‘Get rid of the Mexican league’: Lawsuit alleges university’s decision to kick soccer club off field was racially motivated

A nonprofit youth soccer club has sued Vanguard University, alleging that the private Christian college in Costa Mesa stopped the group from using its campus athletic fields because neighbors objected to the presence of Latino players and their families.

The lawsuit, filed June 9 in Orange County Superior Court, outlines accusations that Vanguard backed out of a contract with the Costa Mesa-based Pateadores in 2015 after residents complained that games and practices disrupted the quiet neighborhood.

The suit alleges those complaints were baseless and fires back with claims that Latino players and spectators were subjected to racial slurs and other discrimination from neighbors and Vanguard employees.

“It seems like the impetus for the breach of the agreement was racially motivated,” said Pateadores attorney Saul Wolf in an interview Friday.

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The suit alleges that when the club’s leadership asked how they could help resolve the complaints, Vanguard employees suggested they should “get rid of the Mexican league” because it “looked like we have a bunch of gang-bangers on campus.”

Vanguard has denied any racial motivation to ending the agreement, instead calling it a “commercial dispute.”

“For inexplicable reasons, the Pateadores have chosen to insert the racial component, and we find it inflammatory,” University President Michael Beals said in a prepared statement Friday. “It is altogether counter to the values of Vanguard University.”

Beals pointed out that Vanguard’s student population is 38% Hispanic and that its men’s soccer team is 83% Hispanic.

In addition, Beals said, Vanguard recently won $2.57 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Education specifically for providing educational opportunities for Hispanic students.

“These three things alone represent quite a different picture than the Pateadores are asserting,” his statement added. “We will be addressing their claim directly in court and will respond strongly to protecting our reputation from this type of inflammatory claim that is a blatant misrepresentation of who we are at Vanguard University.”

The relationship between the Pateadores and Vanguard has been rocky, according to the lawsuit.

Vanguard first made an agreement in 2010 with the Pateadores for the club to use some of the campus’ sports facilities.

The club, founded in 1987, agreed to pay about $200,000 toward field improvements, plus an annual fee of $8,000 for the privilege, according to court documents.

But the lawsuit alleges Vanguard neglected to maintain its fields, making them “completely unplayable” by July 2012.

Because of this, the Pateadores claim, they had to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to rent fields elsewhere, so the club asked Vanguard for a $183,000 refund, according to the lawsuit.

Instead, the Pateadores and Vanguard agreed to apply that amount as credit toward a new 20-year deal that involved the soccer club pitching in even more cash, court documents state.

Vanguard agreed to install a new turf field, three smaller courts for futsal — a modified form of soccer — and other amenities if the Pateadores shared the costs by contributing about $100,000 a year, according to the lawsuit.

These payments guaranteed the soccer club could use the facility during designated hours, including most evenings and for 20 hours each weekend, the lawsuit states.

But, the suit alleges, construction on the field and futsal courts lagged behind schedule, again forcing the Pateadores to rent out other space.

When the club finally got to use the facilities, the lawsuit alleges, neighbors complained.

The Pateadores contend that Vanguard responded by banning their use of the futsal courts at night and telling them to limit or discontinue another recreational soccer league the club operated specifically for Costa Mesa youth.

In February 2014, neighbors told the Daily Pilot that they believed the soccer field was being used excessively.

They said constant noise, bright lights for night games and a parking crunch made the situation unbearable.

“It had nothing to do with race,” said Debbie Wilson, a board member of the homeowners association that represents the Newport Landing neighborhood adjacent to Vanguard.

Some of Wilson’s neighbors live just a few feet from the edge of the soccer field, separated only by a fence.

“They were pretty much beside themselves with all the noise,” she said in an interview Friday.

But the lawsuit claims neighbors complained about the Pateadores causing disturbances even on days when nobody from the club used the facility.

“It was clear that these unwarranted ‘complaints’ were fabricated and aimed towards ridding the neighborhood of a certain color of person that the neighbors did not like,” the suit alleges.

In late 2014, Vanguard and the Pateadores tried to work out their conflicts, but the university ultimately canceled their contract unilaterally in March 2015, according to the lawsuit.

The upheaval has cost the Pateadores organization more than $350,000, Wolf said. The lawsuit seeks to recoup at least that much, plus other unspecified damages from Vanguard.

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Jeremiah Dobruck, [email protected]

Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck

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