Girls grow from rec to State Cup
Flashback nine years ago when a group of 6- and 7-year-old girls got together to begin playing soccer in the local recreational league. Little did they know that on Sunday, they’d still be together on the soccer field, playing for a State Cup championship.
When the Dynamo El Centro Soccer Club 2001 Orange team takes the field at 8 a.m. in Temecula on Sunday, nine of the 18 players will be doing so for easily more than the 100th time.
“When I first saw these girls play I saw a lot of soccer potential, of course, but more importantly I saw that these girls were already a great family and all the credit for that has to go to Manuel (Ramirez),” said Ramon Lopez, Dynamo head coach.
“I’m blessed to be able to coach a team that has this kind of unity.”
Ramirez is the man who started the group together oh so long ago. He wasn’t aiming to lead a group of girls to a state championship, he just agreed to coach so his daughter, Elizabeth, would have a team to play on.
“I got started coaching soccer when my son was 6-years-old and his rec league team needed a coach or there wasn’t going to be a team,” said the 47-year-old Ramirez. “Then my daughter came along and wanted to play soccer so I started another rec league team.”
Ramirez, who is a 1989-graduate of Central Union High but didn’t play soccer for the Spartans, had success with his girls’ team in the rec league for a few years and approached the parents about starting to travel with the girls to tournaments in Arizona and San Diego.
“When we started to travel, we were only the third girls’ team to come out of the Imperial Valley,” Ramirez said. “Our first tournament game was at the Desert Classic in Phoenix and I think we were in the U-10 (under 10 years old) division, but we were really a team of U-9 players.”
Ramirez continued to coach the girls, enrolling them in the Presidio League out of San Diego and finding success but never able to get over the hump and win their division.
He said the team took third and second several times but could never claim a first-place trophy.
“The first tournament we won was in San Bernardino five years ago,” Ramirez said. “Then the tournament wins started to come more frequently. I still think we are the only girls’ team to win the Presidio Cup tournament that comes at the end of the Presidio season.”
While no longer the coach of the girls, Ramirez is still involved with the team as he is president of the Dynamo El Centro Soccer Club. He handed over the coaching reins to Lopez a few seasons ago.
“The girls needed someone who could take them to a higher level. They’d been hearing my same voice for seven years and started to tune it out so it was time for a different voice, time for a change,” Ramirez said. “Ramon is the coach at Central (Union High) where a lot of these girls were going to be at, so he was the logical choice to take them to the next level.”
Lopez said he is appreciative of all the work Ramirez did with the girls and in awe of the work ethic the girls show at each practice and game.
While many other girls have come and gone from the squad, the core group has stayed together now for almost a decade.
“It was a very humble thing for him to let go of the team,” Lopez said. “Without him, these girls wouldn’t be playing in the championship game on Sunday. It all started with Manuel.”
When the Dynamo girls kickoff on Sunday at Galway Downs in Temecula against Santa Paula Xtreme out of Orange County, it’ll be the culmination of a lot of hard work and many travel miles for Ashley Quiroz, Dyleth Palacios, Ruby Torres, Mary Torres, Ivana Castro, Melissa Montano, Malaya Hernandez, Aaliyah Felix and Destiny Zamora.
Good luck, girls.