EVOLUTION OF SOCCER

Published on December 15, 2002
© 2002- The Press Democrat

BYLINE:    BRUCE MEADOWS
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sonoma County, long a hotbed of youth soccer, reached an athletic zenith last weekend when Sonoma State University won a men's national championship and Santa Rosa Junior College captured a second straight state men's title.

It was a startling set of accomplishments that reflects a 35-year evolution that has pushed soccer in the Wine Country from an afterthought into the front ranks of organized sport. It reflects the growth of soccer into a year-round sport and the consistent upgrading of coaching and training standards.

In addition to the college titles, youth teams from the Santa Rosa area have been winning State Cup titles for years and have performed well in elite regional competitions. Local soccer players have gone on to star at major universities and play at the top professional level.

Former Montgomery High star Christina Bell went on to play for Fresno State and is now with the San Jose CyberRays of the WUSA.

``This has to be one of the top soccer communities in the country for its size,'' said Chris Ziemer, a former player who has coached in high school and with youth clubs. ``When you think of the success at various levels, the number of players, the quality of players and those going on to play at the college level, for an area as isolated as we are, the accomplishments are incredible.''

It has not always been that way. It was 1957 when Joe Belluzzo, now 83, started an adult team, the Santa Rosa Kickers. The team, all foreign-born, had to travel in order to compete.

``They got old and the team broke up,'' said Belluzzo, who first came to the U.S. as an Italian prisoner of war in 1943. ``It was hard to promote it here because people didn't have faith in the game then.''

But Belluzzo, affectionately known as ``the father of Sonoma County soccer,'' tried again with youth soccer in 1965, handing out flyers at St. Francis Shopping Center in east Santa Rosa.

``We signed up 33 boys in the under-10 and under-12 division,'' said Belluzzo. ``I never knew it would get this big but it was always a dream of mine.''

It has gotten big, with 30,000 youngsters ages 4 through 18 playing in District V, which goes from Marin County to the Oregon border.

There were 914 kids playing in 1972.

Playing at the upper levels of the sport does not come without a cost. An average club player will spend between $750 and $2,000 per season to cover costs of a trainer, equipment and travel depending on the number of tournaments entered.

Royal family

If Belluzzo is the ``father of soccer'' in this area, there is a rich supporting cast of his ``relatives.''

Craig Butcher, who began the SRJC men's program in 1978 and later coached the Santa Rosa High girls, started out coaching an under-19 team with Ron Sandwina and Berger Hoel with most games played in the East Bay.

Youth programs were starting to grow -- about 5,000 kids played in District V -- when he began the SRJC program.

There was no SRJC women's team until 1982, so top female players such as Cindy Romero competed on the men's team.

There was no high school soccer team for Butcher nor was there a program when he attended Chico State, but he spent six years in England and developed a love for the game.

He met Peter Reynaud at a soccer camp at Two Rivers in 1978. Reynaud had been coaching with the Edmonton Drillers and was taking over as soccer coach at SSU. He later coached at Fresno State and is now at Long Beach State.

``We both felt there was a need for soccer camps for kids, so we started North Bay,'' said Butcher. The camps have taught thousands of youngsters and employed hundreds of high school and college players as instructors over the years.

Happy campers

The same can be said for soccer camps created about the same time by Herb Ziemer and his sons and later by the Shaffer brothers, all of whom came up through local youth leagues.

Marcus Ziemer, head coach at SSU, and brothers Benjamin, Christopher and Andrew, all starred at Analy High, while Dave, Don and Dwayne Shaffer were a major part of soccer success at Montgomery High.

``Anybody who cares about the game owes a lot to people like Joe Belluzzo, Craig Butcher and Peter Reynaud,'' said Marcus Ziemer, who played at SSU for Reynaud and later succeeded him as head coach. ``When Peter arrived, he upped the ante. ... He opened my eyes to the tactical side of the game and I know it was the same for my brothers and many others.''

Ziemer and any other longtime soccer aficionados in this area are in agreement that the game also took a big step forward when players who had competed here as preps, went away and played in college, then came back to coach local club and high school teams.

Dan Bribiescas at SR High and current SSU women's coach Luke Oberkirch at Montgomery are prime examples.

``There were a few of us at first, but now you look at who's coaching club and high school teams and you see a lot of players who started here,'' said Oberkirch. ``People like Marcus and Chris (Sonoma Academy) Ziemer, Don (Piner), Dave (Montgomery) and Dwayne (UC Davis) Shaffer, Paul Stumpf (UCSB) ... the list goes on and on and continues to grow.''

Dedicated newcomers

While the infusion of ex-players to local coaching ranks is a key factor in soccer success, there have been coaches like Casa Grande's Steve Conner and Montgomery's Russ Peterich with no soccer backgrounds who have made an impact.

``I don't think a lot of people realize how influential Russ was to the game of soccer,'' said Oberkirch. ``He never played but he was doing things in the early '80s and late '70s that are still being done ... anybody who thinks he just threw players out there is mistaken.''

In addition to local kids coming back to coach, Butcher saw another critical change.

``When I started seeing the good athletes coming over to soccer, that was key,'' said Butcher. ``Then a lot of these kids started playing soccer year-round, another big step.''

He said when other students saw some of the top athletes opting for soccer, the talent pool grew deeper in a hurry.

Andrew Rowley, who runs Sports City indoor facilities in Cotati and Santa Rosa, recalls when he played soccer at Terra Linda High in the mid-'80s.

``I remember somebody asking the football coach why his team wasn't doing better,'' said Rowley, a former SSU player. ``He said it was because the best athletes were playing soccer.''

Paul Dixon came to the United States from Ireland 12 years ago, and has coached youth teams and prep soccer at Maria Carrillo and now Cardinal Newman.

