August 8, 2025 • 28 mins
Professional men’s soccer or “futbol” has always had great Latino players, but only 7% of female professional soccer players are Latinas. That’s not how things look at the Downtown LA Soccer Club. Most of the girls playing for this non-profit are Latinas and that’s intentional. The club is trying to overcome the barriers young Latinas often face: like financial burdens and gender stereotypes. In this episode, we meet their star player and her coach, as they fight for their club to remain a safe space. Their rent is up nearly four times, and some of the club’s families have been affected by the increase in ICE raids.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Dear Latino USA listener.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Before we start, you should know that if you want
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(00:30):
click play. Let's go to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
In the fall of twenty fourteen, soccer coach Mick Moulfridol
was on the field in downtown Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
He was leading practice with his girls.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Team, but on this day a new girl showed up.
One of his players had brought her younger cousin who
was only nine years old.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
And I see this little thing way off in the
distance and she's like a like a wolverine. She's in
the goal that's blocking shots from girls eighteen and nineteen
year old girls.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
And I come down there and.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It's Nilli Nielli Baraona, or as she would call herself,
little MESSI like the Argentine soccer star.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Leo Mascy Massy.
Speaker 6 (01:20):
I give that name to myself mostly because I thought
that I was a little messy. I wanted to be him.
I manifested being like him.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Nielli Hud learned her moves from watching YouTube videos of Messi.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
They shouldn't be in the constellation in the heavens.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
After Messi, it was just watching something very magical, so smooth,
so competitive. He's short too, so I'm sure I've always
been short, so I can do what.
Speaker 7 (01:51):
He can do.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Nielli loved soccer, but the odds were against her. For one,
only seven percent of female professional soccer players are Latinas,
and even in minor or community leagues, there are very
very few Latina girls in female teams. But Nielli had
found a rare gem, the downtown La Soccer Club. They
(02:18):
had several girls teams and most of the players looked
like her. Nielli started coming to practice regularly. At first
she was a goalkeeper.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
And it wasn't until Meg one day he wanted to
join me out the Lanta and like forward, and then boom,
I started scoring goals, and then she just told me
that I'm too.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Good to be in the goal.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Nielli knew this was a very unique opportunity. Her parents
couldn't afford paying for a club. They both came from
men Salvador in the nineties, fleeing the civil war. Her
mother worked as a hotel housekeeper and her father as
a handyman.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
Coming from South Central, you know, like low income communities,
they were always just like hesitant because of how expensively
was when you're entering a club. It's like a two
hundred and fifty dollars registration fee monthly apart from the paint,
like thirty for each piece of clothing for dirty, for shorts,
for cleed.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Plus there are travel costs for games and competitions which
can end up in the thousands.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
And with Downtown it was like the complete opposite. With Nick,
he would always throw a helping hand.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Coach Meek got Nike to sponsor the team. He also
went after grants and donations so that the girls could
play for free.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
We don't want to be a financial burden to families
that can't carry that kind of burden, because you know,
soccer in this country is literally a paid a.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Place for Meek started the first girls team at the
club in twenty eleven and now there are ten girls teams.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
This is our safe space here.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
But now that safe space is in jeopardy.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
The nonprofit Soccer club is facing the same challenges of
many Angelis.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Their rent is going up up to four times.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
It's kind of like being thrown to the wools now
because it's like, oh, what was once our home isn't anymore.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And there's the even more frightening challenge other Angelinos are
facing two being caught up in an ice rate.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
He was picked up, thrown on a plane, and then
literally within a couple of days, he was back in Guatemala.
It's it's terrifying.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
From Fudromidia. It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria Rosa today. How
a small soccer club in downtown Los Angeles is fighting
for Latina girls all while the community is under threat.
Dear listener, you know that soccer or football is the
most beloved sport in our communities, and a lot of
(05:06):
kids dream of becoming professional players, idolizing stars like Leo
Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The percentage of professional Latin American
and Latino male players is actually pretty big, but Latina
women make up less than ten percent of professional female teams.
(05:27):
Latinas face a lot of barriers. One of them is
the stereotype that you probably know that the boys in
the family are the ones who should be out there
scoring goals, but also playing soccer can be expensive in
the United States, and as we heard at the top
of the show, this nonprofit soccer club in DTLA is
(05:49):
now facing a couple of new challenges. One of them
is financial, but the other one is the daily safety
of immigrant and refugee populations. So what is next for
this club and what's going to happen to the more
than one hundred and fifty Latina girls who now play there.
(06:11):
Latino USA Senior producer Marta Martinez started us out at
the top of the show, and she's going to bring
us this story every Monday.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
In Wednesday, the big soccer field shining bright and green
in Downtown LA comes to life at six pm.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It's time for soccer practice. When I visit it.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
In the fall of twenty twenty three, about one hundred
kids and teens took over the field. What's different about
the Downtown Elle Soccer Club for mothers in the city
and pretty much the whole country, is that more than
ninety percent of the girl players are Latinas.
Speaker 7 (07:00):
Let's hell like, here we go as high as we
can get, and he's really high.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
The youngest ones are six years old, others are teenagers.
