“Something San Diego has been waiting for”

By Ashley Garman | Reportero SDUN

“You don’t have it,” soccer legend Milutin “Šole” Šoški told Steve Gonzalez, a 17-year-old with a bright future in baseball but a passionate desire to pursue soccer instead.

“I didn’t even know how to catch a soccer ball,” remembers Steve. “I looked like garbage.”

Thirteen years later, Gonzalez is the starting goalkeeper for the San Diego Boca Futbol Club’s first team. Boca, founded in 2009 by Yan Skwara, is composed of 27 men ranging in age from 18 to 32. It’s one of 38 teams in the National Premier Soccer League, which is primarily a developmental league to groom players and prepare them for professional soccer careers as well as offer a place for veteran players who still want to play.

“It’s putting together a team with a combination of youth and veterans to create that magic on the field where everybody benefits,” said Skwara. “You’ve got to have veterans and you’ve got to have youth because you need the power and the speed that a youth has, but you need the mind and experience of a veteran.”

Šoški and other soccer veterans invested in Steve’s unrefined talent and undeniable perseverance as a teenager, and Steve signed his first professional contract by the time he was 23 years old. He recalls his first experience as a member of the Atlas team in Guadalajara, Mexico, as a “rude awakening.” His teammates were there to do a job—maintain their bodies so as to perform their best at every game. There was no messing around.

When he returned to the States to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy, the mindset was even more focused. He was playing with guys he had looked up to and admired from afar, and witnessing their focus and professionalism up close he found even more to aspire to.

“Their preparation for training sessions was intense, let alone game day,” he said. Steve’s current teammates
could be on their way to the Galaxy’s level, according to Boca’s general manager Travis Chesney.

“At the beginning of the year, it was kind of a ramshackle team,” he said. The season, which runs April through August, held some surprising changes for the team. Boca’s former head coach Eliseo “Papo” Santos recently parted ways and assistant coach Sabiño Tinajero stepped into the role.

“Despite all the roster losses, mixups, coaching issues, we still have a decent record,” said Steve. “Boca does well when our backs are against the wall. This team is a pro team—it has that potential because pro teams react situations. If you can act and perform well in pressure situations, you’re ready.”

“The players we have now have really stepped up,” said Chesney. “This is finally the program that should have been instated a long time ago at Boca.”

For Steve, the winning record is not as important as having a team that puts in its all every time. The passion of the sport is what brought him to soccer after following the 1998 World Cup finals. He had noticed growing arrogance and pompousness within the realm of baseball, and witnessing the sincere passion for the game that soccer fans held was refreshing.

“There’s a mutual respect because the game is bigger than all of that [attitude], and that’s what I fell in love with—that soccer is a global game.”

Chesney also sees that passion for soccer in the local community. “You can’t go five miles in San Diego without running into a soccer field or soccer team.” With an increasing fan base, Boca is planning to build a new soccer facility that will eventually expand to meet Major League Soccer standards.

“Right now, MLS won’t really entertain having a team in San Diego unless there’s a facility that’s soccer-specific and houses 18,500 people,” said Skwara. He is looking at properties in Chula Vista and is confident that construction will be started by the end of next year.

“Ideally, we would like to see San Diego Boca become that team, but that’s getting a little bit ahead of the game because there’s so much work to be done,” said Skwara, who feels that if Boca works toward
getting the facility, that will get them to the next level in soccer as well.

Boca games currently average about 1,000 onlookers, but about double that witnessed the team’s recent victory over the San Diego Flash. The June 11 game was fan appreciation day, and Boca invited about 200 volunteers from Big Brothers Big Sisters to watch the game.

The BBBS organization is just one of many charities Boca works with. The team has also worked with Embrace.org and the Salvation Army, giving out free game tickets, promoting events for the nonprofits and participating in benefits and fundraisers.

“That’s what the communityneeds—a team that’s willing to give back,” said Steve. “I feel like it’s family here. I feel like there’s growth and I feel like this is something San Diego has been waiting for.”