COMMENTARY : Ass’ad Takes Dedication to New Reaches

Somebody is going to have to put a “Beware of Coach” sign on the front gate of North Campus Stadium.

It’s not just opposing teams who are being intimidated.

More than one workman has marched onto the field, only to find a pair of dark eyes glaring at him over a nearby fence.

You see, they have not only invaded Cal State Northridge soccer Coach Marwan Ass’ad’s turf, but his backyard as well.

Talk about dedication. George Allen could learn something from Ass’ad. During the week, the CSUN coach lives under a tree at the stadium, operating out of a camper trailer.

Make that his stadium. People don’t care for their front lawns the way Ass’ad does for his field. When he discovered it was two yards short of the proper dimensions, he cajoled local contractors into donating their time to widen it. The work would have normally cost about $40,000.

“The guy lives, breathes and eats soccer,” says John Tronson, his star forward. “He has us practicing three and one-half to four hours a day. He wants to practice on Saturdays. Much as we love it, people want to get out and do other things, but he just keeps on coming. We say, ‘Give it a break.’ Not him.

“It’s good for us. It motivates us. We don’t have trouble getting up for a practice. He is always so ready, with fire in his eyes.”

It’s with that fire that Ass’ad has taken the sparks of interest in soccer that have flickered throughout the Valley and is turning them into an inferno that continues to grow.

How?

Well for one thing, the 31-year-old coach inherited an 8-13 team in April of 1983 and turned it into a winner (12-4-5) his first year. The Matadors improved on that last season, finishing 18-3-2, including a 9-1-2 conference record to win their first California Collegiate Athletic Assn. soccer title. The NCAA Division II squad won five of six games played against Division I schools.

This year, the Matadors are 9-1 and are fifth in the nation among Division II schools, first in the Far West Region. CSUN’s only loss came at the feet of Nevada Las Vegas, ranked sixth in Division I.

The response has been phenomenal. The Matadors drew approximately 2,300 last year for a game against Cal State Los Angeles. They attracted between 2,500 and 3,000 for a scrimmage with UCLA this season. They have been averaging more than 1,500.

So much for those who laugh at American soccer crowds in particular, and Cal State Northridge crowds in general.

Sure, Northridge is a commuter school where nobody stays around for extracurricular activities.

Sure, there are so many things going on in this area that it’s tough to draw people for local sporting events. Sure, UCLA and USC offer tough competition for the college spectator dollar.

But isn’t it amazing how a winner can cut right through all those excuses and still produce the crowds?

There’s another factor also at work here, however, one a lot more complicated than simply wins and losses.

Ass’ad is an Israeli Arab who was born and raised in Nazareth. He kicked his first soccer ball at the age of 3. By the time he was 12, he had joined the town team.

“You talk about pressure,” he says, “that’s pressure. I was too young to know the difference, but when you play on one of those town teams, especially when you go on the road, the crowds can be tough. That’s the way it’s done in other countries. Make a town team and the people in the community will take pride in it.”

So why, Ass’ad asked himself, shouldn’t the same theory work here?

He put it to the test, basically limiting his recruiting to the San Fernando and its neighboring valleys. The result is a 21-man roster containing 20 local kids.

“People know these kids,” Ass’ad says. “They often coached them at lower levels, so they come out to watch them.”

When Ass’ad first came to California after attending Mitchell Junior College and Adelphi University in the east, he lived in San Pedro. He and his wife, Lynn, still own a home in Long Beach, and his wife has a job there she couldn’t afford to quit. But the commute to the Valley got to be too much for Ass’ad. So, he bought the camper and has to settle for seeing his wife on weekends.

“The only thing I knew about this area when I first came out,” he says, “was that it was hot and it had Valley girls.”

But he soon learned that the area contained something else--soccer talent. Thanks to people like Tronson and fellow forward Mike McAndrew, Ass’ad hooked into The Winnetka Connection. This is a group of kids who all grew up around Winnetka Park, who all played American Youth Soccer Organization ball there, who all moved along together into club soccer and who have now spread out into the colleges. Seven players from Winnetka form the nucleus of Ass’ad’s club.

“The talent was here,” Ass’ad maintains. “I didn’t make something out of nothing. Taking the program to where it is now was as easy as finding oil in Saudi Arabia. It’s not like finding oil in the North Sea.

“We play Valley boys and that is starting to create Valley pride. We even have shirts that say ‘Valley Pride.’ People love it. They are sick and tired of those who put down the Valley. They are sick and tired of being known as the place with that funny accent.”

Ass’ad is determined to keep the pipeline open. He conducted a soccer camp last summer at Northridge and often puts on free coaching clinics.

“They say that if you want to educate a child, you have to start 20 years before he is born,” Ass’ad says. “In other words, you have to educate the parents. I believe if I can get one youth coach to learn, then 15 others--his kids--will learn.

“If soccer does not develop in this country, it’s not the players’ fault. It’s the coaches. AYSO is the mother of the whole soccer revolution in this country. But it’s not the AYSO organizers or supervisors who can affect things. The only thing that is holding back soccer now is the level of coaching. If we give a soccer clinic, 200-300 should show up. I wish that coaches would come out and watch us play. That more don’t is a great disappointment to me. They don’t know how good it would be for them. But you can’t twist arms.”

Knowing Ass’ad, that may be the next step.