The World Cup Generation

Name: Hervee Jaar
Current Age: 43
First Played: Age 3
Years Playing: 39

“When you play a side, the referee for you is always the guy you’re going against, but he’s here to sensor the game, to arbitrate the game, and it’s challenging”

Hervee Jaar, originally from Ivory Coast, is a referee in the [Insert League Here] in Austin, Texas. He recently chose to become a match official after watching his friend officiate a game and deciding he wanted to take on a new challenge. He says that being a referee has shown him a different side of soccer that he has not aware of.

Locations Played:

• Cote d’Ivoire [Ivory Coast]
• Onion Creek Soccer Complex | Austin, Texas
• Westcott Intramural Fields | University Park, Texas
• Zilker Park | Austin, Texas
• North East Metro Park | Pflugerville, Texas

Additional Information

• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Hervee Jaar, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (PDF File)
• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Hervee Jaar, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (interview audio, .mp4 file)

Name: Rickey Johnson
Current Age: 30s
First Played: Age 3

“I appreciate soccer, or fußball as it is called in Germany, but I would consider myself a fan from afar. A fan from a distance. Watching, observing, but removed from the traditional emotional investment given to the sport, and detached from the religious fervor held by most of the world.”

Rickey Johnson grew up with soccer in his family. And, since his move to the South in the United States soccer became part of his family’s German identity and their connection to their family in Germany. Fußball became what you watched at home, in German, with your family.

Rickey Johnson helps run the rugby scene in Texas, coaching local rugby clubs in Austin. Rugby connects him to his teammates and, through them, the world.

Locations Played:

• Ochsenfurt, Germany
• Houston, Texas
• Austin, Texas

Additional Information

• Rickey Johnson, “At a distance: my life with soccer,” Center for the Study of the Southwest, Texas State University (pdf file)

Name: Michael Kahoe Marmolejo
Age: 49
First Played: Age 29
Years Playing: 20

“And my mom enrolled me in the...the Y, and I played soccer then. Um, but I didn't like it. It was in El Paso and I remember I didn't like it. I didn't enjoy it. Uh, I was kind of shy so um, I played for a few games and that was it.”

“Um, the team aspect. It was just really...it was fun. It was enjoyable. It was fun, uh, with the community, the friends, the friendships that were created.”

Michael Kahoe’s experience with soccer challenges set ideas about border life and Mexican Americans. He grew up in El Paso, but soccer was something you played at the Y, a distance from home. It wasn’t until he had more experience with team sports, more experience with moving and settling into a new place, and with a different set of friends that he started playing a more committed game. Since his second start, he has coached various high school teams, managed two teams and become a key part of the victories on his league teams.

Locations Played:

• El Paso YMCA | El Paso, Texas
• New York City, New York
• Del Valle High | Del Valle, TX
• Onion Creek Soccer Complex | Austin, Texas
• Northeast Municipal Park, Pflugerville, Texas
• Texas State University | San Marcos, Texas

Additional Information

• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Michael Kahoe Marmolejo, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (pdf file)
• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Michael Kahoe Marmolejo, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (interview audio, mp4 file)

Name: Adam Key
Age: 44
First Played: Age 20
Years Playing: 24

“Definitely in the co-ed league, I would attest to the growth, the size of the league. Originally, when I started playing, the co-ed league was about 12 or 15 teams and now the size of the league is about 55 or 60. Also, the skill level – originally even though they had multiple divisions, the skill level between all the teams was relatively the same.”

The 1994 World Cup transformed the landscape for soccer in Texas. Adam Key grew up in Houston, but didn’t start playing organized soccer as an adult until after he was married and his wife encouraged him to join her co-ed team. Since then, Adam has become much more involved, helping to organize the co-ed soccer league and witnessing its growth over the last twenty years. Still he sees how ‘soccer kind of gives a purpose for running,” and one of the effects of this purpose is the camaraderie that has maintained the growth of co-ed soccer in central Texas.

Locations Played:

• Intramural Fields | Austin, Texas
• Zilker Park | Austin, Texas
• Southeast Austin Metro Park | Del Valle, Texas
• Onion Creek Soccer Complex | Austin, Texas
• Northeast Metro Park | Pflugerville, Texas
• Soccer Zone Austin, Texas

Additional Information

• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Adam Key, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (pdf file)
• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Adam Key, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (interview audio, mp4 file)

Name: Rebecca Kleer
Age: 40s
First Played: Age 23
Years Playing: 20

“I don't like to run much, but I like to kick after a soccer ball.”

