life of changes

Regardless of whether Mike gets an offer to join many of the nation's best young players in Florida, there are more changes ahead in a life that has been filled with adjustments.

Trey is an East Wake senior and will be going to UNC-Greensboro next fall on a soccer scholarship.

The two boys, who have become inseparable, are going to have to adapt to living apart.

"I don't know how we'll handle that. But I know we will," said Debbie Johnson.

Mike simply plays as hard as he can. "That's the only way to play the game," he said.

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