PREP WEDNESDAY : Mission Viejo’s Success Begins at an Early Age

One recipe for success: Take a group of 8-year-old children (of either sex), dress them in cleats and shorts, place them on a grassy field with a black-and-white ball and wait eight or nine years.

The result? A couple of first-rate high school soccer teams.

Those are the directions that Mission Viejo parents began following in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, when they started signing up their children to play on newly formed soccer clubs.

Now, Mission Viejo High School is reaping the benefits of this decade-old soccer breeding ground, with its boys’ and girls’ soccer teams ranked at or near the top in their respective divisions.

The girls’ team, ranked first in the 4-A division by the Southern California High School Soccer Coaches’ Assn. all season, has been riding the wave of success since Jan. 9, 1986. That was the last time the team lost a high school match--a 62-game streak--and the reigning 4-A champions are currently 19-0-2 in the 1987-88 season.

The boys’ success is a little more recent. Last season, the team lost to Esperanza in the second round of the playoffs and started this season ranked fourth in the coaches’ poll. Last week, the Diablos (15-4-1) moved into the top spot in the 3-A division, though they slipped to second in this week’s poll.

The teams can trace their success to the Mission Viejo and Triad soccer clubs. Nine members of the Diablo boys’ team have played on Triad teams.

Eight starters on the girls’ team have played for the Mission Viejo Soccerettes, which won the state 14-and-under championship in 1983, the state 16-and-under title in 1985 and both the state and national 16-and-under championship in 1986.

“That team has caused the success of this team,” said Jim Dutton, girls’ coach at the high school. “The kids are very knowledgeable about what they are trying to accomplish, and it’s a very talented team technically.”

Cal Foster, the Diablo boys’ coach, agrees that his team’s success stems from the clubs.

“Most of these kids have been playing for eight years,” Foster said. “The outside competition starts at a real young age . . . and their club teams play 75 games a year.”

Foster and Dutton are also products of the club programs. The clubs, formed to provide a higher level of competition than recreational soccer, evolved from AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) programs. Dutton and Foster, like other parents-turned-coaches, became involved because of their dissatisfaction with the quality of coaching and took it upon themselves to learn the game through books, clinics and coaching programs.

“The coaches keep getting better,” said Nick Xiroz, president of the Mission Viejo Soccer Club, which requires coaches to attend a coaching school. “That’s one reason for the continued improvement in soccer.”

The high quality and support of club soccer in Mission Viejo has made an impact on the high school’s competition.

“Mission Viejo has one of the best youth-feeder programs that exists,” said Sid Bradshaw, San Clemente High School boys’ coach, whose team lost, 2-0, to the Diablos last Friday. “While San Clemente has just one team, Cal (Foster) can select the quality of players he needs from various teams.”

But Bradshaw doesn’t object to Mission Viejo’s club advantage.

“We have the most fun when we play them,” he said. “These are the cleanest games we play. I think that if you don’t have the skills, you try to make up for it with your body. It makes soccer fun, to play nicely skilled teams.”

Sean Foster, the coach’s son and a center fullback on the team, can see the difference between the Diablos and other high school teams.

“It takes other teams a while to learn how to pass,” he said.

“We’re used to each other,” said teammate Jeff Jurgemeyer. “We’ve known each other forever, you know, playing in the backyard.”

Rae Hubocan, a senior sweeper on the girls’ team, said the cohesion of her team is difficult to explain.

“We’ve played together for so long, you just don’t see as much clicking when other people sub into the game,” she said.

“We understand each other when we’re out there,” said Julie Foudy, the team’s most instinctual player, according to Dutton. “You can sense when the others are up or down for a game.”

Foudy, a junior who leads the team with 18 goals and 12 assists, will be the lone Soccerette on the team when Hubocan, Kerri Kennedy, Sheri Bertell, Tammy VanOpdorp, Steph Cox, Stacey Hopper and Suzie Davis graduate this June.

Though some are predicting that mass graduation will end the Mission Viejo girls’ success, there are signs that soccer in Mission Viejo will be strong for years to come.

“The advent of club soccer has raised the finesse of high school teams,” said Xiroz, the club president. “High school programs have improved 100% over the last few years and will continue to improve.”

A few week’s ago, Xiroz brought his team of 10-year-olds to watch the girls’ high school team play. He asked the players to evaluate the performance in a written report.

“It was surprising at how knowledgeable they were, and the things they saw,” Dutton said. “They were analyzing how well the team was running off the ball.

“These young kids are playing better soccer now than high schools were playing several years ago.”