Footloose and fancy free
Mike Sciacca
Kim Stempkowski is taking full advantage of her youth.
At 22, the Huntington Beach resident is venturing to new places,
having recently arrived back in Surf City following a five-month stay
in Europe as part of a student exchange program.
A few weeks after returning home, she continues to be on the move,
venturing into fairly new territory once again as an active member of
the Ultimate Soccer League.
Stempkowski, who prepped at Edison High, is a defender for the New
York Star Gazers in the four-team league that is in the midst of a
month-long season.
“I’m having a blast with all of this,” she said. “I just got
back from an awesome experience in Europe and now it’s back to
soccer. I’m having fun, staying in shape and meeting some great, new
people.”
Stempkowski is one of 18 players on the New York roster. Don’t let
the team’s name fool you: the team itself is not based in New York.
Star Gazer home games are played at various sites in the South Bay
area.
Stempkowski scored two goals in New York’s season opener, which
was a loss to the Los Angeles Roxies on July 6.
“Kim definitely was one of the league’s standouts after our first
weekend of play,” said Mike Evans, an Ultimate Soccer League coach.
“She scored two beautiful goals and has a really good-looking
shot.”
Stempkowski and the Star Gazers will meet the Miami Wave Breakers
at 10 a.m. Saturday at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
“What’s fun about this league is that it gives me the opportunity
to play on the same team with girls whom I normally would play
against,” she explained. “We’re now friends on the same team,
instead of enemies on opposing sides.”
The Ultimate Soccer League is in its second year of existence. The
league offers a quicker, faster paced game of soccer with eight
players -- instead of the standard 11 -- per side.
Participants in the league are either top level collegiate or club
players.
Following a standout career at Edison, which included All-CIF
honors as well as offensive MVP of the Sunset League as a senior in
1997-98, Stempkowski went on to play at Cal State Long Beach, which
started a women’s soccer program when she entered her freshman year
in the fall of 1998.
She played four years for the 49ers and, although her playing
eligibility is up, she will return to campus in August to complete
her studies in human resources.
She is one semester shy of earning her degree.
“Playing in the Ultimate Soccer League is a lot different than
playing in college, even high school,” she said. “You play with the
same girls for up to four years at both levels but with this new
league, girls come and go.
“For instance, the Star Gazers didn’t have a practice before we
played our first game earlier this month. A lot of us actually met
each other about an hour before our first match. That makes it
interesting because you have to learn to read a person and their
playing habits in the first 10 minutes of a game.”
That’s not all that Stempkowski -- and the league’s other players
-- finds of interest.
Ultimate Soccer League plays by its own rules.
First off, there is what the league terms a “fast field,”
something that Stempkowski likes. The game is played between the
10-yard and sidelines of a football field, measured 80 yards by 50
yards. Ultimate Soccer also has its own goal posts, although net
sizes have not been altered from the standard.
Eight players -- including a goalkeeper -- comprise each team.
Free substitution is allowed to keep players “fresh” and there are
no “offsides” penalties.
There are direct kicks on all penalties and on all out-of-bounds
situations, kick-ins resume play. What Stempkowski also likes is the
league’s scoring system, which is completely different than standard
soccer score keeping. There are two different point systems, one
which allows for three points on a traditional net goal, and a
one-point addition for a long distance score.
“It makes for a fun game. The scoring is much higher than the
soccer that I’m used to playing, and it makes for much quicker-paced
action for the fans,” said Stempkowski, who learned of the new
league last year through her father, Joe, who works for Toyota, a
sponsor of the Ultimate Soccer League.
While she has enjoyed playing in the league in its first two
years, Stempkowski isn’t certain about playing in 2003.
She just returned from studying for five months at the Hoges
Haarlem Business School in The Netherlands. While there, she, along
with three Cal State Long Beach teammates, had the chance to visit
nine other European countries.
She has applied for an internship in England, and has plans of
moving there by the end of the year.
“I loved Europe and didn’t want to come back,” she said. “I
figured, I’m young now, so why not take advantage of the
opportunities presented to me. The Ultimate Soccer League gave me the
opportunity to play soccer again, and getting an internship in Europe
would be amazing. I figure I should take advantage of my youth while
it’s here.”
* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports and features. He can be reached at
(714) 965-7171 or by e-mail at michael.sciacca@latimes.com.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.