The WP Soccer Effect

Focus On Goals

Grades

Lifts Hopes

Dreams For The

Kids From The

Orchards

PRESCOTT - Nobody who knows these kids is really shocked at their success on the field. The WP Tigers have this soccer thing down, without a doubt.

In their first year as a school team, these athletes have played their way to the finals, broken all sorts of records and are now ranked first in the state.

But most people knew they had that potential. Many of these teens have been playing soccer since they could walk. Their club teams have taken first and second place in many, many championships and tournaments.

"I knew they would do it," said Archibaldo Jacobo, the athletic director at Vista Hermosa, who has coached a majority of the Tigers since they were youngsters in the community where they live outside of Prescott.

What nobody was prepared for was the impact a school-sanctioned soccer team was going to have off the field. It's changed the lives of 22 students, perhaps forever.

The Sport

In September, the Tigers took to the field at Dayton for their first match as a team. They sported brand new blue warm-ups, purchased by assistant coach Bart Baxter. They were full of energy, beaming with enthusiasm. They knew they were ready. For two weeks Baxter and head coach Rick Hamilton had worked with the play­ers four hours per day after school, conditioning and drilling. Prescott teen Lino Diaz lost 15 pounds and threat­ened to quit. But he thanked the coaches later for the endurance he gained during those first few weeks.

"At the end of the game, when the other team is out of breath and exhausted, we have our kids run suicide drills to show the other team we have energy left," Baxter said.

They squashed their op­position during that first tour­nament in Dayton, soundly beating both teams and en­joying it thoroughly. It was the other teams in the league who were sur­prised. "They didn't know what to think of us," Hamilton said after those first few games. Hamilton has tried through­out

the whole season to keep the other teams on their toes by teaching his players to keep out of the lime light, to focus on assisting rather than on scoring goals. He didn't want the other teams to be able to shut out the Tigers. What's developed is a team that works together. There are no star players. Anyone who's been to a match can see that all of the players shine. Footwork is strong. Defense is strong. Communication is strong. Nearly every game reveals a new player with what Ham­ilton has called, "a hat trick." Even some players coming off the bench will have a hat trick, seeming to score out of nowhere. The other teams in the league haven't been able to keep up with the Tigers

This has brought the team to the quarterfinals, which they play Saturday in Prescott. Could it take them all the way in their first year?

That's not the point, Ham­ilton and Baxter said. "Every one of these kids will letter," Baxter said. "We want to set a precedent. We are a varsity team. Even if the school doesn't pay the $35 for each kid, we'll finda way to get it for them all." And Hamilton has made it clear that scholastics, a good attitude, teamwork and achieving personal goals is the real focus. "Making kids believe they're winners and then becoming winners will raise the bar for them for the rest of their lives. I believe in that," he said. Hamilton is a tough-love disciplinarian while Baxter is more soft-hearted. Hamilton sets the tone for the team, while Baxter supports the kids emotionally. The two have a winning combination as a coaching team. "We're like good cop, bad cop," Baxter said. "It works." Baxter has worked with many of these kids for years in junior high programs. They're like family to him.

Just as they are to Jacobo, the athletic director at Vista Hermosa, where most of the Tigers, about 18 out of the 22 players, live.

"These are my boys," Jacobo said. He's coached them since they were very young. In the winter they play soccer indoors with a spe­cial, soft-coated ball. In the spring, summer and fall they play outdoors.

His office is papered with team photos that show the kids growing older each year. Trophies litter the small space. "We are so excited for them," Jacobo said. "The whole community wants to give support to them." The community, owned by Ralph and Cheryl Broetje of Broetje Orchards, has even transported parents to home games in buses when pos­sible. Families from the com­munity 20 minutes outside of Prescott might not have attended games otherwise. During this time of intense harvesting at the orchards, where most players have at least one parent employed, the community, coaches and teachers have become sur­rogate families to the Tigers. This "family" has been surprised, however, at what a change being part of a school team has had on the players.

The Grades Before Waitsburg and Prescott joined in a sports combine, a soccer team had been out of the question, ac­cording

to Prescott athletic director Jack Smiley.

