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Under two big brown tents in the middle of a swath of soccer fields on Albuquerque’s West Side are dozens of tiny, brown faces sweaty and panting but not completely worn out.  Children of all ages from the Pueblo of San Felipe about 30 miles north of this city park have just finished their first game and will likely play two or three more before the last whistle is blown.

The brown tents in the center in this 12-field recreational area stand out among the sea of picnic umbrellas and fairer faces, children with gristly, blond strands or curly, brunette mops.  The tents may also symbolize what this worldwide game has become to this traditional New Mexico reservation:  soccer is the new rez ball.


“In the village growing up, it’s always been about baseball, basketball or softball,” said Mike Ansera, a volunteer soccer coach who grew up in San Felipe.  “Now it’s soccer and it’s become second nature.  No one says, ‘What is soccer?’ Now it’s, ‘Are you going to play soccer?’”


Soccer started in San Felipe about five years ago with a vision from PGA golfer Notah Begay III, who is part San Felipe Pueblo and grew up the area. After injuring his back, Begay saw what diabetes and other harmful diseases did to Native people while giving motivational speeches on the reservations.  He decided to start a foundation focusing on decreasing diabetes and obesity in children one starting with his own community.  Begay chose soccer as one of the vehicles because it was a sport he enjoyed playing as a youngster—the game also involves multiple players who have varying skill levels.  In addition, the NB3 Foundation provides programming for youth golf.


But in this desert village embodied with tumble weeds and unpaved roads, soccer was rarely heard of.  When trying to explain soccer to the elders and some youth, Ansera, who is also Begay’s cousin, said it’s like basketball but you don’t use your hands.


“You dribble but you dribble with the top of your feet, and you get the ball into the net to make a point,” Ansera said, adding that the first day of the coaching clinic for volunteers was quite an experience for many of the former rez basketball and baseball players.  Now soccer has become so common Ansera joked the kids “bounce the ball off the oven and outhouse.”


Whether soccer will change greater Native America’s past time of b-ball, it has certainly changed this reservation.  According to Ansera, who has a 16-year-old daughter who has played varsity soccer since the 8th grade and other parents, the small black and white ball and has brought the 3,000-member Pueblo closer together.


“There’s a lot of drugs and alcohol abuse on the reservation.  A lot of times you see children and parents involved in that.  This program gives them a place to get away from that,” Ansera said.


“My dad forced me to play and when I started playing I started to like it,” said Martina Sandoval, 14. “We also get to meet people,” said Sandoval, who added that if she wasn’t playing soccer she would be “sitting at home and getting fat … The best thing I like about soccer is that we get to play games and we get to have fun.”


Back on Albuquerque’s West Side, THUMP, THUMP, THUMP can be heard as balls fly around. About 123 San Felipe children signed up to play in this city summer league called 3v3, three players vs. three players on half a field. Soccer is played year around on the reservation on fields in nearby Albuquerque. The Pueblo kids play in a non-competitive city league, as well as with competitive individual teams they have been recruited for. The NB3 Foundation provides transportation for the children and their families—parents, siblings and even grandparents all load the bus to cheer their future David Beckhams or Brandi Chastains on.  The village is waiting for its own new state-of-the-art field to be completed this fall. Begay, the Foundation and tribal council broke ground on the field in May.


The sport continues to grow in San Felipe and has become a communitywide effort—90 percent of the coaches are volunteers from the Pueblo, surprising some who weren’t so sure this no-hands game would take off.


“My dad is one of the tribal council members and was a little skeptical about this program but after spending time with the staff and seeing the changes in the kids, especially my kids now that doing well in school and more outgoing, he’s wanting to get more of the family involved,” said Briana Sandoval, who has two kids playing soccer. “I’m even volunteering my own time for the program.


“I think the whole community wants to get involved with the program,” she added. “They are noticing the changes and thinking twice about soccer.”