It’s Their Turf, Don’t Doubt It : Soccer: Claudia Cline, Roz Matalon firmly in control of boys’ teams at Palmdale and Littlerock.

It is a recurring oversight that Claudia Cline has come to accept.

Shortly before a Palmdale High boys’ soccer match, someone, often a referee or school administrator, is likely to ask her if she has seen the Falcons’ coach.

Since Cline is the coach, she might be expected to take umbrage at such ignorance, but as with almost everything else she doesn’t let it bother her.

“I’m used to all that,” said Cline, who has guided Palmdale to a 13-4-1 overall record, 3-1 in the Golden League this season. “If I’m out there with a male assistant coach they’ll walk right by me to him even if I’m the one drilling the kids. When I was a youth-league coach I had a T-shirt that said ‘I am the coach, not the team mom.’ ”

At nearby Littlerock High, Roz Matalon has no such problem, though as both a woman and the coach of the Lobos’ boys’ soccer team, she would seem an equal candidate for misidentification.

“Roz is a high-profile person,” Littlerock Athletic Director Michael Clark said. “Once you see her, there is no doubt she is the person with direct and total control over the team.”

There have been female coaches for boys’ soccer teams in the area previously, including Midge Miller at Granada Hills from 1985-88 and Bonnie Lloyd at Antelope Valley from 1989-92. But whether two teams coached by women have met in competition, as Palmdale and Littlerock did on Jan. 10--Palmdale won, 4-0--and will again on Jan. 31, is doubtful.

The proximity of the schools, located a few miles apart on East Avenue R, also heightens awareness of Cline’s and Matalon’s roles, but the women haven’t spent much time pondering their impact on local prep history.

“It’s terrific that women can go out and coach men and be accepted,” said Matalon, who crosses paths with Cline only occasionally at soccer events. “But I’ve been coaching for 15 years and Claudia’s been at it a while, so it’s not anything new to us.”

Both Cline and Matalon are married with children, and they began their coaching careers in the 1980s at the youth level with teams that included their respective sons. It is not uncommon for women to coach youth soccer, but Cline, 44, and Matalon, 42, are now a distinct minority among their high school brethren.

And though the combination of gender and job lump Matalon and Cline together, their backgrounds and personalities are vastly different. The 5-foot-9 Cline is introspective and low-key, with a short, abrupt laugh. The 5-foot Matalon shoots from the hip, is impassioned and lets loose a loud and throaty cackle when amused.

Cline was raised in the San Fernando Valley, part of a tight-knit, active family involved in sailing and other sports, though she never played organized soccer. She graduated from Reseda High and lives in Palmdale with her family, including sons Jarrod, 15, and Beau, 18, daughter April, 11, and husband Dave.

When Jarrod, currently a sophomore and the Palmdale varsity’s starting goalie, reached high school last year, Claudia took over the junior varsity program, posting a 19-3 record. She moved up to the varsity last fall, inheriting an established program and a three-time defending league championship team, which currently is ranked eighth in Southern Section Division III.

On the sideline, Cline is mostly seen and not heard: hands in pockets or behind her back, an enormous, hooded parka enveloping her broad shoulders.

“She has a great grasp of the game; she makes good decisions when it comes to switching people around and making substitutions,” fullback Justice Jones said of his coach. “Nobody goes on the field wondering, ‘Does she know what she’s talking about?’ ”

A number of players Cline coached in youth soccer over the past 10 years are members of the Palmdale varsity, allowing her to gain some vindication for slights she once felt.

“In (youth leagues), being selected as an all-star coach was a big deal,” said Cline, who was never chosen to direct such a team. “One year I was the first-place coach and didn’t get it, then the next year I was the second-place coach and the first-place coach got it. I started thinking, ‘I just can’t win!’

“I kind of felt it was because I was a woman, but it only bothered me for a little while, maybe a day. I don’t hold grudges.”

Just down the road at Littlerock, Matalon’s past and disposition offer a distinct contrast to Cline’s even-tempered approach.

Matalon spent the early years of a turbulent childhood in Quebec and England where she learned to play soccer, before she arrived in Los Angeles with her father at 14. Once here, she became a self-described juvenile delinquent and ward of the court before graduating from North Hollywood High. She lives in Lancaster and her family includes husband Lee and sons Mathieu, 17, and Andre, 22.