So I'm about to graduate from high school.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And then on the way back, kick your butts's.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Mick Moulfridel, who used to be Nayeli's coach, is now
the president of the club.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
He showed me around.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
And this is pretty much our this is sort of
our top team here.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Yeah, now these girls can play.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I mean he's in his early seventies and has a
mob of unruly brown hair with a gray street right
down the middle. He was born in Germany and his
family came to the US when he was a toddler.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
My father the only part he could play with soccer.
So when I was a little kid, my dad and
I was in the backyard and kick an old big
soccer ball around, and I thought it was kind of
boring because there was no one else to play with.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Eventually, Mick fell in love with soccer, and later he
tried to do the same with his son. He even
became a coach for his son's soccer team, but his
son never found that love for the game. Years later,
in two thousand and eight, we got a call to
see if you could coach for an upcoming tournament.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It was a girls tournament.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
They said they don't have a coach and I said, okay,
I'll run one practice for them, but I'm done.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
I've had my run and I'm ready to go, ready
to relax in his retirement years.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
So I coached them and it was probably sixty seventy
percent lateen athletes. And then there was nobody there for
the next night, so I showed up then and then
they had a tournament, so I went there.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
I just got hooked down.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
This team, and girls played soccer differently than boys.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Boys team, so I was just They described as a
pyramid with the alpha player at the top, and girls
teams are like beehives more everyone's working.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
One of us succeeds, we all succeed.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
They just know how to comfort each other and how
to support each other way way more than boys. I
could never go back to coaching boys, just because I
couldn't put up with them.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
So he took the girls to the Downtown Soccer Club
and he became the coach of the club's first girls team.
For three or four years, he coached only one girls team,
but he saw there was hunger. More and more girls
started showing up wanting to try out, but many of
them couldn't afford club fees. Uniforms or travel. That's when
(09:21):
we got creative, and as I mentioned earlier, went to sponsors,
grants and donations, and the biggest thing was their rent.
They got a great deal on the field which belongs
to John Lathy Middle School in downtown. The club is
not part of the public school, so they paid to
use the facilities.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
It's about fifty bucks an hour.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
If they went to a private field.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
What costs us in the hundreds, you know, one hundred,
one hundred and fifty hundred and sixty dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And they couldn't afford that.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
The rate was so affordable because of a mandate from
the California Department of Education that says that public school
facilities should be available to community groups. So as far
as the financial barriers were concerned, Mick had it covered.
The gender stereotype barriers, however, haven't been easy to overcome.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
One of the first things when we have a family
is to convince them that the best player in their
family might not be one of their sons.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Research shows that family values are very strong among Latini's
and that girls are also expected to take on more
duties at home and in a Yellis family, her father
has never been supportive of her playing.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
He never really showed up to my games, so that
always kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Like I
always questioned about why he wouldn't just go and watch.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Did you ask him?
Speaker 8 (10:47):
No?
Speaker 6 (10:47):
I never really cared too because I just had so
much support around me. I feel like I'm a great player,
and my mom and my grandma thinks I'm a great player.
And if he can't come and realize that, like, it
didn't really bug me as much.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Nielli's team started winning more and more games.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
She finished middle school, went on to high school, got
her driver's license, and the older she got, the more
goals she scored.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
She became the star player in part because of her coach,
Mick and.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Wondering what it was like when you know you are
all Latinas and you are all very young, and he's
like this white man, Yeah, this.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
White Gerven man. It's funny because he tries to understand
this to an extent, like every time we invited him
to our birthdays, or like when we would hear Spanish music.
Of course he doesn't understand, but he tries the best
to make us comfortable.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
I've learned more from them than they will ever have
learned from me.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
The team became the most successful girls team Downtown had
ever had. They won the National Cup in twenty twenty two.
Naielli's future looked bright. If she got a good offer
from a co, she could even have a chance to
become a professional player.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Coming up on Latino USA, we find out what happened
to Naielli's opportunity and we get into today's fight to
keep the soccer club protected. Stay with us, not theys, Hey,
(12:27):
we're back. Before the break, we followed Naielli Baraona's rise
at the Downtown LA Soccer Club, where she and many
other Latinas got to follow their passion to play and
play for free. Naielli became the star of her team
and she was hoping to play at the college level.
Next Latino USA senior producer Marta Martinez is going to
(12:49):
pick up the story from here.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
In twenty twenty two, Naielli was in her last year
of high school and still playing for the Downtown LA team.
She was at the top of her game, but the
players knew things were about to change.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
Everyone on our team wanted to play college ball, so
we knew that our club team would come to an end.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Then Yelli applied to several colleges, hoping for a good
offer with a soccer scholarship.
Speaker 6 (13:15):
I would send out my highlight reel, like a YouTube
video of me playing, and it would be hard because
sometimes and never got an email back of like, oh,
like thank you, at least like a consideration. In the end,
not many offers were made, you know, not the right offers.
There was like out of state offers that remaine, but
it was hard, like especially for minorities, leaving your family,
(13:38):
leaving your hometown is very hard.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Nowielli couldn't see herself leaving La to play for a
team in a lower division. For a moment, she thought
about doing some trials with the Salvador's national soccer team,
her parents' home country, but she decided to stay in
La with her family. She got into California State University
in Long Beach, where she's studying psychology.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
It's a hard film's overcome because it's like you always
think of what you.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Could have been.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Niellie didn't break up with soccer. It's still her biggest passion.
Following in mixed footsteps, she now coaches younger girls at
the downtown La soccer club.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
I don't want to go here, do you feel that breeze?
