No Price to Play for This Club
As David Zimmermann’s 10-year-old son John began taking an interest in soccer, began asking about playing more, about joining clubs, about getting competitive, Zimmermann was thrilled.
For Zimmermann, 39 and in fighting soccer shape himself, had fallen in love with the game when he was 12 and his friends in Huntington Beach who played soccer wore really cool outfits--shirt, shorts, socks--all in matching orange.
It wasn’t the uniforms that kept Zimmermann, who lives in Costa Mesa now, interested through high school and a year at Santa Ana College and then a professional career that included some time playing in the old North American Soccer League and in several semipro leagues. It was the game, the beauty of the game, the chance to be an artist and an athlete that appealed to Zimmermann.
And as Zimmermann tapered off his own playing, he made sure to become certified so he could offer his services as a coach. It was about the time that John began investigating which clubs he might want to join that Zimmermann was asked to fill in as an emergency replacement coach for a Mission Viejo girls’ club. This was also when Zimmermann discovered something that disturbed him.
“It cost anywhere from $800 to $2,000 for kids to play,” Zimmermann says, “and when I went out to watch some of these clubs practice, I was disgusted with what the kids were getting for their money. Coaching that wasn’t up to par and kids who didn’t seem to be having any fun.”
So, OK, it’s easy to decide something isn’t working. It’s not so easy to fix it. Zimmermann has decided to try and fix a system he worries is bad for the sport he loves. Zimmermann and a group of friends have formed the Crows Football Club in Costa Mesa. The Crows Club is for boys 12 and under. It is a club with no fee. Kids play for free. Zimmermann and his friends, childhood soccer buddies like Brad Webster of Costa Mesa and Casey Metkovich of Irvine who have boys about the same age as Zimmermann’s son, have raised sponsorship money. This money doesn’t go to pay a coach. Zimmermann does that for free. It doesn’t go to pay for a club director. The Crows don’t really have one. It doesn’t go for fancy uniforms. Zimmermann is going to get those donated too.
The money raised, about $7,000 so far, Zimmermann says, goes to pay entry fees, join the Coast Soccer League and get his boys playing soccer.
This is a godsend for Rosa and Ruben Trujillo and their 10-year-old twins, Ruben Jr. and William. Ruben is a truck driver. Rosa raises her son and is pregnant with the couple’s third child--a girl, Rosa says. Her boys love soccer and, for three or four years now, have been talked about because of their talent. Because of this, because her twins love the game that her husband had played as well when he and Rosa grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico, and because they are talented, Ruben and Rosa saved money so Ruben Jr., and William could play for a Mission Viejo club.
“But then someone told me of Mr. Zimmermann’s team,” Rosa said, “and it is the best thing we could imagine for our boys.”
Zimmermann’s new club practices at Mariners Christian School in Costa Mesa. Webster’s children attend the school and the school has agreed to let the club use the field for free. It is these kinds of things, using contacts and relationships to get things like a field, a T-shirt, a warmup, a pair of shoes, for free that Zimmermann and his friends take pride in.
When Joy Fawcett and Julie Foudy, two Orange County natives and members of the U.S. women’s World Cup team, said last week they were worried about what was happening to the youth part of soccer, Zimmermann noticed. “I feel like they were so right,” Zimmermann said. “Maybe what I’m doing won’t work. Maybe a year from now, the Crows won’t exist. But I had to try.”
Zimmermann said he hears talk that his ideas aren’t so popular. He feels as if there are coaches and club administrators who don’t always make the best use of the money taken in by fees and by sponsorship. He wonders about clubs that raise six figures through sponsors and yet parents are still writing checks every year for $2,000 per child. He sees parents like Ruben and Rosa Trujillo and wonders how many of those families have talented, eager children being lost to the sport over money.
“Am I crazy?” he asked. “I don’t know. But I see our kids having fun. I see some other kids who aren’t. There’s automatically pressure to perform if your parents are paying that much money. Is that necessary for 10-year-olds? I don’t think so. I hope not.”
Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com