A club-team coach for the past three years, Matalon served as a junior varsity assistant at Paraclete in 1986 and at Quartz Hill in 1991 when Andre and Mathieu played for those respective teams. She coached the Littlerock junior varsity in 1993-94 before becoming the Lobos’ varsity coach last fall.

This year’s campaign has not been especially smooth for either Littlerock or Matalon. The team is lodged in the Golden League basement, 0-5 in league play and 4-9 overall. Only a few players have extensive soccer backgrounds and some have been recruited from other sports at the school.

Already frustrated by the course of the season, Matalon was not pleased when she was ejected from a game against Highland on Tuesday and, in accord with Southern Section rules, was forced to miss her team’s next game, a 2-1 loss to Antelope Valley on Friday.

Still, she presses on, encouraged by a strong effort against Golden League-leader Quartz Hill and her team’s ability to get along despite an ethnic makeup Matalon refers to as “the United Nations of soccer.”

In all, Matalon offers no apologies for herself or her team. Lacking in confidence, she is not.

“I’m probably one of the better coaches in the Antelope Valley and I feel very confident in who I am,” she said. “If I don’t show that, it’s easy for a kid to sit there and say ‘It’s a lady and she’s all of 5-feet tall. I don’t have to pay attention.’ For some people it might be cocky, but for me it’s confidence.”

Indeed, despite being diminutive, Matalon has no trouble using a blunt approach to get her players’ attention. She walks the sideline and screeches instructions, occasionally in language appropriate for a waterfront saloon.

“I’m an extremely strong woman and I see no point in hedging around,” she said. “My husband says I need to work on my diplomacy, and believe me I’ve tried. It’s the biggest chink in my armor but I think the best way to handle things is to deal with them directly.”

Daniel Kowalski, Littlerock’s center fullback and a team captain, approves of Matalon’s approach.

“I like how she coaches,” the senior said. “She gives you the chance to learn and she likes to encourage a lot. If a coach is laid back, sometimes you don’t know how to get better at things.”

Clark, the school’s athletic director, is another supporter.

“Roz has a strict no-nonsense approach to the team,” Clark said, adding that Matalon was his clear-cut first choice among the three candidates for the position last year.

“She does not put up with whining or excuses. If she says something she means it and her knowledge inspires confidence among the players.”

In their first year at the varsity level, both Matalon and Cline have dealt with discipline problems. Two of Matalon’s players recently were suspended from the team for violations involving an illegal substance.

At Palmdale, Cline suspended one of her team’s star players for six games after he was ejected from a match for fighting.

“She won’t let somebody’s image stand in the way of sitting them down,” said Jones, a Palmdale player. “It’s clear to the players she won’t take any crap.”

Added Jarrod Cline: “Everyone knows she’s serious now.”

Serious, yes. Obsessed with winning, no.

“I am not a win-at-all-costs coach by any means, and I warned everyone of that when I took the job,” Cline said.

“I don’t lose control when we lose. You don’t need screaming on the sideline to win.”

Though Matalon is not exactly sedate during a match, she concurs with Cline’s philosophy.

“If a kid gives 100% of what he’s got I’m satisfied,” she said. “My biggest annoyance is kids who have the potential and don’t give it their all.”

With Cline and Matalon doing capable jobs this winter, one wonders why more women have yet to infiltrate the ranks of boys’ soccer, a sport that is often desperate for dedicated coaches.

“Lots of moms coached when their kids were younger,” Cline said. “Even now there are some women coaching up to (the 10-11-year-old level) but they stop at a certain point. I guess they’re intimidated or think they’re not qualified.”

Matalon cannot offer a more-thorough explanation.

“For a long time I was the only woman coach out there that I knew of,” she said, adding that she will retire from coaching after next year’s high-school season. “I don’t know why other women don’t do it. It’s helped having (sons) because I’m not intimidated by boys, but there’s a lot of old-world thinking out there, that guys have to do guys’ sports and women have to girls’ sports.

“I do it because I’m Roz and I want to.”