playground boredom

Michael Miller

At first glance, it looked like the average youth soccer

championship. Two teams crowded the field in grass-stained uniforms,

surrounded by referees and official scorers. A throng of fans cheered

on the sidelines, waving signs that read “Go Manchester” and

“Patriots Rule.” Early in the 35-minute match, fifth-grader Carlos

Barrios of Manchester United -- the Costa Mesa team, not the more

famous English one -- scored the game’s only goal to become soccer

champions of Adams Elementary School.

But there was one thing that set this league apart: It was

entirely student-run. Except for one teacher, who offered to help

referee the final match, all the authorities on the field -- team

captains, referees, official scorers -- were the same age as the

players on the field. Moreover, the tournament wasn’t just for sport.

It was also a form of outreach.

“This is my first year here,” said Diego Perez, 11, a

fourth-grader at Adams. “I met a group of guys, and people thought we

were a gang. They started coming up and hitting us, and that’s why we

wanted to start a league.”

Adams doesn’t have a history of violence problems -- principal

Candy Cloud notes proudly that it’s one of the few schools in the

area without a fence around it -- but it is one of the most

ethnically diverse schools in Newport-Mesa. Sixty-two percent of the

population is Latino, with students hailing from Mexico, El Salvador,

Guatemala and elsewhere, and socioeconomic status runs a similar

gamut.

Cloud sometimes likens the cliques on campus to “swarms of bees,”

clustered together by race or gender or simply by familiarity. But

she knows that even an eclectic group can find something to unite

them.

This year, at least three of her students had the same idea.

At the start of spring, Perez and two of his classmates -- Alfredo

Aguilar, 9, and Francisco Jeronimo, 10 -- approached Cloud with a

simple problem: The sun was out, the weather was warm and they and

their friends were hanging around the field, bored. More importantly,

the different groups weren’t always friendly neighbors. Perez,

Aguilar and Jeronimo told Cloud that they wanted an activity,

something that would bring everyone together.

“We were having some struggles,” Cloud said. “We were getting some

spring fever, a little restlessness on the playground. These boys

were coming up to me and saying, ‘We have nothing to do.’ I said,

‘Well, is there anything you’d like to do?’ They said, ‘We’d like to

play soccer, but you can never get anyone to play.’

“So I told them if they set something up, I’d support them. Three

days later, they came back with a list of names.”

The sign-up sheet that Perez, Aguilar and Jeronimo put together

was enough to field an entire league -- and that’s exactly what the

school did. To select teams, Cloud and a group of teachers met in the

multipurpose room and had every student pick a partner, then combined

the partners into eight squads with about 12 players each. Of course,

not all the people who signed up ended up playing. Others took

positions as cheerleaders, scorers and referees.

For three weeks in March, the Adams soccer league played its

regular season, with four teams playing every day and keeping track

of wins, losses and ties. Cloud purchased uniforms for all eight

teams, while the PTA bought first- and second-place ribbons for the

championship match.

BONDING AROUND A BALL

Apart from game scores, however, the league had a noticeable

effect on the school. Perez said that many of the students who used

to confront him on the playground later participated in the soccer

league.

“We got to know more people,” Aguilar said. “Some people say the

other guys cheat in the games, or they get mad that they lose. But

they get over it. Usually, they just say, ‘Good game.’”

Sports leagues always have their share of conflict, and some of

the students with the most difficult jobs at Adams were the referees,

who had to judge impartially even with their friends on the field.

Despite being fourth- and fifth-graders themselves, they had to act

as authority figures -- a tough task with players their own age and

size.

“When the refs call a foul, they come up and scream in your face,”

said fifth-grader Jesse Solis, 11. “I just tell them to do what the

refs say. I try to stay calm.”

“I say, ‘If you do that this many more times, you’ll be out of the

game,’” said his classmate, Dylan Power, 11. “I’ve gotten pretty

close [to an ejection] with this one guy because he argued with the

refs a lot, but I haven’t actually thrown anybody out.”

A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME

With the regular season ending before spring break, the league

held a playoff match last Tuesday and the championship the following

day. In the end, Manchester United defeated the Patriots, 1-0, to

claim the blue ribbon. Every student who participated in the league

also received a certificate for teamwork and sportsmanship.

Even with soccer finished now, the school may have more

tournaments to come. Cloud said that students had approached her

wanting to start leagues for football, basketball and kickball, among

others. Thinking back on the school grounds a few months ago, she’s

happy with the transformation.

“We have probably one of the most diverse schools in the entire

district, from high socioeconomic families to low socioeconomic

families,” Cloud said. “But when you look at these kids, you don’t

see differences. You see a bunch of kids who are all interested in

one thing, and that’s soccer.”

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at [email protected].