In 1994 the World Cup came to the United States. In 1995, Rebecca Klieer came to soccer, first through her brothers and then through her co-ed soccer team. She has been playing with this team since the mid 90s, because it is a “good team,” very friendly and fun.

Locations Played:

• University of Texas at Austin IM Fields | Austin, Texas
• Onion Creek Soccer Complex | Austin, Texas
• Zilker Park | Austin, Texas
• Northeast Metro Park | Pflugerville, Texas
• Southeats Metro Park | Del Valle, Texas

Additional Information

• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Rebecca Kleer, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (pdf file)
• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Rebecca Kleer, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (interview audio, mp4 file)

Name: Rafael Melcho
Age: 40s
First Played: Age 25
Years Playing: 15

“The players I play against now are rough. They hit you a lot here. You must pass the ball early before anyone starts marking you or else you will get hit. If you know how to play, you need to keep practicing and learn how to pass the ball. If not, they will come at you with everything they’ve got.”

Rafael Melchor came to soccer at 25. This is different than most people with roots in Latin America who grew up with the sport in their family, on TV, in school, and in the streets. This delay enabled Rafael to commit to soccer fully, to move from defense to being the striker and attacking midfielder for his team. He is very aware of where people are and how they play, which comes through in his emphasis on passing, both for the team and to avoid injury. Competitive organized soccer has become a centerpiece in his life, something he did not do at an earlier stage.

Locations Played:

• Mexico
• Onion Creek Soccer Complex | Austin, Texas
• East Metro Park | Manor, Texas
• Northeast Metro Park | Pflugerville, TX

Additional Information

• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Rafael Melchor, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (pdf file)
• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Rafael Melchor, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (interview translation, mp4 file)
• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Rafael Melchor, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (interview audio, mp4 file)

Name: Carlos Abreu Mendoza
Age: 36
First Played: Age 5
Years Playing: 30

“Now, with all the technology, it is easier to create groups [soccer teams]”

Carlos Abreu Mendoza is originally from Huelva, Spain, home of the first soccer team ever created in Spain. Carlos discovered soccer in grade school through scrimmages during recess. Today he enjoys playing with students at the Student Recreational Center and through intramurals.

Locations Played:

• Texas State University Rec Center | San Marcos, Texas
• Onion Creek Soccer Complex | Austin, Texas
• Huelva, Andalucia, Spain
• University of Seville, Andalucia, Spain
• Michael Hooker Fields | Chapel Hill, North Carolina
• Westlake High School | West Lake Hills, Texas
• Intramural Soccer Field | San Marcos, Texas
• Zilker Park, Austin, Texas

Additional Information

• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Carlos Abreu Mendoza, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (pdf file)

Name: Kerri Gleason Moran
Age: 40
First Played: Age 6
Years Playing: 34

“I decided that it was good to play 45 minute halves again. And on grass, not on turf … It's different. Very different.”

Kerri Gleason Moran grew up playing soccer. Her sisters played. Her brothers played. Her parents played. She played in school, in local leagues and in competitive travel clubs. This is what it might be like growing up in soccer in Norway, France, or Germany, but she did this in Texas.

She had the opportunity to play varsity and she played for traveling clubs in Chicago. She now plays adult recreational in Austin.

Locations Played:

• Houston, Texas
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Chicago, Illinois
• Onion Creek Soccer Complex | Austin, Texas
• North East Metro Park | Pflugerville, Texas

Additional Information

• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Kerri Gleason Moran, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (pdf file)
• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Kerri Gleason Moran, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (interview audio, mp4 file)

Name: Jose Salgado
Age: 47
First Played: Age 10
Years Playing: 37

“It’s a beautiful sport, worldwide it is the best sport. I think it is the most famous sport in history”

“porque es un deporte bonito y es un deporte mundialmente major en el mundo. Yo creo que es el deporte mas famoso en las historia de todo”

Most people do not choose to be goalie. Jose Salgado does every time, and as a result, he has a home on many teams. Playing organized and competitive soccer has given him an appreciation for the community he finds in the Austin soccer scene. Jose has played organized soccer since the age of eleven. Today he plays as the goal keeper for Grassy Stains at the Onion Creek Soccer Complex.

Locations Played:

• Celaya, Guanajuato
• Onion Creek Soccer Complex | Austin, Texas
• Wiliam Cannon | Austin, Texas
• East Manor Park | Manor, Texas

Additional Information

• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Jose Salgado, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (pdf file)
• John Mckiernan-González, Interview with Jose Salgado, At Play: Futbol in the Land of Football (interview audio, mp4 file)