Speaker 8 (14:24):
Now?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Col I joined her first Saturday game when I was
in l A a very early.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
Games my mom's car.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
We met in Naielli's neighborhood in South Central at six
fifty a yet.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
At the light turn left of the South Broadway.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Niellie was driving and next to her was Lucy atasso
I haet Carsick, the other coach of the team. Lucy
and Naielli used to play together when they were younger
and at first.
Speaker 7 (14:50):
And I hate her As soon as I saw her.
I did not like her. She was too much energy
for me. I am always been like very like calm, serious,
you know, and she has always been like very goofy,
very jumpy.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
It's interesting because I don't see that in her.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Maybe it's because she's being shy with.
Speaker 9 (15:07):
Me or something. I'm just more mature enough, Like I
could definitely be goofy, but when I have to be serious,
I'll be like more professionals. You're a coach now, yeah,
now I'm a coach, so I can't you know, I
can't joke around too much.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Things changed over time.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Naielle and Lucy got very close, and then they fell
in love. So now they basically spend all day together.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
Well, look at the little puppy.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Look In the back of the car next to me
was Valeria, one of Nayelle's players.
Speaker 10 (15:42):
I'm eleven years old. I play as a winger, mostly
on the left.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
And I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Baldia needed a ride because her parents had to go
to work early in the morning.
Speaker 10 (15:57):
I go with Lucy Nielli because they're like myself moms,
even my mom.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Even my mom said that, your mom said that, Yeah.
Speaker 10 (16:06):
She said that, they're my other moms.
Speaker 7 (16:10):
We just became moms of like teenagers or soon to
be teenagers, and like it's not even just one, it's
like the whole team.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Because many of the parents at the club have multiple
jobs and work long hours, often on the weekends too,
Getting two and from games and practice is not easy
for some girls. Naielli is the one doing the driving now,
but for years she saw Meck picking up the players himself.
Speaker 6 (16:36):
He would drive across town if he had to, like
if practice was at six and he had to pick
up three players that were in different areas. He personally
would make sure that he catches everyone.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Coaches at Downtown Soccer Club don't get paid well, they
get money for gas.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
So it's a lot to take on.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
But Naiellie and Lucy want to help girls build the
kind of sisterhood they had growing up.
Speaker 7 (17:00):
We had an amazing team, and our goal is to
like have our team be as connected as our team was,
and we consider each other family. We hang out all
the time, so all of that is that we know
how to rely on each other, so we wish that
they have that as well.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
When we got to Hawaiian Gardens, about forty minutes south
of south central LA, the sun was still rising and
the whole sky was tinged in deep orange.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
Okay, bring it.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
The girls put on their purple jerseys and started warming
up without a lot of energy.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
I have to say, we have to start off strong.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
The other team was wearing red and some of their
players towered over Naielli's girls.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
Oh yeah, the big defenerator.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Lucy and Naielli gathered the girls right before the game started.
They made a tight circle and piled up their hands
at the center. The sun was golden as the players
ran around the field, parents cheering from the sidelines. The
other team scored first, then Downtown scort. It looked like
(18:10):
it could be anyone's game. Yeah, but the other team
quickly scored another goal, taking the lead.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
I know you're ready.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
By halftime, While the girls drank water and rested for
a bit, Naiellie got them in a circle.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
She sounded frustrated.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
Ladies, we're playing waitress sloppy, were ball chasing. We know
not to bunch up anymoremits as we're failures that practice.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
They were hopeful as they went in for the second half,
but the Downtown Girls were not able to turn the
score around. They lost the game two to one. I
asked Valeria, the eleven year old player who was with
us in the car, how she felt about the game.
Speaker 10 (18:59):
I guess yes, I feel happy because technically it was
a reugh a stop because he didn't count us. But
we should try more next.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Time the ref of course, it's always the ref right.
Other girls felt similar good.
Speaker 10 (19:16):
But I just feel like we could have like tried
more and get her head in the game, but like
they were so huge, like we couldn't do anything about it.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
I asked the coaches too, how did you feel about
the game?
Speaker 10 (19:27):
Horrible?
Speaker 6 (19:28):
It was horrible, Not that our players were horrible. It
was just the causer being made was horrible. Sorry, respectfully,
but you know, it just it just wasn't our game.
When you lose, you learn, when you win, you also learn.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
So that's how we take it.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Nayelie was used to fighting inside the pitch. She knew
her team needed some work, but what she didn't expect
was that soon she would also have to fight to
keep the club alive.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Hey, we're back, Marta Martinez is going to pick up
the story from here.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
After my reporting in LA I had to put this
story on hold for over a year, but I checked
in with Meke every once in a while for any
updates on the club and Nayeli and in one of
those check ins last June, Hello.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Mike, good to see you.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
It's been quite a long time. Yes, how are things
going at the club.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Well, you know, we obviously have a lot of issues
on the ground that we have no control over.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
The threatening our families.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
The recent ice rates to detain and the port and
documented immigrants have deeply shaken Los Angeles. The terror has
reached the club too. Some of the club's parents have
been picked up.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
One of the people I work with. He's sort of
an administer for the club. His brother has to go
to court every six months just to check in. And
he was picked up leaving the court, thrown on a plane,
sent Oklahoma, thrown on another plane, sent to Texas, and
then literally within a couple of days, he was back
in Guatemala and when they arrested him, they took his
phone away. It's terrifying. This one girl was telling me
(21:24):
about her uncle. I guess he worked at a McDonald's
and they came into McDonald's and he jumped out the
back window and ran away, and they ended up tewing
his car away. It's just there's this level of fear
that a kid shouldn't have to live with, and so
we have to take precautions. We have a group of
people now that pick up our kids because a lot
of them, the families don't want to risk going out.
