Kids Still Get a Kick Out of Grass-Roots Soccer League

Ever since she was a toddler, Maria Guadalupe Martinez has been kicking around a soccer ball. She started in her backyard, playing with her Mexican-born father and brothers until their family heard about a new soccer league starting up in the area.

That was 1994 when the United Nations Youth Soccer League began giving area children a chance to play their favorite pastime in an organized way for an affordable price.

The league, which started with a few hundred kids, has grown to serve more than 5,000 children, many from low-income families who might not otherwise be able to have children playing soccer every Saturday.

“It’s something you grow up with and you learn to like it a lot. It’s fun,” said 12-year-old Maria, who attends Sun Valley Middle School. “[The league] has really changed the community. The park where we play used to have gang members and drug dealers. You don’t see that anymore.”

Her 15-year-old brother, Leonel, said his parents signed him up for the league, whose annual fee is $25, because it provides a positive outlet for him and his siblings.

“It gives us something to do instead of playing video games,” said Leonel, whose father is a painter and mother works as a machine operator.

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To celebrate the success of the grass-roots soccer league, thousands of children and their families are expected to walk Saturday from the league’s headquarters on Vanowen Street to the Whitsett Sports Complex, where they will compete in games for the day. A high school band and equestrian groups will take part in the parade.

Jose Roy Garcia, who founded the league, said the fees help pay for renting fields and running the program, which also offers English as a Second Language and computer classes. Each team is responsible for paying for its uniforms through sponsors and other donations.

“It’s not enough money [to run the league], but we hope in the future we will have some grants,” said Garcia, adding the league will soon become a nonprofit organization.

The league is 90% Latino. A total of 5,000 San Fernando Valley boys ages 4 to 17 play in the league, in addition to 445 girls from 4 to 14. Another 950 girls 14 and older are registered, plus 1,500 young men 17 and above, said Garcia, a native of El Salvador who came to the United States in 1981 and later became a U.S. citizen.

“We have a year-round program because most kids aren’t going to play baseball [once soccer season ends],” said David Burger, who merged his Southern California’s Best Soccer League with the United National Youth Soccer League last year. “When they were born, they got a soccer ball. It’s their heritage. It’s their sport.”

Debby Rolland, who oversees city recreation programs for the San Fernando Valley, said the league is one of the larger ones in the area targeting low-income children.

“There is certainly a great need,” she said.

By comparison, AYSO can charge up to $150 in fees per child, according to spokesman Dave Brown. An AYSO league based in Van Nuys charges a fee of $75 for the first child and $65 for additional children in the same family.

Garcia’s league recently branched out to Palmdale, where 600 kids have signed up to play, he said.

Saturday’s parade will begin at 10 a.m. at the league’s offices at 10835 Vanowen St. and travel west on Vanowen Avenue to Whitsett Street. The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a motion by Councilman Joel Wachs asking that an estimated $2,500 in city fees and salary costs associated with the parade be absorbed by the city. To make way for the parade, Vanowen Street between Vineland Avenue and Whitsett Avenue will be closed from 8 a.m. to noon.