Being Soccer Hero Comes Natural to Haro : Father Set the Pattern for San Pedro Dazzler

Raul Haro is a natural. His soccer statistics support the statement--last year, as a junior at San Pedro High School, Haro set a City Section record with 36 goals in a season.

And like baseball slugger Roy Hobbs in Bernard Malamud’s novel “The Natural,” Haro’s talent springs from a family background. San Pedro’s dazzling center forward would like his soccer shoes to follow in the footsteps of his father, Raul Haro Sr.

The elder Haro was a barnstorming goal scorer for Mexico’s professional Guadalajara club in the mid-1950s. Later, after emigrating to the United States, he helped lead the San Pedro Canvasbaks to the Harbor Metropolitan Semi-Pro League title in 1957.

One man who has seen both father and son in action is Tony Morejon, president of the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League. Morejon managed the Canvasbaks during the senior Haro’s heyday.

“This young boy has taken after his father,” Morejon said. “His father was the finisher--the guy who got all the goals. He was always sort of a Johnny-on-the-Spot player and seemed to get the goals where you didn’t expect it.

“And the boy is following in his father’s footsteps.”

Neither father nor son seem to mind the comparison. Raul Haro Jr. scored 31 goals in his sophomore year and 36 in his banner junior year. So far this year, Haro has put 32 balls into the net and is threatening his own scoring mark.

And last week, San Pedro (11-2) secured a Jan. 7 date with Jordan in the first round of the playoffs with a 10-1 thrashing of Narbonne. Haro scored five goals, then flattened Locke with a salvo of four goals two days later.

The man most blessed by Haro’s raw ability is San Pedro Coach Hank Nozaki, who saw his center forward lead the Pirates to a perfect 17-0 record and last year’s city championship.

“Raul has given me so many memories in three years,” Nozaki said. “There have been so many goals (99), it’s difficult to pinpoint individual ones. I haven’t seen him play a bad game yet.”

Nozaki credits Haro’s success to his ability to improvise, building on a broad repertoire of shots.

“He can shoot from up close or deep--at any angle,” Nozaki said. “And he has all kinds of soccer kicks--hard and straight, floaters soft into the side of the net, or he can windmill it in.”

“On corner kicks, he gets it in with his foot or his head. He has tremendous anticipation for the ball.”

Haro has drawn from that arsenal of kicks for some remarkable goal-scoring barrages, and has heaped up statistics that make opposing coaches cringe. He’s already scored four goals in a game twice against Banning this season.

And in last year’s city playoffs, Haro had two goals apiece in comeback victories over Jefferson and Chatsworth. He was shut down in the final game against Belmont, Morejon recalled, because defenders were “pulling on his jersey and pulling on his shorts.”

“Teams have to double- and triple-team him to stop him from scoring,” Nozaki said. “And when that happens, it creates scoring opportunities for other players.”

San Pedro won the title game, 1-0, but Belmont set a precedent for teams trying to defend against Haro. Nozaki said his center forward is finding it harder to score this year because of the added defensive pressure.

“This year, there’s two or three guys on Raul all the time,” he said. “That tends to make him more of a playmaker now. But he’s very unselfish that way.”

That means that midfielders Tony Lobro and Henning Mortenson (a Norwegian) are doing more scoring for San Pedro. But they’re still scooting a lot of passes through the traffic toward Haro, who’s had to reach deeper into his bag of tricks this year.

“It depends on the defense, the situation and the game,” the younger Haro said. “Of course, if I get in one-on-one with the goalie, I’m going to go for it.”

In that respect, the younger Haro is very much like his father, Morejon said.

“He (Raul Jr.) is small, but he finds his way around to get the ball,” Morejon said. “He’s kind of a sneaky guy like his father was--always hustling, always looking for the opportunity to score. And like his father, he puts the ball in the back of the net.”

But Morejon said the younger Haro has had to develop a different style of soccer than the one his father played.

“The father came from Mexico, and the son was born here. The boy has played with the American kids and the Yugoslavian kids. But the father only knew one way--the Mexican style.”

The senior Haro played the Latin American-style short-passing game, in which one player dominates the ball for long spurts of acrobatic dribbling. Morejon said the short-passing game was originated by the Argentines for its machismo and showmanship and was later picked up by other Latin American clubs.

“You would beat one man, then you’d want to beat another man,” Morejon said. “But when you got to the third guy, you lost the ball.”

He noted that the junior Haro’s game bears more of a European brand.

“The Europeans do with one pass what the Latinos do with four or five,” Morejon said. “To a European, it’s the goals that count. The rest of it is a lot of hot air.”

To the elder Haro, style isn’t the only distinction between the way he played the sport and the way his son plays it now. Soccer in the Mexican League was a much rougher sport.

“It was very, very hard back then,” said the father, who still bears a scar from a wayward cleat that shattered his cheekbone. “A guy could put his foot atop your face and the referee wouldn’t mark anything.”

In those days in Guadalajara, the senior Haro played alongside Mexican greats Sabas Ponce, Salvador Reyes and Javier Valle, and once played against the immortal Pele in an exhibition game. It was Valle who saw Haro’s son playing in Mexico on vacation and instantly knew that the boy could play professionally.

“(Valle) said I could play for Guadalajara some day,” Raul Jr. said. “I would like to play for any pro team in Mexico, but mostly for Guadalajara, like my father. It’s nice to have connections.”

Until then, Haro will play for Dick Barkus’ Culver City club team. And he may make some cameo appearances for the Greater Los Angeles Soccer League’s San Pedro Yugoslavs, where one of his heroes, John Gerard, plays. In the meantime, Haro will finish out his final season with San Pedro High.

His father will watch, and remember.

“If I am in the stands, and he plays bad, I’m mad,” the elder Haro said. “Because I used to play good. But no more--I’m 50 years old. No more. Now, I just watch.”

And those who care about soccer, and can see, watch with him.