"We have limited enroll­ment," he said. "In good years, we'd have 20 to 22 kids in football, 15 in lean years. And quite a few were Hispanic boys. We were con­cerned

that a soccer program would cut into the teams for football and volleyball." But after the combine, and after a few years spent con­vincing the community that a soccer team was a good deci­sion, the Tigers were born.

It's been a kind of re­birth for the players as well. These kids, who never had much of a reason to keep up their grades or be involved in school, are suddenly en­gaged, Smiley said. In the spring, probably 40 percent of the kids who signed up for fall soccer were not academically eligible, Smiley said.

Senior Jose Esquivel said his GPA was close to 1.8 or lower. Others like Raul Con­treras and Pedro Mendoza said the same. They all went into the season on probation. But now, Smiley said, only one player didn't pass the most recent grade check. A 2.3 GPA is required, and no Fs.

"Grades have just not been an issue," he said. "They have recommitted themselves as students. They are happier, more involved and buying into school." Esquivel's GPA is 2.8 now. Contreras has pushed himself to a 2.4. Mendoza, who sat comfortably on a 1.8 for years, now has a 3.3 GPA. "Probably half the team right now is at a 3.0 GPA or better," coach Hamilton said. "And we're trying to get the other ones up so we don't have to worry about kids making it to state." Hamilton and Baxter have led the campaign to keep their kids on the team. In addition to miles of running each afternoon, the team has 30-45 minutes of study hall each day. Hamilton and Bax­ter attend personally to make sure the kids are getting their work done. "The coaches are always pushing us," Esquivel said, though he is quick to argue with any member of the team who complains at being pushed too hard. "They just want us to succeed."

The Hopes Dreams Success is something many of the Tigers from Vis­ta

Hermosa hadn't thought much about. They just like playing soccer. It's in their blood. "It's pretty much all we do," said Miguel Velazco. With parents who work nearly all day in the orchards or the packing warehouse just up the street at Broetje, the Vista Hermosa commu­nity

has tried to keep the kids active and busy outside of school with sports.

"After we built the hous­ing community in 1990, the families who were first admitted were those trying to get away from bad living conditions in Walla Walla and the Tri-Cities or keep their kids out of gangs," said Roger Bairstow, a member of the managing board at Broetje.

"One of our first realiza­tions was that if we left the community as just a collec­tion of houses, we might become just like the com­munities these families were trying to get away from." So Vista developed before and after school programs, summer camps and other programs and activities. "Anything to give the kids something to do during off hours," Bairstow said. "After all, the purpose of the com­munity is to provide a safe and secure place to live and give families an opportunity to grow and develop." Just under 600 residents, or 135 families, live perma­nently at Vista. Most of the men work in the fields, and a majority of the women work at the warehouse. The requirement to live in the community is that at least one adult in the home work for Broetje.

These families have al­ways worked hard to sup­port their children, many of whom were born in the United States. But college, scholarships, and life beyond high school didn't figure much into the world of the Vista Hermosa teens until this year. "We never really thought about it much," said Pedro Mendoza. Now talent scouts have their eye on the Tigers, and the kids have learned about scholarships, coach Hamil­ton said. They're even talking about college.

One parent, Rebecca Wil­son, wrote in an email to Waitsburg superintendent Dr. Carol Clarke and Jack Smiley:

"As a parent of one of the soccer team players, I would like to express my strong support of Coaches Hamilton and Baxter. They demand a lot from their players and have helped these students aspire to greater goals. I have heard from other parents at the gameshellip;how their children have not thought about going to college before and now they are looking at the possibility of goinghellip;The coach has set a time at the first of practice where students study in addition to practicing their sport. For my child (Emily Wilson), this has given her another way to support her team where she feels she is a valued member and can give to others."

Beyond grades or the new dream of college, this opportunity for kids to findtheir path, where they fit in, is something being part of the Tigers family has given to its players.

"The story I find phenom­enal about this whole thing is to have the school district finally listening to these kids, what their passions are, and allowing this thing to finally move forward," said Bair­stow.

"These kids, who shall we say were not putting their most toward their grades, they've been heard. Not only are they performing better at school, but they've found their place.

"We've had programs for years trying to get these kids to improve their grades, and just a little something like saying, 'Let's have a soccer team,' has had a profound ef­fect on these kids."