Belle Clair soccer celebrates 50th birthday with promise of ice cream

There’s a good chance Luis Naranjo is going to be buying a lot of ice cream this year.

Any of the 450 kids on the Belle Clair Soccer League’s Legacy team who does a “Legacy move” during a game this year will get an ice cream from Naranjo, president of the league.

“That is good information; I’m going to do that,” said Erin McVey, 12, practicing the pull-back-and-twist move with the soccer ball.

Naranjo and other members of the 50-year-old Belle Clair Soccer League’s board will do just about anything to keep kids interested in soccer. Another move “every kid in Belle Clair knows” is called the nutmeg, Naranjo says, where a ball is passed between an opposing player’s legs. That move does not come with a promise of ice cream.

Erin is on a Legacy team; her brother, Ryan, also 12 but “nine months and four days” older, is on one of the club’s recreational teams.

In addition to the Legacy teams; there are about 1,200 kids on the Belle Clair League recreational teams this year. Players range in age from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade; more participate in camps the league regularly holds.

The McVeys’ father, Mike, was on Belle Clair teams in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was a kid in Belleville.

“It was fun. Back then we didn’t have small-sided games; we were on the big field right out of the gate,” Mike said, explaining that kids today start on smaller fields and smaller teams so that each child gets more “touches” on the ball each practice and game.

Now Mike is Ryan’s coach and is on the League’s board of directors, so the league is a serious time commitment for the family.

His is far from the only multigenerational family who has enjoyed the League. The Foleys are also on the board of directors and parents of three children on league teams.

Jen Foley grew up playing in the league. She and her husband, Ames, met on a co-ed adult soccer team; and while they were dating he started coaching a Belle Clair team too.

“I love soccer, so I started coaching my nephew’s team,” Jen said, starting in about 1995.

The Belle Clair League has produced one pro player, Jenny Bindon, who attended Belleville West and later played for the national team of New Zealand. She was named as the University of California Los Angeles assistant coach in February.

While many of the league’s alumni go on to play in high school and some in college, that’s not the point of the league, members of the board say.

They’re out to make fans of the game.

“We have tiers so games would be competitive,” Ames said. “Not everyone is going to play college. We want them to love the game as much as we do.”

The first team that Ames coached is graduating from college now, with one in medical school, he said.

“The kids on my team, half knew they’d take it to another level. Half didn’t and were there for their friends,” he said. And that was fine with him.

The league is organized so that the recreational teams are made up of kids largely from the same school. Ryan plays with lots of his friends from Wolf Branch. The Legacy teams aren’t as school-specific, with tryouts instead. Ames said the Legacy teams are geared to allow challenges but “still have success.”

It starts early, too. Luis said he brought his children to the practices and games that he coached before they were old enough for the league. Board members all laugh that of course their own children don’t have to play soccer, but they all do.

As far as the Belle Clair Soccer League is concerned, there is no end to the game. They need referees, and welcome kids starting at age 13. It’s a great job and pays “significantly above” minimum wage.

Kenny Daniels is the head referee at Belle Clair. The 35-year-old started playing soccer with the league when he was young.

“I played here, I reffed here, coached here, work here full time,” Kenny said. He says refereeing is a great thing for teens to do, as it shows them “a different side of the game.”

This story was originally published April 14, 2017 at 10:10 AM with the headline "Belle Clair soccer celebrates 50th birthday with promise of ice cream."