(21:45):
We all have lawyers on speed dial, you know.
Speaker 5 (21:46):
We know what to say if one of these.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Guys with the mask shows up, and we try not
to let that impede what the kids are doing. We
tried to make it so their life on the field
is as normal as we can make it.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I caught up with Nielli as well.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
She's still in La still coaching the girls at the
Downtown Club, and she told me that since the ice
rate started, she's been doing even more car pools.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I kind of a full car nowadays.
Speaker 6 (22:14):
Sometimes we have to switch to a bigger car so
that we could fill.
Speaker 5 (22:17):
All of them.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
But like, more and more girls end up needing rights,
But there's never an issue like us that we're privileged
to be able to have papers and just making sure
we're there for them and understanding that sometimes they won't
be able to show up to practice. So in a
sense it has affected them because we see less and
less parents and maybe like some players are missing out
(22:41):
on practices, but it's very understanding.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
At the end of June, the club's permit to use
the facilities that John Lathy Middle School wasn't renewed by
Los Angeles Unified School District or LAUSD. Now they're asking
for four times the price Miking Naielli's teams had been paying.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Which we can't afford.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
So what they're doing is they're starting to lease the
fields to the much more affluent clubs from communities in
Orange County and stuff and basically kicking the kids win
the community off the fields. We're basically the only team
of Hispanic girls out there.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
You know, we're playing a bunch of white kids.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Have you tried to fight back? Is there a legal
action you could take?
Speaker 4 (23:24):
I have a pro bono law firm working on it.
I've had multiple meetings with school board. LAOS is a
huge conglomerate. It's the second biggest school district in the country,
and we're just like annoyances to them.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
We reached out to LAUSD officials and while they didn't
give us an interview, they sent us a written statement.
They said that while the club's girls teams do qualify
under this special deal that allows them to rent the
facilities for much cheaper as a community group, the boys
teams don't qualify anymore. I won't go into all the
(24:00):
details because there's a lot of back and forth between
the school district and the club, But in the end,
LAUSD said they offered the girls teams a quote suitable
alternative location, but it's not in downtown, it's in South Central.
Mix says LAUSD has not provided evidence for disqualifying the
boys teams, and that the new location in South Central
(24:23):
is quote a far cry from a suitable location. He
told me in an email that this alternative is in
an area where there have been many ice rates recently,
and for many families, it's simply too risky. I remember
when I was there and the way you talked about
the field.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
You said, this is a safe space for them.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Yeah, So I wonder what does it mean to lose
that safe space.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
I think losing a safe space is kind of like
being thrown to the wools now, because it's like, oh, like,
what was once our home isn't anymore, and that could
be scary for a lot of people. I feel like
around John Letty, it's very Hispanic. It just felt kind
of like home and like the heart of downtown almost.
(25:08):
How is it that a field that was with us,
that was supposed to connect everybody in the community is
like now being ripped away from us.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Do you think there's any chance you will get access
to the field again?
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Yes, I think because I don't give up very easily.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Being stubborn is one of the things making Nielli have
most in common. Nielli isn't giving up either, because nothing
beats how it feels when you step on the turf
and you score and you win.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
The game. It was just excitement that rushed through our
bodies that I remember. I took up my jersey and
I'm like waving it in the air, and I go
to my mom, I go to my grandma and I'm like, oh,
Lolo Ramos, you know, like we did it, like after
years of trying, like we did it.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And that feeling is what keeps her fighting for her team,
her family and all the young Latinas that will come
after her.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
This episode was produced by Marta Martinez, with production assistants
by Diego Perdomo. It was edited by our managing editor
Fernando Echavari. It was mixed by Gabriela Bayez. In fact
checking for this episode by Rosanna Aguire. The Latino USA
team also includes Julia Caruso, Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Rinaldo,
(26:42):
Leanoz Junior, Stephanie Lebau, Andre Lopez Gruzado, Luis Luna, Glori
mar Marquez, Julieta Martinelli, Monica Morales, Garcia, J. J. Rubin
and Nancy Trujillo. Penille Ramirez and I are co executive
producers and I'm your host, Mariano Josa. Latino You say
is part of iheart'smich Udura podcast network. Executive producers of
(27:04):
iHeart are Leogo mis and ur Lean Santana. Join us
the end on our next episode. In the meantime, I'll
see you on all of our social media and of course,
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(27:27):
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Speaker 8 (27:36):
Latino USA is made possible in part by California Endowment.
Building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians.
The Anie Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for the
nation's children by strengthening families, building greater economic opportunity, and
transforming communities and funding for Latino USA is Coverage of
(27:59):
a culture of health is made possible in part by
a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Dear Latino USA listener.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Before we start, you should know that if you want
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(00:30):
click play. Let's go to the show.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
In the fall of twenty fourteen, soccer coach Mick Moulfridol
was on the field in downtown Los Angeles.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
He was leading practice with his girls.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Team, but on this day a new girl showed up.
