It has been quite some time since the local area has had more than one district offering soccer at the high school level.
One man is looking to change that, starting with a series of free youth soccer camps for players in grades one through 12 beginning Monday (6/22) at the Ohkay Owingeh Athletic Complex.
“I’m trying to revamp and reintroduce the soccer program for the youth here in the Valley,” Larry Gurulé said.
Gurulé, 77, used to coach in Española in the early 2000s before the program was dropped later that decade.
The soccer fields in Española have been fallow ever since.
“I implemented the program in 1996 and then had it at every elementary school,” he said. “Then we had it at the junior high and the high school had a program for both boy and girls. I just thought it’s time to revitalize the program.”
And the best way to do that, Gurulé said, is to tap into the area’s youngsters, as well as ride the inevitable surge in soccer interest that always follows the World Cup, which is currently being played at stadiums across the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
The camp runs from 9 a.m. to noon and will continue June 26 and 27 following San Juan Days, then a second session will run from June 29-July 3, also at the athletic complex.
“We’ll be working on skills development and fundamentals,” Gurulé said. “I’ve always been a skills developer. Any sport I’ve coached, it’s always been about skills development. That’s the key.”
The goal, he said, is to spark a love of soccer among the area’s youth to give local athletes another avenue to explore, since soccer is so ingrained in the world’s culture, especially among Hispanics.
In addition, Gurulé wants to point out the similarities between the basics of soccer and other sports and how it can help develop skills that translate across the fields and courts.
“I want to show how the sports relate to one another,” he said. “Basketball, the things they do in basketball can relate to soccer. I can use that so kids develop an understanding of how they relate to each other.”
Then it’s just a matter of keeping the players interested and growing in the sport.
“We want to get the kids out, get them involved in mid-school and grade school,” he said. “And hopefully we can keep them into the later years and get the program revived at the high school. Kids in Española need something to do.”
For now, however, Gurulé is just happy to get something going, especially as he’s gotten significant support from Ohkay Owingeh and the Española Walmart.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this without their help,” he said.
Gurulé wants to make this an annual event done before school ends for the summer and hopefully grow it in size and scope.
“Generally before I would pass out flyers so they could take them to their parents,” Gurulé said. “I want to do that in late April next year and run it in May so we can get more kids.”