FROM SQUARE ONE

Jennifer Reott was planning to transfer from Fresno State to Long Beach State after the last school year. How fortuitous that her new school was launching a women’s soccer program this fall.

“I was actually going to come here whether I played soccer or not,” said Reott, a sophomore midfielder from El Dorado High. “So it just happened to work out. Things happen for a reason. I happened to luck out.”

It was also luck that her assistant coach at Fresno State, Julie Cochran, had been hired in December, 1997, as Long Beach’s head coach.

Reott, who played soccer, basketball and softball at El Dorado, is one of 20 women--12 who played high school or community college soccer in Orange County--on the 49ers’ inaugural women’s soccer team. And Cochran couldn’t be happier.

“It’s a fascinating thing to be in a position to create history,” she said. “To be there when it all began. In three or four years, when this program has really taken off, people can say, ‘I had a hand in that.’ ”

The Cal State University system, Long Beach Athletic Director Bill Shumard explained, was under a court order to meet gender equity in its athletic programs on a five-year timetable. To be compliant, Long Beach had to add two women’s sports by the 1998-99 school year.

Last spring, the school fielded its first women’s water polo team. In the 1980s, the school had club men’s and women’s soccer teams, said Dan Smith, associate director of media relations, who was instrumental in setting up the women’s soccer program.

“Long Beach State identified women’s water polo and women’s soccer as the most quickly emerging sports in NCAA competition,” Shumard said. “We knew Southern California is a hotbed for women’s soccer and that recruiting would be good.”

Nationally, 17 schools began Division I women’s soccer programs last year and another 17 added the sport this year.

Long Beach placed an ad for a coach in the NCAA News, and Cochran answered it.

“I’d been at Fresno State for three seasons, and I was looking for the next stage in my life, which was head coach,” she said. “It was actually the first place I applied. I knew it was in a gorgeous city and . . . most importantly, it was in a location where soccer could be a potential powerhouse.”

She was hired nine months to the day before the 49ers’ first game (Sept. 1), and “hit the ground running,” Shumard said. Some days, Shumard said Cochran would bring by two or three recruits at a time to meet him.

“I got recruited by Long Beach and Chapman,” said freshman midfielder Nicole Avila, who played at Mission Viejo High. “But my first choice was Long Beach. I really liked that Julie would come to my games and talk to me and was really interested in having me on the team.”

Avila said she’s surprised she’s getting so much playing time. Not that Cochran has much choice; there are eight freshmen and eight sophomores on the team.

Kim Stempkowski, a freshman from Edison High, was recruited by Chapman, Concordia, Loyola Marymount, Elmhurst (Ill.) and Long Beach.

“I wanted to stay close to home,” Stempkowski said, “and I liked the fact that Julie became really involved in recruiting. She had a passion about it.”

And experience. As an assistant at Fresno State, Cochran helped launch the Bulldogs’ program three years ago.

“I had to fund raise and start a booster club,” she said. “That was my task as a full-time assistant. So I know how to do that.”

Compiling a schedule wasn’t difficult.

“[Other teams] were anxious to play,” Shumard said.

The 49ers host UC Irvine on Friday and Cal State Fullerton on Sunday in Big West Conference games.

Currently, the 49ers have two scholarships to divide. “Sometimes we’re going against teams with 12 full rides,” Cochran said. “We’re constantly going against a lot of adversity. But I tell my team, the only way to face those adversities and to learn from them and become stronger is if we walk right toward them and tackle them one by one.”

The adversity began before the season started, when starting goalkeeper Jihan Elgazzar tore her anterior cruciate ligament. She’s out for the season. Freshman Michaeli Ramage (Troy High) stepped in.

Jennifer Overholtzer, who played at Brea Olinda High, and Jackie Gardner, who lives in Seal Beach, each played on Long Beach’s club soccer team.

“I was president of the club team,” said Gardner, a fifth-year senior. “The level of competition is the biggest difference. We used to play a lot of Division II and III and junior college teams.

“This is something I’ve been waiting for for a long time.”

Freshman Caitlin Murphy (Esperanza High) has only one complaint.

“I like being in a Division I program,” the 5-foot-1 midfielder said. “But I don’t like that we don’t have a lot of people coming to our games, because a lot of people don’t know about us. So they don’t show up. At Esperanza, we had a lot of people come.”

The women’s soccer team is faring better than the women’s water polo team. The 49ers returned from a trip to Utah State and North Texas last weekend with a 7-8 record, 3-2 in conference play. The water polo team finished 3-25 last spring.

The soccer team practices on George Allen Field, the school’s old football practice field. Cochran admitted she’s not used to sharing a field with physical education classes and folks who use the field as a driving range. But she knows a good thing when she sees it.

“I love my interaction with the kids,” said Cochran, who played for Sonoma State when it won an NCAA Division II championship in 1990. “I’m in a university setting where there’s a lot of energy. I’m with healthy, positive people, and of course, I’m on a soccer field every day. What better job is there?”