One of his players had brought her younger cousin who
was only nine years old.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
And I see this little thing way off in the
distance and she's like a like a wolverine. She's in
the goal that's blocking shots from girls eighteen and nineteen
year old girls.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
And I come down there and.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
It's Nilli Nielli Baraona, or as she would call herself,
little MESSI like the Argentine soccer star.
Speaker 5 (01:15):
Leo Mascy Massy.
Speaker 6 (01:20):
I give that name to myself mostly because I thought
that I was a little messy. I wanted to be him.
I manifested being like him.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Nielli Hud learned her moves from watching YouTube videos of Messi.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
They shouldn't be in the constellation in the heavens.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
After Messi, it was just watching something very magical, so smooth,
so competitive. He's short too, so I'm sure I've always
been short, so I can do what.
Speaker 7 (01:51):
He can do.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Nielli loved soccer, but the odds were against her. For one,
only seven percent of female professional soccer players are Latinas,
and even in minor or community leagues, there are very
very few Latina girls in female teams. But Nielli had
found a rare gem, the downtown La Soccer Club. They
(02:18):
had several girls teams and most of the players looked
like her. Nielli started coming to practice regularly. At first
she was a goalkeeper.
Speaker 6 (02:28):
And it wasn't until Meg one day he wanted to
join me out the Lanta and like forward, and then boom,
I started scoring goals, and then she just told me
that I'm too.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Good to be in the goal.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Nielli knew this was a very unique opportunity. Her parents
couldn't afford paying for a club. They both came from
men Salvador in the nineties, fleeing the civil war. Her
mother worked as a hotel housekeeper and her father as
a handyman.
Speaker 6 (02:54):
Coming from South Central, you know, like low income communities,
they were always just like hesitant because of how expensively
was when you're entering a club. It's like a two
hundred and fifty dollars registration fee monthly apart from the paint,
like thirty for each piece of clothing for dirty, for shorts,
for cleed.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Plus there are travel costs for games and competitions which
can end up in the thousands.
Speaker 6 (03:18):
And with Downtown it was like the complete opposite. With Nick,
he would always throw a helping hand.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Coach Meek got Nike to sponsor the team. He also
went after grants and donations so that the girls could
play for free.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
We don't want to be a financial burden to families
that can't carry that kind of burden, because you know,
soccer in this country is literally a paid a.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Place for Meek started the first girls team at the
club in twenty eleven and now there are ten girls teams.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
This is our safe space here.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
But now that safe space is in jeopardy.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
The nonprofit Soccer club is facing the same challenges of
many Angelis.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Their rent is going up up to four times.
Speaker 6 (04:05):
It's kind of like being thrown to the wools now
because it's like, oh, what was once our home isn't anymore.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And there's the even more frightening challenge other Angelinos are
facing two being caught up in an ice rate.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
He was picked up, thrown on a plane, and then
literally within a couple of days, he was back in Guatemala.
It's it's terrifying.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
From Fudromidia. It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria Rosa today. How
a small soccer club in downtown Los Angeles is fighting
for Latina girls all while the community is under threat.
Dear listener, you know that soccer or football is the
most beloved sport in our communities, and a lot of
(05:06):
kids dream of becoming professional players, idolizing stars like Leo
Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The percentage of professional Latin American
and Latino male players is actually pretty big, but Latina
women make up less than ten percent of professional female teams.
(05:27):
Latinas face a lot of barriers. One of them is
the stereotype that you probably know that the boys in
the family are the ones who should be out there
scoring goals, but also playing soccer can be expensive in
the United States, and as we heard at the top
of the show, this nonprofit soccer club in DTLA is
(05:49):
now facing a couple of new challenges. One of them
is financial, but the other one is the daily safety
of immigrant and refugee populations. So what is next for
this club and what's going to happen to the more
than one hundred and fifty Latina girls who now play there.
(06:11):
Latino USA Senior producer Marta Martinez started us out at
the top of the show, and she's going to bring
us this story every Monday.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
In Wednesday, the big soccer field shining bright and green
in Downtown LA comes to life at six pm.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It's time for soccer practice. When I visit it.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
In the fall of twenty twenty three, about one hundred
kids and teens took over the field. What's different about
the Downtown Elle Soccer Club for mothers in the city
and pretty much the whole country, is that more than
ninety percent of the girl players are Latinas.
Speaker 7 (07:00):
Let's hell like, here we go as high as we
can get, and he's really high.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
The youngest ones are six years old, others are teenagers.
So I'm about to graduate from high school.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
And then on the way back, kick your butts's.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Mick Moulfridel, who used to be Nayeli's coach, is now
the president of the club.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
He showed me around.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
And this is pretty much our this is sort of
our top team here.
Speaker 5 (07:25):
Yeah, now these girls can play.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
I mean he's in his early seventies and has a
mob of unruly brown hair with a gray street right
down the middle. He was born in Germany and his
family came to the US when he was a toddler.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
My father the only part he could play with soccer.
