On April 15, Preusscelona skipped lunch and eagerly rushed to the right half of the Manchester Field, preparing themselves for their first match against Rat FC, after they riled them up with a bashful instagram post. Once in their positions, the highly anticipated game began.
Preusscelona and Rat FC are the names of two teams within the “Halal League,” a play on professional soccer clubs that Daniel Yiv (‘26) and Maiwand Salehi (‘26) created after the light hearted lunch games got more competitive. As the word got out about the Halal League, students grades 9th-12th rounded up their own players and created a variety of different teams called Crumbl Cookie FC, ACL Academy, Preusscelona, Top Notch FC, Habesha United, Durrs FC, Red Rockets, Beans FC, and Rat FC, who was later removed from the league as a result of a bribing scandal. All the teams that have been established are a part of the “Halal League”.
What prompted Maiwand Salehi (‘26) to create the Halal League was the fact that the seniors Jesus Almazan, Sebastian Figueroa, Azzin Moreno, Diego Preciado, Josue Saquic, Angel Lugo, and Eliseo, aka Crumbl Cookie FC, had already established themselves as a team. Knowing this, Maiwant wanted to make his own team and play against them for fun. With the help of Daniel Yiv (‘26), they came up with the name of Halal League.
“At that time, it was Ramadan, so Daniel thought about calling it the Halal League …since then, we’ve just went with it,” explained Salehi (‘25).
The first week of games started with Rat FC versus Preusscelona on Monday, April 15. The game went on for the entire high school lunch and it ended in Rat FC gaining their first win. On Tuesday, Crumbl Cookie FC and ACL Academy played against each other, ending with a score of 2-1 marking Crumbl Cookie FC as the winner. On Wednesday, April 17, Preusscelona and Rat FC played, but the match ended in a draw, leaving both teams with a score of 0. On Thursday, the tables turned for ACL Academy after winning against Crumbl Cookie FC with a score of 2-0 and the title of man of the match was given to Lander Santana (‘25).
At first, Yiv and Salehi were the main ones behind this but now there are many people helping to carry out these matches. As of this writing, Yiv, Salehi, Yusuf Adan (‘26), Philimon Michael (‘26), and Ruach Lual (‘26), are on schedule duty. In terms of social media and content creation, Vianeth Montano (‘25) and Karla Gavino (‘25) have been recording the matches, capturing live interviews, and posting news updates on the Halal League’s instagram page.
Although this league was founded pretty late into the year, the boys would like to keep it going until the end of it.
“We plan on playing for the rest of the year. Each team will get to play one match per week, since we have so many teams,” stated Salehi (‘25).
It is safe to say that the Halal League has brought our Preuss community even closer. The teams are all made up of many diverse groups of people, making everyone feel welcome. The matches attract a lot of attention and serve as something to look forward to during students’ lunch time. The games have gained so much popularity that our very own principal, Dr. Steitz, has been involved in overseeing the matches.
“The crowd we get makes the game better. We get to hear the crowd’s reaction to a goal or an event that happens throughout the game,” expressed Santana (‘25), a member of the ACL Academy.
The players hope that people keep coming out to support them until the very end of the year. These league games have contributed nicely to our school’s spirit and are proof of how great things happen when students come together.
