Latino Inclusion: How far have we come? (Part 1)

By Mike Woitalla

Only two decades ago, the United States had never had a Hispanic head coach at any level of its national team program and Latino players were rarely seenin a U.S uniform. In a nation with a large Latino community with deep soccer roots — competing in a world where Latin-style soccer was the most successful and many would say the most entertaining –the Hispanic player pool was largely excluded from mainstream soccer.

“From an ethnic standpoint,” says Alan Rothenberg, the U.S. Soccer Federation’spresident from 1990 to 1998, “We were dominated by Europeans who didn’t have interest in Hispanics.”

In 1994, U.S. Soccer hired Carlos Juarez, aSouthern Californian of Guatemalan descent, as a liaison to the Latino community. We checked in with Juarez, who is still a U.S. Soccer coaching schools instructor and serves as a national team chiefscout for Coach Jurgen Klinsmann, for Part 1 of our series looking at the two decades since the USSF launched a concerted effort to be more inclusive.

“Back then,any kind of progression in integrating Hispanics — whether coaches or players or families — would have been a positive,” says Juarez. “Now we’re actually part of the soccer culturein the United States. We’re a very strong part of it and making an impact. You’ll see that if you look at the national teams, the U-17s, the U-20s …”

In 1994,CYSA-South was estimated at having about 8 percent Latino players. Twenty years later?

“I don’t know the exact figure,” says Juarez, who also serves as Claremont StarsSC director in Southern California. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s maybe 40 percent. It’s huge now.”

Juarez estimates that the number of Hispanics whoattend the USSF coaching license courses has quadrupled within two decades.

In 2007, U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati, who had also served under Rothenberg, hiredWilmer Cabrera to take charge of the boys U-17 national team — the first time the USA had a Hispanic head coach for a team that competed for a world championship. Also duringGulati’s tenure, Tab Ramos became U-20 national team coach, Javier Perez the U-18 head coach, Hugo Perez has headed the U-15s and U-14s, andAlbertin Montoya coached the U.S. girls U-17 national team in 2011-12. Claudio Reyna served as U.S. Soccer Youth Technical Director from 2010 to 2013, and Ramos nowholds that position.

The launch of the U.S. Development Academy has demonstrated a significant increase in the number of Latino players at the elite level of the youth game — nearly 40percent of the players on its MLS-affiliated clubs are Latinos. The U.S. Soccer also employs nine Technical Advisors who oversee its Academy scouting program and monitor the clubs. Nearly half areHispanic, including Hugo Perez and Juan Carlos Michia, who after Juarez and Rene Miramontes became the third Latino U.S. soccer staff coach hired during theRothenberg presidency in the outreach effort.

When Juarez was hired, he was charged with recruiting Latino coaches to take U.S. Soccer courses, convincing Latino leagues to affiliate withU.S. Soccer, and getting the USSF coaching staff to recognize the talent of Latino players.

“Back then, it was more of coaches not understanding or not having experience coachingthe Hispanic player,” says Juarez. “There were doubts. Is the Hispanic player hard-working? Does the Hispanic player have limitations because of size? More than anything it was lack ofexperience.”

Juarez had to challenge those prejudices in an era when the USA was more isolated to the realities of a soccer world in which individual skills and the emphasis onpossession, hallmarks of Latin-style soccer, make it obvious that we shouldn’t be ignoring our Latino soccer community. Today, any coach who judges talent on size can be trounced with the wordsLionel Messi, Xavi or Andres Iniesta. Any coach whose model comes from the England can’t deny that the EPL’s best teams rely so heavilyplayers from southern Europe and Latin America.

“Now things are more open,” Juarez says. “Everything is out there television. It’s in front of us. Now the bigdifference is we’re open-minded and looking for the best possible players — it doesn’t matter what color, the size. Globally, those things don’t matter. We’re trying tocompete with the rest of the world. We’re trying to find the best talent regardless race.”

Contributing to the exclusion of Latinos from mainstream soccer has been thehigh-cost of youth soccer in the USA.

“This is an issue in general, not just for the Hispanic community,” says Juarez. “As long as pay-to-play exists, there’salways going to be some limitation.  It has improved. At some of the [U.S. Soccer Development] Academy clubs, the kids don’t have to pay. A lot of clubs try hard to‘scholarship’ players. But the economics still have an effect on participation. There are still barriers, but a lot of barriers have been broken down and we’re going in the rightdirection.”

(Carlos Juarez is Chief Scout for the U.S. men’s national team, a member of the USSF Coaching SchoolsInstructional Staff, and the director of Southern California youth club Claremont Stars. He has been head coach of the WUSA’s San Diego Spirit, Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona. Hewas assistant coach of Chivas USA in 2010.)

(In Part 2, The Youth Soccer Insider will check in with Rene Miramontes and Juan Carlos Michia, who followedJuarez in the role of U.S. Soccer liaison to the Latino Community.)

(Mike Woitalla, the executive editor of Soccer America, is co-author, with TimMulqueen, of The Complete SoccerGoalkeeper and co-author with Claudio Reyna of More Than Goals: The Journey fromBackyard Games to World Cup Competition. Woitalla’s youth soccer articles are archived at YouthSoccerFun.com. Woitalla refs youth soccer in NorthernCalifornia and coaches at East Bay United/Bay Oaks.)

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