OPINION: The Story of Compton United and Victor
Community Contributor | 1-11-2010 | Comments | 
By Mike Herman, President/Founder of Compton United Soccer Club (left)In 2006, I launched the first season of “Compton United” – an official, US Soccer sanctioned soccer club for kids in Compton and the surrounding area. Up until that point, no such thing had been available. Soccer is everywhere in our community, and the talent level is stunning, but our youth play in independent Hispanic leagues that are not involved with the traditional competitive soccer system. While our kids may have some of the best talent in the country (literally), they have no opportunities to use that talent to open any other doors for their future.
In Southern California, like most of the country, college and team scouts do their recruiting through soccer clubs. To play in a club, you have to have the funds to do so (they are incredibly expensive), a local club available to try out for, and/or the transportation to travel to a not-so-local club.
As I watched our Compton kids grow up playing soccer, I saw incredible talent but nowhere for that talent to be used to help the player build his or her future. I then began to understand the inequity of the system, how these talented soccer players where essentially held out of the opportunities that the US Soccer system offered (i.e. the big tournaments, college recruiting, national & international travel, Olympic Development Program for youth, etc.)I became increasingly aware that something needed to be done. However, just creating a soccer team wasn’t going to be enough. We needed to build an entire program where education, tutoring, leadership development, community service, and character would all be emphasized and lived out.
Then finally, after two years of dreaming and planning and networking – the Compton United Soccer Club was born.
We started with one boys’ U17 team (17 and under), one sponsor to buy the uniforms, some borrowed equipment, and a whole pallet of donated PowerAde for us to sell.
Our family spent every weekend last fall with the team, driving all over to games and tournaments and cheering them on. By the time the season ended, the boys had won every game but one and taken the league title. The regional soccer magazine had featured us on the cover, telling the story of Compton United. Fox Sports Soccer channel had created a 5-min blip on CU that was running in between shows. Most importantly we had fallen in love with 14 new teenagers and their families. Number 10 on the team was Victor, a defender with a great work ethic and skill who led by his solid example of determination and consistency. Victor was one you could always count on in a game – when he was needed, he was there. He was a quiet kid who was well-liked, always teachable, humble, and a silent leader.
In one of the most memorable moments of the season, our team was playing in the exclusive Rancho Palos Verde against a team of wealthy kids. Unhappy that his team was getting beat by a bunch of poor Latinos from Compton, one player turned, spit on Victor, and remarked angrily, “Just remember, your parents work for my parents."
In an amazing show of character, Victor did not retaliate, but rallied his teammates to play even harder. When we finished the game 3-2, it was our sweetest victory of the season.
Soon after that, my wife and I were out of town and received word that Victor had been tragically shot and killed.
He had been riding home from an indoor soccer game with his brother driving and his two younger brothers in the backseat. During an attempted carjacking, Victor took a bullet through his upper body while trying to protect his older brother.
He died on the way to the hospital. As you can imagine, this news was devastating to all of us.
What followed was two weeks filled with tears and sorrow but also a great sense of pride.
We witnessed the mind-numbing pain of parents who’ve had their entire family devastated by someone else’s lust for a car. We saw the lost look in a teen’s eyes as he stood over the open casket of a lifelong friend, his hand reaching out to touch Victor’s face. And I understood a new definition of hell, as the guttural wailings of a mother who’d lost her teenage son echoed off the vaulted marble walls of a basement mausoleum.
We also witnessed amazing strength of the youth in Compton.
The week before the service they spent every day going door to door, hosting a soccer tournament, washing cars, selling tee-shirts, and anything else they could think of to raise money so that Victor’s family could afford his funeral. One morning they headed to the high school at 7 am -- summer school was in session, so the boys went classroom to classroom, passing the hat to all the teachers and students present. They raised almost $200 that day. They spent every evening at his parent’s house attending prayer vigils. They brought his family pictures and made tee-shirts and signed and framed his soccer jersey – anything to stand with each other and surround the family with the support they needed.
For the most part, they did it without parents or adults supervising them or organizing their efforts. Their creativity and initiative was profound.
Though many images are seared into my heart from that week, one stands out above the rest. Before I share, here’s a little context: Throughout the years of playing on high school and league teams, the players have ended every win with a special ritual. They circle up with arms around each other’s shoulders, locking them together, and then jump together around in a circle and they in unison call out a Spanish victory cheer. It is always a beautiful, inspiring display of solidarity and friendship, victory and celebration -- a symbol of all the good things in sports.
At the end of the burial service in the basement of the mausoleum, Victor’s older brother requested that all his friends step forward. Thirty to forty high school and college-aged guys crowded in, circled arms, and to the wails of Victor’s grieving mother and father, they did that cheer. It was absolutely electric in the corridor, as though everyone’s pain met collectively in the midst of that circle. When they finished, the boys clung to one another desperately, pouring out all their grief, weeping and laying out their broken hearts. The grief of the rest of us in the room surrounded them. This lasted for several minutes. The pain and beauty there were almost too powerful to behold – it was one of the most moving experiences of my life.
Eventually the circle broke up and the boys began to file out. Everyone hugged everyone else; whether you knew the person did not matter.
In the middle to a large group hug, I said to them, “I wish everyone could see and understand that you are the youth of Compton. You all have done such an amazing job holding up each other and Victor’s family -- Compton has never been more proud.”
It’s true – they are the youth of Compton. Many from outside our community would look at their baggy clothes, brown skin, and tattoos, and make assumptions that they are hard-hearted, uncaring, dangerous, menacing kids. Those assumptions would be wrong. They are not gang-bangers or drug dealers; they are not the nameless faces of thieves or murderers. They are Frank and Juan and Jose and Luis. Yes many of them have drunk their share of alcohol and smoked some weed along the way, as many teenagers in the suburbs have. Yes, they use language that I often wish they wouldn’t and most don’t understand the reality of their purpose and place in life.But they are also caring and respectful kids who love their families, support their friends, and are a delight to those around them. They are kids that are misunderstood, under challenged and given-up on.
They are also why Compton United exists.
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Compton United is heading to South Africa for World Cup 2010! The Compton United U13-U16 select team is heading to South Africa to participate in an international youth tournament during the 2010 World Cup. To donate funds or read more about the upcoming trip, visit the South Africa 2010 web page. Team members will also be serving as youth correspondents for the South Los Angeles Report during their trip... so stay tuned for updates!
Follow Mike Herman on Twitter @UrbanFocus
