SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Launching Team Was Quite a Feat

What began with a few kids kicking a soccer ball around has become a team of two dozen players with a shoestring budget but no shortage of enthusiasm for their sport.

The team of 10- to 13-year olds calls itself Las Aguilas de America--The Eagles of America--after a popular professional team in Mexico.

The players are pursuing their passion as an independent team because they cannot afford the fees to join an organized youth soccer league. They collected and sold aluminum cans to help pay for uniforms, which they bought in Tijuana to get a low price.

“I never knew it would become this,” said Hugo Flores, 12. “We take it pretty seriously. We practice a couple of times a week.”

The team was organized four months ago by a woman who knows little about soccer. Cristina Valadez is a gang specialist for Community Service Programs Inc., a nonprofit group that serves Dana Point, San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.

Valadez said the first group of boys referred to her after-school program for at-risk youth at R.H. Dana School attracted other boys who wanted to play soccer but couldn’t afford to join a league.

Valadez enlisted Leonel Barriga, a 25-year-old San Clemente resident, to coach the team. “I didn’t know all the moves, the positions and where to put people and why,” she said.

At first, the boys played in baseball uniforms left over from another Community Service sports program, even though their togs drew occasional teasing from other youngsters in the neighborhood where Las Aguilas practice and play.

Under Barriga, who works for a surfboard manufacturer, they raised $300 and finally bought their soccer uniforms two weeks ago.

The team was undefeated until a Costa Mesa team outscored them Thursday.

During a break in play that day, Barriga urged his players not to give up even though they were behind. The players, meanwhile, chattered among themselves.

“It’s a good team,” Barriga said with a smile, “but they talk too much.”