(Amanda grunts and laughs) (Edreece laughs) (jazzy upbeat music) - Hi, I am Amanda Woolery, and today we're at the Oakland Roots and Soul training facility.

Inspired by the film "Home Court", we ask sports leaders to tell us their stories while they put us through increasingly difficult challenges.

In the film "Home Court", Ashley Chea is a leader for her team.

Today we're gonna meet Edreece Arghandiwal, who is the co-founder of Oakland's very own soccer team.

Tell me a little bit about how you got into soccer.

- My family came from Afghanistan.

They were refugees.

First place they landed was Oakland, California.

- [Amanda] Wow!

- I was born here, raised in the Bay Area my whole life and football was in my family's blood.

And so that question of, why not professional soccer in Oakland, led to the creation of this club.

The beautiful thing about this game is that it's the most played game in the world.

I'm excited to kick some exercises off today with you.

(jaunty music) (sneaker thumps) - Oh!

- Almost, almost, almost.

- Almost - Let's give it another try.

- Oh!

- (laughs) Your plant foot usually points in the direction that you're going and you just easily allow your lead foot to guide the ball into the goal.

- Nice.

- Let's see if that helps.

- Let's see.

(sneaker thumps) - Oh!

(hands clap) Amazing.

- I did wanna talk about Oakland Roots and Oakland Soul.

I know that there's a lot of pressure leading these two teams.

How do you deal with all of that pressure?

- I love that you use the word pressure and not stress.

'cause I'm a firm believer that pressure makes diamonds.

And so to be a co-founder of this club is a tremendous pride point.

Oakland has led the way culturally with social activism, music, art, and we got another amazing movement in this club that's started, and I take that to heart.

(upbeat funky music) Have you ever played soccer volleyball?

- No, and I am very confused about how this is all gonna work.

- (laughs) So it's essentially exactly what it is.

It's volleyball meets soccer, but you can't use your hands.

(sneaker thumps) - Oh!

- Oh my!

- [Amanda] Sorry.

(laughs) (Edreece laughs) (upbeat funky music) - Oh, let's go!

Oh my goodness!

Ah, that's a point for you.

That's the point for you.

Ah.

- Oh!

Nice.

(hands slap) So Edreece tell me how your background and identity have shaped your leadership style.

- My philosophy is that everyone is actually a genius.

And it really stems from having this like radical empathy for people, for humanity, for things.

And that's predominantly because of how my parents raised me.

The generosity, the kindness.

That's Afghan culture.

And it has led me to be the leader I am today.

You asked me the hard question and now I'm gonna give you a hard drill.

(upbeat funky music) There we go.

- Ooh!

Oh.

- Yes, oh my.

Get that.

Boom.

One more.

Let's go!

- [Amanda] Oh my!

- Oh yeah, we're going.

We're going here.

Let's go.

Alright.

Amanda.

Great job.

- Thank you.

- Showed incredible skill there.

We got two more outside though.

- Two more challenges?

- Yeah.

- All right, I'm ready.

- Gotta keep pushing.

- Let's do it.

(hands clap) - Let's do it.

- So Edreece, you used to play for the Afghanistan National Team.

What did you learn as a player that helps you to guide and lead your team now?

- There's so many parallels between sport and business.

Soccer's so much of a team dynamic.

You need to rely on one another.

You need to trust one another.

There's a lot of homework and studying that goes into the tactics.

And a lot of that, honestly has carried over very organically to my day to day.

(dramatic music) (upbeat funky music) (Amanda gasps) - Oh!

(Edreece gasps) Oh!

- Oh, almost, almost!

(both laughing) - [Amanda] Woo!

- I mean, they're incredibly straight, though!

There you go.

Dang, there we go!

- I have one more question for you.

- Of course.

- So as you move through the world, who do you bring with you?

- There's a reason why our tagline for the club is "Know your Roots".

It's on the banners as we train.

It's everywhere.

Knowing where you come from helps you know where you're going.

And for me, carrying the stories of our ancestors, the sacrifices of our parents, I take that everywhere I go.

It's humbling, it's grounding, and it helps you keep your roots, no pun.

- Oh, that's beautiful.

(upbeat funky music) - The goal is that we gotta hit that top crossbar (both laugh) with the soccer ball.

(dramatic music) Oh!

- Oh!

I got it!

- First try?

(Amanda laughs) This was supposed to be the hardest one.

- Put me on the team!

Put me on the team!

- Sign Amanda!

- Thanks for watching.

If you wanna see more about a rising basketball star and her hoop dreams, check out "Home Court" on the PBS app.

(upbeat music)