Muslim students embrace challenges of fasting during school and sports

Every morning during Ramadan, high school soccer player Zara Hasan wakes up around 4:30 a.m. for a quick bowl of oatmeal and quite a few glugs of water for suhoor.

The predawn meal marks the beginning of the day’s fast when Muslims observing the Islamic holy month abstain from eating or drinking from dawn until sunset.

For Hasan, captain of the junior varsity girls’ soccer team at Naperville North High School, the breakfast gets her through the day and into after-school practice.

“I don’t really think about fasting when I’m playing that much,” she said. “But when there’s a water break or something, I usually just rinse my mouth with water and spit it out just to freshen up a bit.”

Since the soccer season started while Ramadan was already underway, Hasan deliberately didn’t tell her teammates she