So when I was a little kid, my dad and
I was in the backyard and kick an old big
soccer ball around, and I thought it was kind of
boring because there was no one else to play with.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Eventually, Mick fell in love with soccer, and later he
tried to do the same with his son. He even
became a coach for his son's soccer team, but his
son never found that love for the game. Years later,
in two thousand and eight, we got a call to
see if you could coach for an upcoming tournament.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
It was a girls tournament.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
They said they don't have a coach and I said, okay,
I'll run one practice for them, but I'm done.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
I've had my run and I'm ready to go, ready
to relax in his retirement years.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
So I coached them and it was probably sixty seventy
percent lateen athletes. And then there was nobody there for
the next night, so I showed up then and then
they had a tournament, so I went there.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
I just got hooked down.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
This team, and girls played soccer differently than boys.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
Boys team, so I was just They described as a
pyramid with the alpha player at the top, and girls
teams are like beehives more everyone's working.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
One of us succeeds, we all succeed.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
They just know how to comfort each other and how
to support each other way way more than boys. I
could never go back to coaching boys, just because I
couldn't put up with them.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
So he took the girls to the Downtown Soccer Club
and he became the coach of the club's first girls team.
For three or four years, he coached only one girls team,
but he saw there was hunger. More and more girls
started showing up wanting to try out, but many of
them couldn't afford club fees. Uniforms or travel. That's when
(09:21):
we got creative, and as I mentioned earlier, went to sponsors,
grants and donations, and the biggest thing was their rent.
They got a great deal on the field which belongs
to John Lathy Middle School in downtown. The club is
not part of the public school, so they paid to
use the facilities.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
It's about fifty bucks an hour.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
If they went to a private field.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
What costs us in the hundreds, you know, one hundred,
one hundred and fifty hundred and sixty dollars.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
And they couldn't afford that.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
The rate was so affordable because of a mandate from
the California Department of Education that says that public school
facilities should be available to community groups. So as far
as the financial barriers were concerned, Mick had it covered.
The gender stereotype barriers, however, haven't been easy to overcome.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
One of the first things when we have a family
is to convince them that the best player in their
family might not be one of their sons.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Research shows that family values are very strong among Latini's
and that girls are also expected to take on more
duties at home and in a Yellis family, her father
has never been supportive of her playing.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
He never really showed up to my games, so that
always kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Like I
always questioned about why he wouldn't just go and watch.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Did you ask him?
Speaker 8 (10:47):
No?
Speaker 6 (10:47):
I never really cared too because I just had so
much support around me. I feel like I'm a great player,
and my mom and my grandma thinks I'm a great player.
And if he can't come and realize that, like, it
didn't really bug me as much.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Nielli's team started winning more and more games.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
She finished middle school, went on to high school, got
her driver's license, and the older she got, the more
goals she scored.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
She became the star player in part because of her coach,
Mick and.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Wondering what it was like when you know you are
all Latinas and you are all very young, and he's
like this white man, Yeah, this.
Speaker 6 (11:26):
White Gerven man. It's funny because he tries to understand
this to an extent, like every time we invited him
to our birthdays, or like when we would hear Spanish music.
Of course he doesn't understand, but he tries the best
to make us comfortable.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
I've learned more from them than they will ever have
learned from me.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
The team became the most successful girls team Downtown had
ever had. They won the National Cup in twenty twenty two.
Naielli's future looked bright. If she got a good offer
from a co, she could even have a chance to
become a professional player.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Coming up on Latino USA, we find out what happened
to Naielli's opportunity and we get into today's fight to
keep the soccer club protected. Stay with us, not theys, Hey,
(12:27):
we're back. Before the break, we followed Naielli Baraona's rise
at the Downtown LA Soccer Club, where she and many
other Latinas got to follow their passion to play and
play for free. Naielli became the star of her team
and she was hoping to play at the college level.
Next Latino USA senior producer Marta Martinez is going to
(12:49):
pick up the story from here.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
In twenty twenty two, Naielli was in her last year
of high school and still playing for the Downtown LA team.
She was at the top of her game, but the
players knew things were about to change.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
Everyone on our team wanted to play college ball, so
we knew that our club team would come to an end.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Then Yelli applied to several colleges, hoping for a good
offer with a soccer scholarship.
Speaker 6 (13:15):
I would send out my highlight reel, like a YouTube
video of me playing, and it would be hard because
sometimes and never got an email back of like, oh,
like thank you, at least like a consideration. In the end,
not many offers were made, you know, not the right offers.
There was like out of state offers that remaine, but
it was hard, like especially for minorities, leaving your family,
(13:38):
leaving your hometown is very hard.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Nowielli couldn't see herself leaving La to play for a
team in a lower division. For a moment, she thought
about doing some trials with the Salvador's national soccer team,
her parents' home country, but she decided to stay in
La with her family. She got into California State University
in Long Beach, where she's studying psychology.
Speaker 6 (14:02):
It's a hard film's overcome because it's like you always
think of what you.
Speaker 5 (14:06):
Could have been.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
Niellie didn't break up with soccer. It's still her biggest passion.
Following in mixed footsteps, she now coaches younger girls at
the downtown La soccer club.
Speaker 6 (14:21):
I don't want to go here, do you feel that breeze?
Speaker 8 (14:24):
Now?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Col I joined her first Saturday game when I was
in l A a very early.
Speaker 6 (14:29):
Games my mom's car.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
We met in Naielli's neighborhood in South Central at six
fifty a yet.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
At the light turn left of the South Broadway.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Niellie was driving and next to her was Lucy atasso
I haet Carsick, the other coach of the team. Lucy
and Naielli used to play together when they were younger
and at first.
