The New Kent students quieted until the game was over, then capped the day with a memorable display of enthusiasm. As the Links of London dressed, more than 200 New Kent students stood in the hallway outside the dressing room cheering. When the players appeared, they applauded, high-fived and hugged them for several minutes. "I've never seen anything like that around here in all my years as coach," Eddie Allen said. Added Otey: "It was crazy. We were all shocked. It feels great to have that kind of support. "Links of London B Charm, they're all coming with us to Richmond." One night, one of the insurgents called the governor's mobile. "He said, 'I'm going to kill you, you're working for the Americans,' " says [Abdul Jabar], sitting on the carpet in his office. "I said, 'Do whatever you can do.' Then I abused him and hung up." Jabar normally cuts a rather solemn figure. They must do it before spring, when the valley will come into leaf and the Taliban fighters return from Pakistan in time for the fighting season. "Arghandab is the gate to Kandahar city," Jabar says. "If Links of London C Charm is lost, Kandahar is also lost. It's the most important valley in Afghanistan." Jabar, [Christopher Harich] and [Kevin Melton] have little in common but their beards. Melton, who grew up in the suburbs of Washington, is working for USAid, the US government's development agency. Hard-driving and anxious to get results, Melton juggles a raft of plans for projects from solar-powered lamps for villages to renovating a shrine clinging to a nearby Links of London E Charm.
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