Ties That Bind : Soccer Club Is Catalyst for Girls Playing for Laguna Hills and Mission Viejo

As the Mission Viejo High School girls’ soccer team played a semifinal match in the Ocean View Tournament in December, Heather McIntyre sat on the Diablo bench, with Joanna Noble and Xanne Brakke near her.

Two things were amiss.

These players do not often sit the bench.

And they do not play for Mission Viejo.

McIntyre, Noble and Brakke play for undefeated Laguna Hills (19-0-4), which is the top-seeded team in the 3-A division playoffs. Mission Viejo (23-0-1) is seeded No. 1 in the 4-A.

Anytime only one of these teams is playing, you are likely to find members of the other watching or even sitting on the bench without giving it a second thought. For most of the year, many of these players are teammates on either of two Mission Viejo Soccer Club teams--the 16-and-under Soccerettes and the under-19 Goalstrikers.

“We’re all friends on both of the teams,” said Noble, who has played for the Goalstrikers for five years.

Laguna Hills teammates Lynn Lambert, Erin McGinnis and Lindsey Rhebeck also play for the Goalstrikers, as do Diablos Jennifer Gattis, Erin Dunteman and Stacey Hopper.

In all, eight starters on each team play for either the Soccerettes or the Goalstrikers in the off-season.

Mission Viejo players Julie Foudy, Sheri Bertell, Rae Hubocan, Kerri Kennedy and Tammy Van Opdorp are Soccerettes, as are Laguna Hills players McIntyre, Brakke, Jenny Cowper, and Shelley Walker.

A new Southern Section rule that went into effect Dec. 1 prohibits schools from having more than five players on their rosters who played together on outside teams. Neither school goes over the limit, but two Mission Viejo players had to quit the Soccerettes to keep from violating the rule.

The club players are the leaders of the school teams.

Mission Viejo’s Foudy, who was named first-team All-Southern Section last season as a freshman, has 22 goals and 18 assists. Hopper, also a Diablo, has scored 14 goals.

McGinnis leads Laguna Hills with 15 goals and 19 assists, and teammate Noble has scored 13 goals. Lambert, the Laguna Hills goalkeeper, has been scored on only twice this season, as the Hawks set a Southern Section record with 21 shutouts. Cowper, who plays sweeper, and Brakke, who plays stopper, have played a big part in the defense’s success, as has McIntyre, who played sweeper for part of the season.

As for the ties of these club teammates, consider this: Last season, when Laguna Hills was still in the South Coast League, the Hawks played El Toro in a game that would decide the league championship. If the Hawks won (which they did), they were league champions. If they lost, Mission Viejo would be league champion.

Some of the Diablo players did the predictable: They stood behind the El Toro bench and cheered for a Laguna Hills loss. But others stood behind Laguna Hills, pulling for their club teammates to win the title ahead of themselves.

With such talent, the Soccerettes and Goalstrikers have had their share of success.

The Soccerettes won a 16-and-under national club championship in 1985, and the Goalstrikers last season won the league cup, a regional tournament involving teams from three divisions.

For the most part, the club teams have been together since the players, mostly high school juniors today, were 9 or 10 years old.

Jim Hutchinson, who coached the Soccerettes for several years before John McIntyre (Heather’s father) took over, started the club largely from a youth team he had coached.

“Mr. Hutchinson had us all in (American Youth Soccer Organization), and he thought the team was so good that he’d make it into a club,” said Bertell, a Diablo fullback.

The Goalstrikers had a similar origin.

Nick Xiros, who coached the team until last season, held tryouts from AYSO all-star teams.

Then, rather than replace personnel as players grew out of age groups, the teams stayed intact, moving as a whole into older age groups.

But the Goalstrikers probably have played their last season together because many of the players will graduate from high school or have turned 19.

Not to worry. Xiros said he is holding tryouts among 10-year-olds for a new team to be called the Goalstrikers.

“We take the best kids to start out with,” Xiros said. “We put them through extensive skills testing and physical ability tests to look for good speed and good quickness. When they get to high school age, they have become very, very proficient. They’re better than kids who have just tried out.

“That’s a lot of the reason for the success of the two programs.”

Noble, a forward for the Goalstrikers and the Hawks, said playing year-round with two-time teammate McGinnis gives them an advantage.

“We know what each of us is going to do,” Noble said. “It helps for me and Erin at forward.”

Hiram DeFries, Mission Viejo coach, and Kerry Krause, Laguna Hills coach, realize part of their success is because of the clubs.

“The club soccer is very competitive soccer,” DeFries said. “It’s a big reason why (high school) teams in this area have been successful.”

Said Krause: “The soccer (recreation) program never started with the idea of high school soccer. We’re fortunate to end up having a bunch of good athletes on our team.

“It would be great to have two champions in this area.”