This Mom’s in a League of Her Own : Despite a Handicap, Gloria Soto Helps Steer Kids Away From Gangs

Gloria Soto stood at the edge of the basketball court, balancing herself on her cane as she watched a team of 10 boys shoot hoops amid the deafening noise of basketballs and feet slamming against the gymnasium floor.

She looked like a proud team mother, and she was--her 13-year-old son, David, was one of the players. But Soto, barely 5 feet tall and suffering from a physical handicap that forces her to use a cane, is also the team’s coach.

“I used to play in high school,” said Soto, a lively, bright-eyed woman who played in her Northern California hometown of Watsonville in the 1960s. “I’m a little rusty now, but they sure get surprised when I go up there with my cane and make a basket.”

This Pico-Union mother of two became a part-time basketball coach earlier this year when she learned of a league for middle-school age boys sponsored by the Los Angeles Lakers through the Ketchum Downtown YMCA.

Soto originally planned simply to help recruit players among her son’s classmates at Berendo Middle School, then hand them over to a male coach. But she found herself taking charge when the coach had to drop out of the project. The boys, who still wanted to play, urged her to become their coach.

Ultimately, her long-buried love of basketball--coupled with a desire to keep the boys off the neighborhood’s gang-ridden streets--led her to complete eight hours of training under the Lakers’ coaching program.

“I saw it as gang prevention,” Soto said. “I wanted these kids to know there are some positive options out there. They get to belong to something, but it’s not a gang, it’s a team.”

This latest responsibility tops off Soto’s already full plate. A full-time homemaker, she cooks and cares for her family, volunteers in the community, attends leadership training classes and is active in her neighborhood watch despite a debilitating lack of equilibrium she developed after suffering head injuries in a severe fall.

But although she must use a cane to balance herself, Soto does not let this handicap get in her way. Her walk is slow, but her rapid-fire speech and hand gestures give the impression that she has energy to spare.

“The kids on the team know I’m limited and they accept my limitations,” she said. “It’s a different kind of coaching that I do. I coach from my chair and get them involved in assistant coaching so they can take on leadership. The older kids with more experience counsel the younger ones. I like allowing them to self-govern and be leaders because they ought to have that experience.”

After several minutes of allowing her team to shoot hoops, Soto concluded that it was time for a new exercise. As she hobbled to the center of the court, the playing stopped immediately and the boys huddled to listen to her instructions.

Soto, who is one of only two female coaches in the Lakers-sponsored league, said, “It was their decision to have me be their coach, so they never really talked about gender too much. I was the only woman in my training class and at first it was a little scary. But because (the boys) were so willing to accept me, I went through with it.”

Soto’s neighborhood watch, the Pico-Union Improvement Assn., readily agreed to her request to put up $150 to help sponsor the team. Soto’s team practices twice a week in the YMCA Teen Center downtown and plays against other teams in the league on Saturdays.

Soto hopes to recruit more community sponsors, such as local businesses, so more basketball teams can be formed for Pico-Union kids next year.

She would especially like to see some girls’ basketball teams formed under the Lakers program, she said. Not only would Soto’s 15-year-old daughter, Kristy--who already plays in another league--love to join, but her mother would also like to coach a girls’ team.

For now, though, her boys are in second place. If they keep winning, they will have a shot at competing for the league championship that will be held either at the Forum, the Los Angeles Sports Arena or UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion.

The prospect of playing at the Forum lured most of the boys to the team, Soto said.

“Their team uniforms say ‘Junior Lakers,” she said. “For my son, David, this is like a dream.”

While David was busy dribbling on the court, 14-year-old teammate Raul Chavez sat in the adjoining TV room, talking excitedly about the possibility of playing on the same court as his Laker heroes.

“I hear we might get to play at the Forum,” he said, his pitch steadily rising. “I mean hey, it’s the Forum!”

An older, more jaded teen-ager from one of the senior leagues eyed him skeptically from the couch.

“Yeah, but you’re gonna have to beat the Crenshaw league, and they’re bad ,” he warned.

Whether her team wins the championship or not, Soto believes the experience will have been good for the boys, and hopes they continue playing next season.

“There are lots of programs for little kids, and lots for older teen-agers, but not enough for teens this age,” she said. “To me, this is something that keeps them off the street. It’s healthy, it’s good and it’s positive.”