This NC high school newspaper had a student covering the World Cup ... from Qatar

When Riverside High School student Toby Rangel found out his family had secured tickets to the World Cup, he could have sat back and just enjoyed the trip.

“As a really big soccer fan, there is no bigger thing to go to and watch a person. It is just the biggest event that you could possibly go to,” he said

Toby, a 15-year-old sophomore, chose instead to get a little work experience during the trip by covering the Cup for the school newspaper.

For three decades, students have operated Riverside High School’s award-winning, now bilingual newspaper The Pirates’ Hook, producing six print editions a year and a near-constant stream of digital content.

“We have a huge soccer fan base at Riverside. And I think that makes it especially cool that he got to be there and he got to share photos and videos that other news outlets just aren’t,” said Bryan Christopher, the English teacher who advises the students.

Toby wrote about winning the ticket lottery and securing a mandatory ID called a Hayya Card, then filed on-location dispatches from Doha during the first week of games.

“We talked a lot at the beginning of the year, when I first learned that he was going to go, about how we could help Riverside students understand what it’s like and how it feels to be there, but also to get there, because there were so many protocols and procedures, and that side of it in and of itself, was wild,” Christopher said.

Brazil’s World Cup chances

Toby, who has both American and Brazilian citizenship, was especially excited to witness Brazil’s 2-0 triumph over Serbia.

“The first half was quite slow. Both teams were just sitting at defense, just kind of waiting for something to happen. It was pretty closely contested,” he recounted. “But then the second half, Brazil came out a lot stronger. We came out attacking a lot more.”

Brazil, the winningest country in men’s World Cup history, was last crowned champion in 2002, before Toby was born. He said he likes their odds this year.

“I think this is the highest chance in a very, very long time. And as long as we play our game, just like, don’t panic, I think we’ll be okay.”

Brazil next plays Cameroon at 2 p.m. Friday.

The U.S. team has its next match against the Netherlands at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Reflections on Qatar

Toby’s family stayed with friends, who helped him learn to pronounce the country’s name the Arabic way — more “cuh-tar” than “ka-TAR.”

He said Doha was like most cities, “a lot of skyscrapers, a lot of cars, you know, just the normal stuff,” though there were some notable differences in the architecture, food and people shaped by Islam being the dominant religion.

Two days before the World Cup began, Qatar banned beer sales inside the stadiums, though alcoholic beverages are sold at the FIFA Fan Festival.

“That helped to create a different atmosphere than the rest of Qatar and it just felt like a whole new place,” Toby said. “It was huge, and there was so much to do. There’s a bunch of different little shops and there was an entire museum in it, and a bunch of different places to watch the game.”

Toby said security and police were ever present in the wealthy Middle Eastern nation.

“I felt super, super safe,” he said, even when they were walking home after midnight. “And from our friends who live there, they told us it’s always like this. It’s very hard for anything unsafe to happen because they have cameras everywhere always watching over.”

The trip wasn’t all work, however. Toby spent time in the desert, rode his first camel, visited museums and soaked in the culture.

“I also saw a lot of people complaining about like, ‘This place is so different. I don’t like it. They don’t have alcohol. They don’t have this. They don’t have that.’ When you’re going to a different place, go there to learn about the place itself. Not just to try to do your normal stuff in a different place,” he reflected upon returning home.

Toby, who’s back in class this week, took his first journalism class last year. While he’s enrolled in Riverside’s engineering program, he’s still considering a reporting career.

“I enjoy reading the news, and I enjoy knowing what’s happening,” he said. “And I love soccer. So that’s something that I could very easily enjoy writing about.”