``More athletes are making it their sport of choice,'' said Dixon, who played for the Celtics in the SF Premier League when he first came to the United States. ``Sonoma County has a good reputation that keeps improving.''

Chris Ziemer, who served as coaching director for Santa Rosa United, thinks the achievement of local club and college teams is all the more impressive because of where we are.

Butcher agrees but thinks the relative isolation has also worked in a positive way, making Sonoma County more of a close-knit soccer community.

Chris Ziemer adds the hiring of trainers was also a factor in the improvement of local club teams, especially those coached by men and women with limited soccer experience.

``Mike Tillman was coaching the Hurricanes, a U-11 girls team, and hired my brother Andrew as a trainer. ... That may have been the first time a local team had a trainer,'' recalled Ziemer. ``Mike had an auto repair business and he and Andrew worked out a deal -- Andrew trained the team and Mike worked on Andrew's VW.''

College feeder system

The success of young players at the high school and club levels has manifested itself in a steady increase in local kids moving on to the college level.

Jaime Carstensen, who played at Ursuline and is one of the area's all-time best female players, is now a starting midfielder at the University of Washington.

She played for nine years for the SRU Tsunami and drew the attention of college recruiters from Stanford and Clemson, among others. She eventually accepted a scholarship at Washington, which also has two other local players -- Kellie Smith (Maria Carrillo) and Liz Taylor (Ursuline) on its roster.

``We had some good coaches who had played, like Trish Ziemer (formerly Trish Gretton and now married to Marcus Ziemer),'' said the 20-year-old Carstensen. ``We played in some big tournaments and had a chance to compete in front of a lot of college recruiters.''

Ryan Smith, an SR High grad, achieved the pinnacle of college soccer success when he and his SSU teammates won the NCAA Division II championship in Virginia Beach, Va., last Sunday.

Smith played for SSU head coach Marcus Ziemer at the club level, and after starting out at Santa Clara, played four seasons for Ziemer at SSU.

``I played a lot of years and worked hard to get to this point,'' said Smith, who like Carstensen knows that without the training he received, playing at the college level would have been difficult.

``I got a lot of great coaching along the way. ... That made all the difference,'' said the SSU All-American defender.

Marcus Ziemer said while winning the NCAA title was the ultimate, the fact SSU did it with five local kids on the roster -- Smith, Brandon Boone (Piner), Michael Nathan (Montgomery), Tony Bussard (Clear Lake) and Chris Daly (Sonoma) made it even sweeter.

``That in itself says so much for the kids that come out of this area,'' said Ziemer. ``And it will only get better.''

Call Staff Writer Bruce Meadows at 521-5263 or e-mail bmeadows@pressdemocrat.com PHOTO: 1 by GARY KAZANJIAN / Associated Press
1 by JOHN BURGESS / The Press Democrat
1 by KENT PORTER / The Press Democrat, 1999
1 by CLAY MCLAUGHLIN / The Press Democrat

* INTERCOLLEGIATE

NCAA Division II champions

1990, Sonoma State women

2002, Sonoma State men

NCAA Division II finalists*

1998, Sonoma State women

1991, Sonoma State women

1991, Sonoma State men

*Lost in championship match

* CALIFORNIA STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

State JC champions

Santa Rosa JC men, 2001

Santa Rosa JC men, 2002

* YOUTH

SANTA ROSA UNITED

USYSA Far West Regionals

Champions

1998/99: Storm, U-12 girls

1997/98: Heat, U-13 boys

1994/95: Aftershocks, U-15 girls

CYSA-North State Cup

Champions

2002/01: Heat, U-17 boys

2000/01: Heat, U-16 boys

2000/01: Strikers, U-12 boys

1999/00: Heat, U-15 boys

1999/00: Storm, U-13 girls

1998/99: Heat, U-14 boys

1998/99: Aftershocks, U-19 girls

1998/99: Storm, U-12 girls

1997/98: Thunder, U-14 girls

1997/98: Sharks, U-15 boys

1997/98: Heat, U-13 boys

1996/97: Sharks, U-14 boys

1996/97: Tremors, U-12 girls

1995/96: Tsunami, U-14 girls

1995/96: Tremors, U-11 girls

1994/95: Aftershocks, U-15 girls

1994/95: Tsunami, U-13 girls

1993/94: Lightning, U-13 girls

NOTE: From 1992-02 15 other SRU teams reached the finals of the CYSA-North State Cup championship but did not win.
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EXPERTS SPEAK

What they're saying about the growth of soccer in Sonoma County:

``The knowledge level of players and parents gets better and better all the time ... as good as things are now, they can only get better but we need to develop places to play year-round.''
ANDREW ROWLEY
Sports City indoor soccer facilities in Cotati and Santa Rosa

``Soccer is a game that invites all to play ... I'm proud of what I may have done for soccer here, but the game itself did most of it.''
JOE BELLUZZO
The ``father of soccer'' in Sonoma County

``As close as we are to the pro atmosphere, we are not as close as others in the Bay Area ... soccer here is a more community-focused activity.''
CRAIG BUTCHER
Former SRJC and SR High coach who along with Peter Reynaud started North Bay Soccer Camps

``The level of play from our club teams has continued to grow ... we are now a force when it comes to State Cup.''
PAUL DIXON
Cardinal Newman coach

``College coaches recognize more and more the talent of players coming out of this area.''
CHRIS ZIEMER
Former SRU coaching director and now girls' coach at Sonoma Academy

``The kids in this area are lucky to have the coaching they do ... for every good player to come out of here, there are coaches who have been influential along the way.''
DAVE SHAFFER
Former Montgomery star and now that school's boys' coach

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