Team Focus: South Valley Chivas Academy

In 2008, I featured a piece on siblings Alexis and Amber Hernandez. Mexican-Americans who have grown up in the Central Valley of California, they had at the time both recently been called up to play for Mexico’s U-17s. Today, I return to this story by focusing on the club which helped them to develop. The South Valley Chivas Academy in Porterville, California has, for the past several years, been developing young players against tremendous odds, including poverty, isolation, and cultural differences. Yet despite these challenges, the academy has succeeded in developing several promising young players, including Amber and Alexis, and become an official academy for Mexican powerhouse Chivas.

The academy formed as part of Chivas’s sangre nueva (new blood) effort to develop young talent. While at a player identification try-out in 2005 for young players that Chivas Guadalajara put on in San Bernardino (it drew 15,000 players and showed the top brass in Mexico that there was the potential for a US-based team; later that year Chivas USA was founded), Alexis was identified by then scout Dennis te Kloese. Esmaldo and Gilbert kept in contact with te Kloese and when Chivas decided to establish actual affiliated academies in the United States, South Valley Chivas become the second one.

Photo: South Valley Chivas Academy

While it might seem odd that a club based in Guadalajara, Mexico would seek a partnership with a youth club in California’s Central Valley, it makes sense when one considers the history of Mexican migration to that area to work in its expansive agricultural fields. Esmaldo Hernandez estimates that around 75% of the players in the academy are Mexican or Mexican-American. The Hernandez brothers estimate that half of the players in the academy are children of farmworkers, which creates many challenges. Although they try to keep the costs low, the $35 monthly fee is too much for many. Gilbert and Esmaldo do fundraising in the community and even chip in their own money to help players, half of whom receive scholarships, to be part of South Valley Chivas.

The location of the academy also proves a formidable challenge. Located in the small town of Porterville (population 30,000) in Tulare County (the poorest in California) in the middle of the Central Valley, well known for agriculture, which has fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. Yet these are agricultural, not soccer, fields, and finding opponents often involves a long drive. The nearest serious competition is 75 miles away in Fresno; Los Angeles is 3 hours away. Chivas USA has invited players from the academy to come to events in LA, but when Esmaldo has told parents about the opportunity, some have expressed reluctance because they can’t afford to take their kids. “They say, ‘I can’t go, I have to work.’ And it’s not just one or two. Pretty soon, you need a bus load because it’s 20 kids who can’t afford it.”

Farmworkers in Tulare County (photo: Humboldt Magazine)

Getting to games is a challenge for the academy’s teams, and as a result it is often difficult to get their players noticed by scouts and coaches from professional and college teams. Players who Chivas USA might be interested in having join their academy can’t spend the time or money to take the three times a week trip to LA. Chivas Guadalajara has shown interest in some players as well (and indeed some have gone to play with their youth teams for tournaments like Copa Chivas), but for many parents, especially those who don’t have papers to be in the US, the idea of sending their kid to Mexico to join that team’s youth academy is off-putting. “What good is it going to do to have my son over there [in Mexico],” Esmaldo has heard several say, “if I can’t even leave the country?”

In addition, the move by US Soccer to establish a development academy system in 2007 has, ironically, marginalized clubs like the South Valley Chivas Academy that are not a part of it. While the academy almost made the cut, it was not one of the select group of clubs chosen and thus does not receive the support and scouting that those within the system do. When informed of this decision, Gilbert was disappointed, but told US Soccer, “it’s a good thing what you’re doing with the academy system, but for us, what you’re doing is just making it that much harder for some of these kids to be looked at.” He insists: “There is talent here. There’s just not the funding to do anything with these kids.”

Being Mexican-American helps Esmaldo and Gilbert Hernandez connect to academy players as well as their families. But there are some areas in which cultural differences make it a challenge for them to achieve the academy’s goals. 75% of players on the boys teams, for example, are Latinos while only 25% of players on the girls teams are Latinas. Little by little, Esmaldo says, they are seeing changing gender norms that are allowing more Latinas to play. “But still,” he says, “you’ve got old Mexican customs that girls aren’t supposed to play soccer.”

South Valley Chivas girls 1998 team (photo: South Valley Chivas Academy)

In addition, while Gilbert tries to help players to do everything necessary in order to ensure they are eligible to play at the college level (in his day job, he works for the local schools), he often has to fight against cultural norms, including the desire of parents as well as their children to keep family members close by. “For many, it’s like they are still living in Mexico,” says Gilbert. For them, the idea of going several hours or farther to play college soccer can be a tough sell. In some cases, talented players end up getting lured to play in local unaffiliated leagues made up primarily of Latino players. Gilbert and Esmaldo say that the success Alexis and Amber have had has shown some the possibilities that are out there, but it continues to be a tough slog.

The Hernandez brothers say they continue to do the work to support the academy because they want to see youngsters from the community (where they both grew up) succeed. Although they face many obstacles, they hope to see their hard work bear fruit. With half a dozen of their current U18 team being looked at by college coaches and some having interested pro teams in Mexico, their efforts appear to be paying off. The poverty and remoteness in the Central Valley may be obstacles, but South Valley Chivas is helping to overcome them in order to develop talented players. “If you have talent, someone needs to look at you,” says Esmaldo. “Talent is talent, no matter who you are.”

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Ethnicity/Race, Immigration, Interviews, Latin America, North America, Team Focus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.