My soccer coach changed my life

By Zulma Muñoz

I am 19 years old. Female. Latina. From East Oakland.

My parents emigrated from Mexico with little education. My father died when I was 2. My brother got caught up in drugs and gangs.

I just finished my freshman year at UC Berkeley.

At Moscone Center in San Francisco this week, 4,500 people are attending the National Conference on Volunteering and Service to talk about ways that people dedicated to serving their communities can change lives.

I am living proof. One changed my life. She's the reason I'm at UC Berkeley. She's not a tutor or a teacher or a legal advocate.

She's a soccer coach.

Growing up in East Oakland, I was rarely allowed to play outside because my mother feared for my safety. As an outlet, I started playing soccer at Oakland Parks and Recreation centers. Entering Berkeley High, I didn't think I had much of a chance to make the varsity team - especially when I looked around during tryouts and saw I was the only Latina.

But Suz, the coach, saw something in me. During the next four years, she pushed me to my limits and helped me discover my potential. For instance, whenever I felt I couldn't finish my last sprint, Suz stood by me, yelling "Come on, finish strong!" until I crossed that end line. Fatigued and drenched in sweat, I smiled in shock trying to understand how I remained standing after completing 10 sets of cones, also known as "suicides." Suz believed in me and helped me believe in myself. I was voted captain of the team my junior and senior years, which changed the way I saw myself. I had become a leader.

Because I was the first in my family to apply to college, Suz guided me through the process, encouraging me to aim high. She helped transform me from the scared and timid girl I was into a confident and persistent young woman. Through Suz, I learned discipline and confidence, and I learned that I have a duty to give back to the girls in my community, just as Suz has done.

Now, I coach girls' soccer and I chair the Youth Advisory Committee for Team-Up for Youth. Team-Up for Youth has an innovative program called Coaching Corps that recruits, trains and places youth sports coaches in low-income communities throughout the Bay Area.

Though many girls have benefited from Title IX, legislation that gives girls equal opportunity to play sports, in my neighborhood one would never know Title IX existed. One national study found that only 26 percent of urban girls, predominantly blacks and Latinas, play organized sports compared with 54 percent of their suburban, and predominantly white, counterparts.

Why does this matter? Female athletes in high school are less likely to get pregnant than their nonathlete peers. Both male and female athletes have higher grades, higher educational aspirations, lower dropout rates and fewer school discipline problems than nonathletes.

But cash-strapped public schools are cutting physical education and athletics, and some districts, such as Los Angeles County, have recently announced they are closing summer programs. Sending well-trained volunteer coaches into low-income communities is more important than ever.

All girls should have a coach Suz in their lives. Coaches can be a young person's best teacher, guiding her through the powerful experience of playing and working, succeeding and failing, risking and persevering, and through it all, discovering her best self.

As people gather here this week to discuss volunteerism and service, I hope they'll remember the transformative power that coaches like Suz have on so many young lives.

Zulma Muñoz will be a sophomore at UC Berkeley in the fall and is the chair of Team-Up for Youth's Youth Advisory Committee.

Courtesy: San Francisco Chronicle