Boston – No stranger to deprivation, Omar Abdi was 6 years old when his teacher in Somalia punished him for playing soccer by locking him in a dark room overnight, chained by his ankles. Ahmed Ali also knows a little about suffering. After his family fled Somalia, he spent 14 years in a Kenyan refugee camp, where his mother died of malaria. As grateful as both are for their free educations at Charlestown High School, they have been in America long enough – Abdi for four years, Ali three –

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Gifted athletes make most of their chances