Speaker 7 (14:50):
And I hate her As soon as I saw her.
I did not like her. She was too much energy
for me. I am always been like very like calm, serious,
you know, and she has always been like very goofy,
very jumpy.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
It's interesting because I don't see that in her.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Maybe it's because she's being shy with.
Speaker 9 (15:07):
Me or something. I'm just more mature enough, Like I
could definitely be goofy, but when I have to be serious,
I'll be like more professionals. You're a coach now, yeah,
now I'm a coach, so I can't you know, I
can't joke around too much.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Things changed over time.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
Naielle and Lucy got very close, and then they fell
in love. So now they basically spend all day together.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
Well, look at the little puppy.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Look In the back of the car next to me
was Valeria, one of Nayelle's players.
Speaker 10 (15:42):
I'm eleven years old. I play as a winger, mostly
on the left.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
And I don't know.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Baldia needed a ride because her parents had to go
to work early in the morning.
Speaker 10 (15:57):
I go with Lucy Nielli because they're like myself moms,
even my mom.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Even my mom said that, your mom said that, Yeah.
Speaker 10 (16:06):
She said that, they're my other moms.
Speaker 7 (16:10):
We just became moms of like teenagers or soon to
be teenagers, and like it's not even just one, it's
like the whole team.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Because many of the parents at the club have multiple
jobs and work long hours, often on the weekends too,
Getting two and from games and practice is not easy
for some girls. Naielli is the one doing the driving now,
but for years she saw Meck picking up the players himself.
Speaker 6 (16:36):
He would drive across town if he had to, like
if practice was at six and he had to pick
up three players that were in different areas. He personally
would make sure that he catches everyone.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Coaches at Downtown Soccer Club don't get paid well, they
get money for gas.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
So it's a lot to take on.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
But Naiellie and Lucy want to help girls build the
kind of sisterhood they had growing up.
Speaker 7 (17:00):
We had an amazing team, and our goal is to
like have our team be as connected as our team was,
and we consider each other family. We hang out all
the time, so all of that is that we know
how to rely on each other, so we wish that
they have that as well.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
When we got to Hawaiian Gardens, about forty minutes south
of south central LA, the sun was still rising and
the whole sky was tinged in deep orange.
Speaker 6 (17:27):
Okay, bring it.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
The girls put on their purple jerseys and started warming
up without a lot of energy.
Speaker 7 (17:34):
I have to say, we have to start off strong.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
The other team was wearing red and some of their
players towered over Naielli's girls.
Speaker 6 (17:45):
Oh yeah, the big defenerator.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Lucy and Naielli gathered the girls right before the game started.
They made a tight circle and piled up their hands
at the center. The sun was golden as the players
ran around the field, parents cheering from the sidelines. The
other team scored first, then Downtown scort. It looked like
(18:10):
it could be anyone's game. Yeah, but the other team
quickly scored another goal, taking the lead.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
I know you're ready.
Speaker 3 (18:25):
By halftime, While the girls drank water and rested for
a bit, Naiellie got them in a circle.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
She sounded frustrated.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
Ladies, we're playing waitress sloppy, were ball chasing. We know
not to bunch up anymoremits as we're failures that practice.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
They were hopeful as they went in for the second half,
but the Downtown Girls were not able to turn the
score around. They lost the game two to one. I
asked Valeria, the eleven year old player who was with
us in the car, how she felt about the game.
Speaker 10 (18:59):
I guess yes, I feel happy because technically it was
a reugh a stop because he didn't count us. But
we should try more next.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Time the ref of course, it's always the ref right.
Other girls felt similar good.
Speaker 10 (19:16):
But I just feel like we could have like tried
more and get her head in the game, but like
they were so huge, like we couldn't do anything about it.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
I asked the coaches too, how did you feel about
the game?
Speaker 10 (19:27):
Horrible?
Speaker 6 (19:28):
It was horrible, Not that our players were horrible. It
was just the causer being made was horrible. Sorry, respectfully,
but you know, it just it just wasn't our game.
When you lose, you learn, when you win, you also learn.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
So that's how we take it.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Nayelie was used to fighting inside the pitch. She knew
her team needed some work, but what she didn't expect
was that soon she would also have to fight to
keep the club alive.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Hey, we're back, Marta Martinez is going to pick up
the story from here.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
After my reporting in LA I had to put this
story on hold for over a year, but I checked
in with Meke every once in a while for any
updates on the club and Nayeli and in one of
those check ins last June, Hello.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
Mike, good to see you.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
It's been quite a long time. Yes, how are things
going at the club.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Well, you know, we obviously have a lot of issues
on the ground that we have no control over.
Speaker 5 (20:46):
The threatening our families.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
The recent ice rates to detain and the port and
documented immigrants have deeply shaken Los Angeles. The terror has
reached the club too. Some of the club's parents have
been picked up.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
One of the people I work with. He's sort of
an administer for the club. His brother has to go
to court every six months just to check in. And
he was picked up leaving the court, thrown on a plane,
sent Oklahoma, thrown on another plane, sent to Texas, and
then literally within a couple of days, he was back
in Guatemala and when they arrested him, they took his
phone away. It's terrifying. This one girl was telling me
(21:24):
about her uncle. I guess he worked at a McDonald's
and they came into McDonald's and he jumped out the
back window and ran away, and they ended up tewing
his car away. It's just there's this level of fear
that a kid shouldn't have to live with, and so
we have to take precautions. We have a group of
people now that pick up our kids because a lot
of them, the families don't want to risk going out.
