Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Soccer Star: Irma Gallo, age 6, points out visiting Earthquake soccer player Zak Ibsen, to her friend at the River Glen Soccer Festival.
Soccer stars sell students on scoring goals on and off field
River Glen students get visit from team members of the Cyber Rays, Earthquakes
By Kate Carter
Scores of River Glen School students wiggle and fidget on the soccer field, waiting for their soccer-playing heroes to show them how to be as good as the professionals.
The children squeal and cheer when San Jose Earthquakes player Zak Ibsen and Bay Area CyberRays players Lisa Nañez and Megan Horvath are introduced at the school's first soccer festival on May 15.
The cheers turn into a loud roar when the Earthquakes' mascot, Rikter, the husky dog, makes a surprise appearance and nearly upstages the local soccer celebrities.
Ibsen, Nañez and Horvath are all visiting the English-Spanish immersion school to inspire the approximately 150 K-8 students who play on parent-coached soccer teams.
The school's parent association, Helping Advance Biliteracy and Linguistic Achievement, is the festival's sponsor and also the driving force behind the school's soccer league. Sports programs aren't usually offered at San Jose Unified School District elementary and middle schools, but, two years ago, River Glen parents decided it was important to offer their children the chance to learn soccer skills and build confidence.
They reinvigorated a defunct soccer program and volunteered to coach a girls' and a boys' team in each grade. The teams compete only against each other.
The parents decided to hold the soccer festival to give their players a fun opportunity to meet some good role models, both in playing soccer and in living life, parent's association member Molly Felix says.
Ibsen begins by asking how many students want to become professional soccer players some day. Every hand goes up.
Then he asks how they hope to see those dreams come true, receiving answers:
"Practice."
"Know the rules."
"Play with people who help you play better."
Ibsen nods and adds another one--"A lot of sacrifice."
He tells the group he decided to be a professional soccer player as a child growing up in Santa Cruz. He says he was committed about honing his skills after practice, and after he'd finished his chores and homework, while his friends headed off to skateboard and surf.
"If you guys find something like that, whether it's soccer or something else you're good at that's fun, keep at it," Ibsen says. "It's all the stuff you do when you're young that makes you who you are when you're older."
Photographs by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Soccer Teacher: Earthquake Defender Zak Ibsen talks to youngsters from local River Glen soccer teams at the River Glen Soccer Festival.
Ibsen is a defender on the San Jose Earthquakes team, who was recently acquired from the Los Angeles Galaxy. He has played in Major League Soccer since the league began in 1996, and was a member of the 1998 Chicago Fire championship team.
Ibsen was also a member of the U.S. national team from 1992 to 1996, and played at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. At the school festival, some students want to know if he won a gold medal. He tells them he didn't.
"Gold medals are pretty hard to get," Ibsen says.
Then he asks them if they get trophies at the end of their soccer season.
A sea of blank young faces stares back at him, heads shaking.
Ibsen smiles weakly and says, "Well, can you make one in one of your classes or something?"
He quickly moves on to something more familiar--juggling. Ibsen demonstrates bouncing a soccer ball off his feet, legs and even his head, then asks a few brave young souls to show what they can do.
A boy gets up to try hitting the ball off his head, a skill he's never tried before, he says. Ibsen reminds him to keep his mouth and teeth closed so he doesn't bite his tongue and to protect his face.
"We hit it with our forehead," Ibsen says. "I don't know what's in there, but it doesn't hurt."
After a successful teaching session, he introduces Nañez and Horvath, members of the brand new women's soccer league, WUSA, and who have played only a handful of games since opening on April 14.
Defender Nañez went with her Santa Clara University soccer team to the NCAA championship each of her four years. She also holds dual U.S.-Mexican citizenship and played in the 1999 Women's World Cup for the Mexican national team.
Forward Horvath was also on the Santa Clara University team. She went three times to the NCAA championship and was West Coast Conference freshman of the year in 1997.
She and Nañez reiterate Ibsen's sentiments: "Every single one of you guys can do it, if you put your minds to it," Nañez says.
Getting Ahead: Patricia Harbidge (left) , 8, hits a soccer ball off her head, as part of a demonstration at the festival.
Photographs by Jacqueline Ramseyer
But their audience really wants to see some tricks. First, the duo make the children get up and do the Brazilian warm-up the team learned from Brazilian players Sissi and Katia. (Like Pele, the superstars follow the Brazilian tradition of going by only one name, professionally.) A gaggle of youths jog and skip up and down the field with Horvath and Nañez, while parents mill about and take photos.
After about five minutes, everyone sits down and Horvath demonstrates the "scissor move" and "inside-outside kick" that she uses to fake out defenders keeping her from a goal.
A few young players try the moves, and then it's time for team photos with the professional players, autographs and lining up for CyberRays temporary tattoos.
"It's cool," Crystal Lopez, 10, says of the afternoon event, as she waits to get her picture taken with her fifth-grade team. "You get tattoos and autographs and get your T-shirts signed."
She says she likes playing soccer and wants to play on a team like the CyberRays herself.
"You get to score lots of goals and you get to be with friends," Lopez says.
She says it's important to stay focused on soccer so she can maybe be a CyberRay someday.
Valentina Limón, who helps her husband Fernando coach the first-grade girls' team, says that message is important to everyone there.
"They reinforced staying focused on school and setting goals and pursuing them," she says. "It doesn't necessarily apply to just sports, but to any goals."
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
