Discovery Starts in the Valley for Kickers

A grass field that is surrounded by an ivy-covered fence, a baseball field, a few classrooms and a parking lot crammed with nearly 100 yellow school buses. . . .

That’s it.

That’s where the Hollywood Kickers, a professional soccer team, practice. That’s where Kickers Coach Dieter Hochheimer trains his players for games in the little-known Western Soccer Alliance. That’s where many former high school and college soccer players take their last kicks.

That’s where Hochheimer, 11 years a veteran of professional soccer in Europe, found himself this week--twilight on a Van Nuys schoolyard with a with a bunch of young Americans.

“So far, I am pretty pleased with this team,” said Hochheimer, who at 33 says he is too old to play but young enough to practice with his team. “I’m very surprised. This town is the perfect place to play outdoor soccer--the weather, the youth soccer movement, all the parks. I assumed when we put this team together that we would get a high-quality type of player. We have and I’m very pleased.”

Even more pleasing for Hochheimer, who has a business interest in the Kickers, would be bleachers filled with ticket-buying fans. Although the Kickers have drawn as many as 3,000 fans to a home game at Birmingham High, they have yet to establish a loyal following.

The American Youth Soccer Organization continues to flourish in the Valley area. High school soccer, after a brief spell as a sometimes violent, out-of-control athletic elective, is gaining popularity and a following. The NCAA has brought soccer out of the Ivy League into the mainstream; UCLA is the defending NCAA Division I champion. Soccer is ranked eighth in the country as a spectator sport.

But even though soccer ranks No. 8, it falls below professional wrestling and greyhound racing.

“It is very hard to get people to know us,” said Hochheimer, figuring that the current World Cup tournament in Mexico City is enough soccer for one planet. “We hope to do everything as a follow-up to the World Cup, hoping we can keep the Los Angeles soccer fan excited about the WSA.”

To do that, Hochheimer and the Kickers organization have taken a path similar to that taken by Marwan Ass’ad, the Cal State Northridge soccer coach. Ass’ad’s plan was to recruit from the Valley area, believing it necessary to get Valley fans through the turnstiles.

It worked for CSUN, which averaged more than 1,000 in home attendance last season. In fact, Northridge, which finished that season ranked fifth in the nation, was chosen as the site for the 1985 NCAA Western Regional largely due to its fan following.

“In the L.A. area, there is a great number of talented American soccer players,” Hochheimer said. “They just need to be discovered and put on a team.

“To build a good team, it was not necessary to find players from all over the world. We just checked the L.A. area and found a good number of good players right here.”

At least good enough to move the Kickers (2-2-1) into first place in the seven-team WSA. Hollywood plays the Edmonton Brick Men in a 7:30 game tonight at Birmingham.

Some of the Southern California players include Doug Swanson, Paul Krumpe and Mike Getchell, all members of UCLA’s national championship team; Alberto Bru from Chatsworth High, and Armando Ceja, Richard Torres, Lalo Zatarain and Martin Vasquez from Cal State L.A.

The Kickers’ roster also includes Lewis Garcia, Cal State Fullerton’s most valuable player in 1985; Scott Murray, the lone senior on last season’s CSUN team that fell one game short of advancing to the NCAA Final Four; and Steve Ledezzma from Simi Valley, who has played professionally in Sweden for the last two years.

Despite relative anonymity, Hochheimer faces another problem. The Major Indoor Soccer League has already drafted four of his top players. Swanson and Getchell, both U.S. national team members were selected by the Tacoma Stars, Krumpe, another national team player, was chosen by the Chicago Sting and Louie Cuevas, a four-time NAIA All-America selection at Westmont College, was picked by the L.A. Lazers.

“At this point we can’t compete with the MISL,” Hochheimer said.