Growing game

A migrant youth soccer league is flourishing, but money is needed to improve and to meet increasing demands.

By ANGELA MOORE

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 7, 2000

WIMAUMA -- In Mexico, Antulio Benavidez was a professional soccer player. In Hillsborough County, he's a migrant farm worker.

If they were in Mexico, he said, many of the kids in southern Hillsborough would be playing soccer nonstop and dreaming of when they would be professional players. Instead, they had nowhere to play until this spring, when social worker Alayne Unteberger decided she'd start a small soccer league for the kids in the families she counseled.

With $1,000 from a federal grant, she figured she could handle about 80 kids, 100 at the most. She advertised the signups and brought a laptop to the Balm Recreation Center on a Saturday in March.

As it turns out she had vastly underestimated the popularity of what many migrant workers consider their native sport.

"We pulled up to the center about 9:10, and there were so many cars that there was nowhere to park," Unteberger said. "People were outside the building playing soccer in the grass. That day alone we signed up 200 kids."

By the first tryout in April, more than 300 kids were in the Liga Rural de Futbol Para Jovenes -- the Rural Youth Soccer Association.

"I had hundreds of kids involved instead of a few and (was) trying to figure out how to fund this," she said.

Unteberger got donations and volunteers from the Redlands Christian Migrant Association, Beth El Farmworker Mission, the Good Samaritan Mission and the Tampa Bay Mutiny. The league's 14 teams played nine Saturdays for free on fields at the Wimauma Civic Center, owned by Hillsborough County Parks and Recreation Department. The league had a successful first season, squeaking by on just less than $8,000 and charging parents just $5 per child.

Compare that with the New Tampa Soccer Association, which charges at least $110 per child to fund an annual budget of $170,000.

With only $800 in the coffers right now and a fall season looming in which signups are expected to double, Unteberger is desperate for more donations.

"I need donations, and I need help," she said. "People have already given so much, but if we're going to reach more kids, we need more resources."

With at least 30,000 migrant workers living in southeastern Hillsborough, Unteberger knows the league has the potential to be huge.

But those who know soccer see other potential: incredible talent.

Benavidez watched the games carefully and said some of the kids have the raw talent that, with practice, could lead to professional soccer careers in Mexico, not to mention Major League Soccer.

Luis Rodriguez volunteers as a coach with the league but has also coached select youth soccer teams for years.

"A lot of the kids here know how to play and have great talent," Rodriguez said. "Some of them have never played, but they have the desire to learn. In two to three years, there will be some very good teams coming out of this league. There are potential championship teams here."

But, as Rodriguez and other coaches know, recreational teams that are not affiliated with the Florida Youth Soccer Association cannot win championships at all. Membership in the state association costs money and has rules for paying referees and requirements for equipment.

Still, Unteberger and the parent/coaches want to join the association in time for the fall season.

"All I want is enough money for the league to join FYSA so that these kids will be able to compete with other teams and really be proud of themselves," Unteberger said.

Even without FYSA membership and the recognition that comes with it, many in this community think the league already has accomplished the impossible. Josie Gracia has worked with children for years through the Redlands Christian Migrant Association and said she always knew that a soccer league would be successful.

"An active, real soccer league was something we all dreamed about and didn't know how to go about doing it," Gracia said. "The main reason we didn't was the usual cost to get your child in these leagues was so much more than our people can afford. Even with a minimal fee for registration, you've got to find a way to pay for equipment and facilities.

"But we proved it doesn't necessarily have to be that way," she said. "You get people in the community involved in this sort of project, and you can make it happen."

In Mexico or South American countries where the migrant workers grew up, soccer is played all over the place, in the streets, in vacant lots, wherever there is space. There, soccer is like basketball in the U.S.; some of the best players in the game develop on the playground. Brazilian striker Ronaldo, often considered the world's best player, was a poverty-stricken inner-city kid who never sought higher education.

In the U.S., soccer works differently. Kids start out on teams when they are young and gain recognition by playing in competitive leagues. In Hillsborough County, the top high school players also play on select teams, where they get much more exposure to college recruiters.

Parents of the kids in the rural league, many of whom can only dream of sending their children to college, already recognize this connection.

Ramon Hernandez coached a team for kids 11 and older, including his 15-year-old daughter, Ana, who will be a freshman at East Bay High in the fall. She said she plans to try out for the girls' soccer team.

"Soccer keeps their minds healthy, not just their bodies," Hernandez said through a translator. "Sports now will help them in school later. That's how children get scholarships for their studies. That's how they can do more."

One rural league coach was so impressed with his team and its competitiveness that he arranged a game with a select team from Tampa after the season ended. When Arnulfo Serrano's 9- and 10-year-olds beat a team that hadn't lost a game in a couple of years, he started pushing for the rural league to join the state association so his kids can continue to compete.

"The team is so important to them," Serrano said through a translator. "This league is a very good thing, and we have to work to keep it going. Everyone has to help them and support them. This means a lot to the kids. It makes them proud."

How to help

Anyone interested in helping can call Alayne Unteberger at (813) 760-6700.

Angela Moore can be reached at (813) 226-3373 or amoore@sptimes.com.

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