(Enlarge) Sana Mahmud (right), is team captain of a visiting soccer team from Pakistan that had a practice session in Laurel April 10.

Sana Mahmud, 19, stood on the basketball court at St. Vincent Pallotti High School, listening to the instructions of local futsal coach Mike Scarff.

She was surrounded April 10 by some of her Pakistani teammates and a few local girls who play in the Central Maryland Futsal League.

Mahmud, from Pakistan, is in the midst of her second excursion to the United States. The first was a family trip in 1998 to see relatives, some of whom live in New York.

But this month's trip, as she joined 10 of her Pakistani teammates, came after her team won the national title last year in soccer in her home country in a 14-team event.

"This was a reward, I guess," said Mahmud, in near-perfect English. "This is an attempt for us to improve our skills. In our country we don't have good coaches at the school level, so we have to play on a club."

Mahmud, the team's captain and the only player who had ever been to the United States, said it is becoming more common for girls in Pakistan to play sports such as cricket, volleyball, tennis and basketball that have been a male domain in the past.

"It is starting to get accepted," said Mahmud, who is from the capital city of Islambad and began studying English at an early age in school. "We are seeing a positive change. But we have a long way to go."

The trip to the Washington area, which began April 7 and ends April 18, is sponsored by the U.S. State Department. The team is staying at a hotel in Washington.

After practice at Pallotti, a Catholic school that was closed for Good Friday but opened its gymnasium for the cultural exchange, the Pakistani team went to a mosque in Laurel for prayer and then went bowling in Alexandria, Va.

"They didn't want to leave," Scarff said of the April 10 practice. "They were mingling with my girls, asking them questions. They had a good time."

The Pakistani team also practiced at Pallotti on April 9. Before that session they went to George Mason University in Virginia and listened to a professor speak about Title IX, which became law in this country in 1972 and guaranteed equal access to females for athletic opportunities at the high school and college level.

Futsal, with roots in South America, is similar to indoor soccer though the ball is heavier and the game is played lower to the ground. There are no walls so players can not rely on tricky, ricochet shots.

"We learn that we can improve our skills in a small area," said Bushra Jamali, 17, who also plays for the Young Rising Stars. "We don't slow down here" on the indoor surface.

The Pakistani girls wore blue sweat pants and red T-shirts during their practice session April 10 at Pallotti. Only one of the Pakistani girls wore a traditional head covering during the session run by Scarff, the former girls soccer coach at Reservoir High.

Local girls who took part in the Pallotti sessions were Laurel resident Rebecca Valchar (St. John's College High), Katie Donegan (Centennial), Anna Theisen (River Hill), Larissa Knoblett (Reservoir), Carlee Norris, an eighth-grader from Bowie, Anna Higdon (Catonsville Middle) and Gabby Vincent (Oakland Mills Middle).

Ghias Mddin Baloch, the team manager of the Rising Stars female team in Pakistan, began the soccer club in 2007. Several members of the squad are also on the national team, including Sahar Zaman, who is just 13. The Pakistani club included Mahpara Syed, the best female goalie in Pakistan. Soccer is called football in nearly every country in the world.

"Our club will be the first to start this game (of futsal) in Pakistan," said the team manager. "I will stay in touch with this (Maryland) club."

That may be challenging, even with the Internet. Some regions of Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, have been the scene of fighting involving the Taliban the past several years. Most of those hotspots among tribal factions are in the mountainous regions about 110 miles from Mahmud's home, though she added the conflict affects nearly every Pakistani in some way. The Associated Press reported April 4 a suicide bomber killed six soldiers in Islamabad.

So what is life like for Mahmud, a university student in her second semester back home?

"We are some of the fortunate people," she said, before joining her teammates for practice. "I have been able to get an education. My parents are very supportive" of her athletic pursuits.

And that included her second trip to the U.S. to study futsal. "We have learned a lot," Mahmud added. "We can see how much we have learned."

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