The Castillos were drawn
to Santos because their parents emigrated
from Torreon. Tigres of Monterrey were
interested in Edgar, because they saw him
play at the Dallas Cup, but Edgar's father
thought he'd be better off in a place where
he had relatives.
In 2005, Edgar and Noel
attended a tryout for young players at
Santos. Out of the 300 players, they were
among the eight who were chosen and offered
long-term contracts. "At first we were
on the team that practiced on the dirt
field," says Noel.
But they moved up quickly,
especially Edgar, who earns the kind of
bonuses that enabled him to buy a house,
which he'll move into when it's fixed up.
For now, he and Noel live with their grandmother.
On a few occasions when the boys were young,
the Castillo family took a 12-hour bus
ride to Torreon. One time they happened
to be there when Santos beat Necaxa to
win the Mexican league title.
"I told my dad, 'I'm
going to play for Santos," Edgar says.
The fact that he now does has much to do
with Linda Lara. In 1984, she signed her
oldest child up for a YMCA soccer league. "I
didn't know anything about soccer," says
Lara. "But my son said,
'All the guys say it's fun. You kick the
ball.'"
"All the guys" were
children of Mexican immigrants in their
Las Cruces neighborhood. But when Lara
tried to sign her son up, she was told
she would have to coach. "I read some books
and asked the older boys to help," says
Lara. She eventually started Strikers FC
and when she realized she had some talented
kids learned that if they wanted national
team or college opportunities they would
have to travel to major tournaments and
send kids to ODP tryouts.
Lara was born and raised
in Deming, N.M., and had never been out
of the state when she began organizing
trips for her teams. Qualifying for regional
cups meant venturing as far as Hawaii.
The center of New Mexico's organized soccer
is 224 miles north in Albuquerque, so even
in-state trips proved costly for players
whose parents are often unemployed or hold
low-income jobs in the service industry.
Three hotel rooms would often accommodate
their whole team. Lara frequently spends
her own money on the boys.
"I have no life savings
left and go to my credit cards often," says
Lara, who is an elementary school counselor
and a family therapist for parents of disabled
children. Her main goal is to
see Strikers players attend college --
and many have -- but she's pleased with
the Castillos' success at Santos. Guadarrama
did attend college for one season, at Campbell
University, where his older brother Willy
was the NCAA Division I leading scorer
in 2005. Both played for the Austin Capitals.
Willy Guadarrama is
now with MLS's Kansas City Wizards. Sonny
Guadarrama attended a Santos tryout in
December 2005 and was immediately offered
a contract. His father, Sergio, agreed
on the condition that they would fund his
university education in Torreon. Sonny
attends classes in addition to appearing
for both Santos' second and first division
teams.
Sergio had emigrated
from Mexico to Texas when he was 25. He
set up a 30-by-30-yard soccer field in
their backyard and constructed an indoor "arena" for
them - a 20-by-20 foot concrete structure. "I
thought it would be good for the boys to
be able to play indoor and outdoors," said
Sergio, an architect.
Says Willy, "We played
all the time and brought friends to join
us. The soccer room didn't have windows
or air conditioning, so it would get pretty
hot, but it was a lot of fun and gave us
a place to play when it rained."
Sonny Guadarrama, who
has dual citizenship, was called into the
Mexican U-20 national team pool shortly
after arriving in Mexico and is currently
in camp with the World Youth Championship-bound
team, but Sergio says he'll play for the
U.S. U-20s, who had given him brief looks,
if they send an invite.
"The kid's a playmaker," says
Campbell coach Doug Hess, "a true attacking
midfielder who scores from long range,
which is a rare, rare commodity in America.
To be honest, I don't think they'd know
what to do with him in MLS. It was the
same with the national teams. They brought
him in to the U-15s, the U-18s, the U-20s,
but never did anything with him. He always
did well, scored goals, but I'd hear comments
like 'he can't defend.'"
In fact, more Latino
players from the USA are looking to Mexico,
whose clubs may have a better appreciation
for their style of play. Loyola Marymount
coach Paul Krumpe believes that MLS tends
to pass on smaller, technical players like
5-foot-7 Junior Ybarra, who is headed to
Necaxa after finishing up at LMU. Lara
says the frequent response she got from
ODP coaches about Edgar Castillo, who now
stands 5-foot-9, was, "He's so small. He's
so small."
Michael Orozco, a 20-year-old
native of Orange, Calif., who played for
the Irvine Strikers, has started seven
games for Mexican First Division team San
Luis, which he was hooked up with by Hugo
Salcedo, a player representative for Proactive
Sports Management. "MLS right now does
not really have a system to take care of
youngsters like Michael Orozco," Salcedo
says. "Within one year, he made it to the
top team at San Luis."
Sammy Ochoa, 20, who
was born in Mexico and raised in Riverside.
Calif., debuted for UAG Tecos last year.
Jesus Padilla, born in Mexico and raised
in San Jose, Calif., debuted for Chivas
Guadalajara's first team in 2006 and sees
action for its second division team.
Also headed to Chivas
Guadalajara this summer is Bryan Leyva,
15, who was born in Mexico but grew up
in Dallas, where he played for Everton
FC America. It does appear a trend
has begun. Mexican clubs are actively scouting
U.S. talent with Mexican heritage and even
the Mexican national team has been holding
tryouts in major U.S. cities.
