Marina Girls Haven’t Missed a Beat Under Valenzuela

Jorge Valenzuela sits under a flood light one evening at Marina High, listening to the dope.

They were good, Jorge. Three championships.

Mild interest registers on his face.

Sixty-one games without a loss.

He nods.

Valenzuela, in his first year as Viking girls’ soccer coach, seems indifferent to the aura of prominence into which he has stepped.

“I’m trying to create an aura for myself,” he says.

Valenzuela’s imperviousness to the Marina mystique also might be born of a healthy sense of reality. After winning its third consecutive Southern Section Division I championship last season, Marina lost eight senior starters. Four-year coach Bobby Bruch also left, saying he wanted to coach the Mission Viejo Shamrocks, a prestigious girls’ club team.

Marina had entered a new era. Larry Doyle, Marina athletic director, figured Valenzuela was the guy to usher it in.

“He was nice and calm. He wasn’t on a crusade and he wasn’t real arrogant. He was willing to take on what we had,” Doyle said.

This has been a theme in Valenzuela’s life--to have a career in soccer in the United States, one has to take what is available.

By this motto, Valenzuela has carved out a niche for himself. He has played professionally as a goalkeeper for nine years, the last two with the Splash of the Continental Indoor Soccer League.

But the road to professional soccer wasn’t easy.

Growing up in Carlsbad, N.M., a city bereft of club and high school soccer, Valenzuela and his family organized a youth team. Valenzuela and his older brothers, Ricardo and Freddy, attended soccer camps in the summer and taught their father, Jorge, the skills they learned when they returned. Valenzuela’s father would teach the rest of the team.

By his senior year in high school, Valenzuela had learned all he could by this system, so he moved to Albuquerque to play for El Dorado High. Living alone in an apartment at age 17, Valenzuela led the Eagles to a third-place finish in the New Mexico state tournament and was an all-state selection at goalkeeper.

Valenzuela had hopes of playing professionally, but even as an NAIA All-American selection at the University of South Carolina Spartanburg, he received scant attention from U.S. national pool coaches. What’s more, midway through college, he learned the North American Soccer League had folded. “I was lost. I didn’t know what to do,” he said.

Broke and working for a steakhouse in Spartanburg as he tried to finish college, Valenzuela heard about a tryout for a National Professional Soccer League team in Memphis. He scraped together $140--his entire savings--and spent more than half of that for a one-way bus ticket.

After spending another $35 for a hotel room when he arrived in Memphis, he had less than $25 remaining, and the week-long tryouts hadn’t even started. He invested in food--bread, bologna and apples--and brought a sack lunch to the field.

“I played my butt off that week,” he said.

Memphis coaches requested that Valenzuela stay for another week of tryouts.

“Great, where do I sign my contract?” he asked.

The coaches looked at him like he was crazy--if he chose to stay, he would play on a trial basis for the next month, they said.

“I’ll see you next week,” he said.

He made the reserve team and got his first break in the preseason by the misfortune of another--the No. 1 goalkeeper broke his thumb. That meant Valenzuela became the No. 2 goalkeeper and suited up for games--earning $25 per game.

That inauspicious debut begat a career that culminated in 1994, when he led the CISL with 17 victories for the Splash. That season should have been Valenzuela’s happiest because he was at the top of his game, but instead, he was miserable.

“I’m asking myself, ‘What happened to my enthusiasm? How can I have so much that I have worked for and not be enjoying it?’ ” he said.

He attributed his fretfulness to burnout--he had played year-round three years for various teams in indoor and outdoor leagues. Valenzuela had ankle surgery in December, 1994, and struggled last season for the Splash.

“My body just hurt and it wasn’t getting any better,” he said.

He was relegated to second-string goalkeeper behind Ruben Fernandez after the third game of the season. With a month remaining in the season, Valenzuela announced he would take the Marina position that had been vacated by Bruch, who also has played for the Splash the past two seasons.

Although Valenzuela has started a goalkeeper academy and helps coach the Fountain Valley-based South Coast soccer club, the move into high school has been a culture shock for him. Likewise, Marina players have had to make some adjustments.

“Bobby was more playful and not as serious,” said senior Jenny Benson, Marina’s star midfielder. “Now, it’s more like, ‘Don’t goof around and don’t giggle.’ ”

The Vikings, 10-4-2, are 2-0-1 in the Sunset League.

Valenzuela has learned he can’t treat high school players the way he treats professional teammates.

“I have to curb my enthusiasm for the game,” he said. “You have to put everything in perspective. They’re not going to go out and be professional soccer players. They want different things from the game.”

Valenzuela said he remains torn over whether to devote himself full-time to coaching or to try to play a few more years.

“This has been one of the most difficult things I have taken on because people mean so much to me. I love kids,” he said. “Right now, my commitment is to Marina High and each of the individual players on this team.”