Women’s Soccer Teams at Home in South Bay : Club sports: Although fan interest remains low, participation remains high.

Small crowds at women’s soccer games are a familiar sight for Carrie Schmidt.

But like most female soccer players, Schmidt, the 29-year-old captain of the Manhattan Beach club team Ajax, doesn’t play for the roar of a crowd or fan adulation.

Schmidt has been playing for 20 years, 11 for Ajax, because she loves the competitive environment.

“I really enjoy the sport,” she said. “It’s a good way to stay fit. I’ve met some of my best friends on the team and it’s a good way to socialize.”

Women’s soccer received a boost in 1991 when the U.S. national team won the first women’s World Cup, held in China. But fan interest remains minimal.

Does the lack of support bother Schmidt?

“No, because I guess that’s the way it’s always been,” she said. “Since the World Cup, soccer has become much more popular, but I don’t think it will ever grow as big as football or baseball.”

Ajax manager Louis Kaufman said player interest is not a problem, especially in the South Bay.

“We have more people that want to play and more teams that want to play than we have room for on our fields at Columbia Park (in Torrance),” said Kaufman, who has been involved with Ajax in several capacities since 1981.

On Sundays at Columbia Park, women’s teams play as many as 16 games on four fields. This goes on from September to April, Kaufman said.

Ajax, which won the U.S. women’s amateur championship in 1991, is one of 32 teams competing in the American Ladies Soccer Assn. of Torrance.

Kaufman said that club teams provide women who have been playing at the youth, high school or college levels a chance to continue playing competitively.

Young women might aspire to play for a college team or be chosen by the Olympic Development Program, but ultimately, the highest level of play for most players is in the club system, Kaufman said.

“Women’s soccer (in the United States) is able to compete at the world level successfully as contrasted to the men’s, who have to compete against very established programs that have been ongoing for 100 years,” Kaufman said.

“The women’s programs have only been prominent since World War II and really more in the last 20 to 25 years. And the U.S., as a consequence, has a real opportunity to compete successfully against other nations.”

Southern California has many talented players, Kaufman said. Two of the four Southern California players on the 1991 U.S. national team that won the World Cup, Joy Biefeld-Fawcett and Carin Jennings, play for Ajax. Jennings is a former standout at Palos Verdes High.

Kaufman estimates there are 150 club teams in Southern California and more than 750 teams in the western United States. The best players generally come out of the club system, he said.

“The club system generates opportunities for the (Olympic Development Program),” Kaufman said. “The ODP has a very elaborate nationwide program for youth to have a chance to try out for teams at different age levels.

“This is where the national team coaches come and see these players play at tournaments, which are designed for that purpose.”

While programs and the number of participants in the United States continue to grow--there are 16 million men’s and women’s players--soccer continues to have an identity crisis here, Kaufman said.

“When the Olympics were here in L.A., there were more people that watched soccer than any other sport,” he said. “So it’s quite clear that it’s possible to attract a very large number of people to watch soccer.

“But the Olympics is a spectacular of a different kind and people don’t turn out regularly to watch soccer matches. I don’t know whether there’s too much competition for an audience.

“Every other nation in the world gets dramatic turnouts for soccer.”

Schmidt, who played for the Cal State Long Beach and UCLA club teams, considers soccer the best sport.

“It’s a much more team-oriented sport,” she said. “Those that are in it, especially for women’s soccer where you (don’t have an opportunity) to get very far, are there for the love of the game.”