WINNETKA : GO. . .O. . .AL! : Big Effort Keeps Program Alive

It used to look like a war zone: The uniforms were military camouflage, the only posts on the soccer field supported army tents, and the name of the game was survival.

Eight months after Winnetka Park became a refugee camp for victims of the Northridge earthquake, the uniforms that dot the landscape are brightly colored shorts, the goal posts are back on the field and the name of the game is soccer.

But for supporters of American Youth Soccer Organization’s Region 29, it took all the effort of a military campaign to keep the West Valley program from being another casualty of the Northridge temblor.

“I think we’re right in there with the Northridge Little League to come in and fight the odds,” said Sibyl Sperber, who signed up boys and girls to play for the 21-year-old chapter. “We lost over half the people who live in the area, many of whom moved from the abandoned apartments.”

Brad Bowman, commissioner of Region 29, saw trouble signs immediately after the quake.

“A few days after the quake, we had a young boy come by the field and drop off his soccer uniform,” Bowman said. “He was headed back to Mexico.”

Parents also felt the changes. “It was sad to sit there and watch the news media on our soccer field,” said Jane Downey, 40, of Winnetka, recalling the swarm of television cameras surrounding the refugee camp in the weeks after the quake.

Her 10-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter have played soccer at Winnetka Park for years. “It was an empty, unusual feeling. That’s where their life is,” she said. “The thought of not playing at Winnetka was inconceivable.”

But with only 77 youngsters signed up for teams by June--far short of the 500-plus needed to begin competitive play this Saturday--the thought was more than conceivable. It hit parents in the head like a free kick.

Within days, soccer boosters had taken to the streets, schools and supermarkets, circulating flyers, hoping to sign up enough players to keep their chapter alive. Because of the economic stress on many quake victims burdened with other expenses, the chapter for the first time allowed parents to make payments on the $70 registration fee.

Thanks to the payment plan, the recruiting effort and the popularity of soccer sparked in the U. S. by this summer’s World Cup, Bowman said, the chapter was able to sign up 736 players, enough for about 60 teams. More than 250 members, he said, were brand-new.

And while the Northridge Little Leaguers may have a championship to celebrate, the spunky soccer players and their parents in Winnetka Park will be celebrating two simple words at the season’s opener this Saturday:

Play ball.