Presented by the Aztecas Youth Soccer Academy
Thursday October 15, 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Community Foundation Santa Cruz Rooftop Terrace, 7807 Soquel Dr. Aptos. Tickets: $45; $70 per couple
Join the many supporters to celebrate Aztecas’ inspiring successes and dreams for our community! Enjoy great local food, drink and live music while socializing and bidding on a huge variety of auction items to benefit the Aztecas Youth Soccer Academy. Be a part of a healthy solution that reclaims the lives of at-risk youth.
The Aztecas Youth Soccer Academy works directly with young Latino males (aged 13-20) referred to the program due to gang affiliations, violent lifestyles or a high risk of developing them. Most are already probationers, but about 15% are from local school districts and the local County Office of Education. All players and peer mentors are Pajaro Valley residents, primarily from south Santa Cruz County; more than 90% are from very low-income families.
The core program is a competitive soccer program for at-risk Latino youth in Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley. In 2015-16, Aztecas’ growing program will enroll at least 50 participants, aged 13-20, in year-round indoor and outdoor soccer practices and games.
Aztecas’ top-level competitive soccer training creates the structure around which they provide counseling, healthy lifestyle choices, career support, and educational activities to replace gang behaviors. They promote positive career choices and nonviolent community engagement for our soccer players.
Their youth learn to identify as Aztecas — i.e. successful soccer players and athletes — instead of gang members and dropouts. Each participant is provided with:
- A team — Opposing gang members play together, as teammates, on every Aztecas team.
- Counseling, Life Skills — Mentored by older peers and adults, Aztecas learn sportsmanship, conflict resolution, and anger management at soccer practices, games, and team meetings year-round – on and off the field.
- Probation Help — Aztecas are actively engaged in soccer practices/games during (high-crime) evenings and weekends year-round; probation violations decrease dramatically.
- Extracurricular Activities/Community Service — Aztecas youth and families participate in many classes/events (gang interventions, health classes, field trips). Mentors and coaches promote transitions to college, vocational training and jobs, and participate with Aztecas in service activities that ‘give back’ to the community.
- Consistent/Intensive Physical Exercise — Coaches and mentors train and encourage youth several hours each week, individually and in team play.
Deputy Probation Officer Gina Castañeda founded the Aztecas Soccer Program in 2008 for Latino juvenile probationers who affiliate with both Norteño and Sureño gangs.
As an adolescent raised in a gang family in Watsonville, Gina experienced intervals of homelessness and domestic violence while witnessing most of her siblings become involved in the criminal justice system. Gina avoided gang involvement by playing soccer in high school.
She learned self-esteem and a more positive life path that ultimately motivated her to reach out and help her community’s most at-risk youth. Ms. Castañeda is the heart of the program. Gina’s tough upbringing — and the origins of the Aztecas — is described in an ESPN documentary “The Save.”
The Aztecas Youth Soccer Academy uses soccer to reclaim the lives of at-risk Latino youth who struggle with gangs, violence and poverty in Santa Cruz County and the Pajaro Valley. The players develop the life skills to thrive on and off the field: with each other, with family, and with community.
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For more information visit: www.aztecas youthsocceracademy.org/golden-goals1 “We Build Character and Community, One Goal at a Time.”