(21:45):
We all have lawyers on speed dial, you know.
Speaker 5 (21:46):
We know what to say if one of these.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
Guys with the mask shows up, and we try not
to let that impede what the kids are doing. We
tried to make it so their life on the field
is as normal as we can make it.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
I caught up with Nielli as well.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
She's still in La still coaching the girls at the
Downtown Club, and she told me that since the ice
rate started, she's been doing even more car pools.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
I kind of a full car nowadays.
Speaker 6 (22:14):
Sometimes we have to switch to a bigger car so
that we could fill.
Speaker 5 (22:17):
All of them.
Speaker 6 (22:18):
But like, more and more girls end up needing rights,
But there's never an issue like us that we're privileged
to be able to have papers and just making sure
we're there for them and understanding that sometimes they won't
be able to show up to practice. So in a
sense it has affected them because we see less and
less parents and maybe like some players are missing out
(22:41):
on practices, but it's very understanding.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
At the end of June, the club's permit to use
the facilities that John Lathy Middle School wasn't renewed by
Los Angeles Unified School District or LAUSD. Now they're asking
for four times the price Miking Naielli's teams had been paying.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Which we can't afford.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
So what they're doing is they're starting to lease the
fields to the much more affluent clubs from communities in
Orange County and stuff and basically kicking the kids win
the community off the fields. We're basically the only team
of Hispanic girls out there.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
You know, we're playing a bunch of white kids.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Have you tried to fight back? Is there a legal
action you could take?
Speaker 4 (23:24):
I have a pro bono law firm working on it.
I've had multiple meetings with school board. LAOS is a
huge conglomerate. It's the second biggest school district in the country,
and we're just like annoyances to them.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
We reached out to LAUSD officials and while they didn't
give us an interview, they sent us a written statement.
They said that while the club's girls teams do qualify
under this special deal that allows them to rent the
facilities for much cheaper as a community group, the boys
teams don't qualify anymore. I won't go into all the
(24:00):
details because there's a lot of back and forth between
the school district and the club, But in the end,
LAUSD said they offered the girls teams a quote suitable
alternative location, but it's not in downtown, it's in South Central.
Mix says LAUSD has not provided evidence for disqualifying the
boys teams, and that the new location in South Central
(24:23):
is quote a far cry from a suitable location. He
told me in an email that this alternative is in
an area where there have been many ice rates recently,
and for many families, it's simply too risky. I remember
when I was there and the way you talked about
the field.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
You said, this is a safe space for them.
Speaker 3 (24:43):
Yeah, So I wonder what does it mean to lose
that safe space.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
I think losing a safe space is kind of like
being thrown to the wools now, because it's like, oh, like,
what was once our home isn't anymore, and that could
be scary for a lot of people. I feel like
around John Letty, it's very Hispanic. It just felt kind
of like home and like the heart of downtown almost.
(25:08):
How is it that a field that was with us,
that was supposed to connect everybody in the community is
like now being ripped away from us.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Do you think there's any chance you will get access
to the field again?
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Yes, I think because I don't give up very easily.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Being stubborn is one of the things making Nielli have
most in common. Nielli isn't giving up either, because nothing
beats how it feels when you step on the turf
and you score and you win.
Speaker 6 (25:37):
The game. It was just excitement that rushed through our
bodies that I remember. I took up my jersey and
I'm like waving it in the air, and I go
to my mom, I go to my grandma and I'm like, oh,
Lolo Ramos, you know, like we did it, like after
years of trying, like we did it.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And that feeling is what keeps her fighting for her team,
her family and all the young Latinas that will come
after her.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
This episode was produced by Marta Martinez, with production assistants
by Diego Perdomo. It was edited by our managing editor
Fernando Echavari. It was mixed by Gabriela Bayez. In fact
checking for this episode by Rosanna Aguire. The Latino USA
team also includes Julia Caruso, Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Rinaldo,
(26:42):
Leanoz Junior, Stephanie Lebau, Andre Lopez Gruzado, Luis Luna, Glori
mar Marquez, Julieta Martinelli, Monica Morales, Garcia, J. J. Rubin
and Nancy Trujillo. Penille Ramirez and I are co executive
producers and I'm your host, Mariano Josa. Latino You say
is part of iheart'smich Udura podcast network. Executive producers of
(27:04):
iHeart are Leogo mis and ur Lean Santana. Join us
the end on our next episode. In the meantime, I'll
see you on all of our social media and of course,
dear listener, so easy, so affordable, Join Futuro Plus. What
you get is to listen to this ad free and
you get bonus episodes, special virtual events and lots of cheesemay. Also,
(27:27):
you're going to support the organization that makes the journalism
that you love. So Girasias and join Futuru Plus.
Speaker 8 (27:36):
Latino USA is made possible in part by California Endowment.
Building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians.
The Anie Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for the
nation's children by strengthening families, building greater economic opportunity, and
transforming communities and funding for Latino USA is Coverage of
(27:59):
a culture of health is made possible in part by
a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
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