They are younger and relatively home grown. And they are making their mark on the playing field, ensuring that the historically Hispanic and older Gainesville Georgia Soccer Association won't be known as an adult-only league for much longer.

"Two or three years ago there weren't any teen-age players; it was just married people and older men," said Sanchez, 29, a longtime member of the 46-team league. "But I'm starting to see ... young, young people. I really like that because I know three or four guys that used to be in gangs and right now I'm so proud of them because they are spending their time to practice and play better and better."

Hector Aguilar, 17, who plays soccer and football at Johnson High says participating in the Gainesville league helps him "stay straight" during the offseason.

"To me, it's really important because it gives me something else to do on weekends," said Aguilar, who plays for River Plate in the league's second division. "It's helping me ... stay out of all of those bad things."

It's also helping him become a better soccer player. Aguilar thinks more high school athletes should take advantage of the league's high level of play.

"I think it's good because they get their experience here from playing with grown-ups and then they play at high school and it seems easier," he said. "For me, it's helped. It's helped me a lot."

Area high school coaches, too, encourage their teen-agers to play against the Gainesville association's older, more experienced players, most of whom hail from Latin American countries where soccer is as much tradition as it is sport.

"I think that the high school players need to play those guys," said Gainesville High coach Jose Sanchez, who headed up his own Hispanic adult soccer league in the early 1980s. "I believe the local players can definitely learn a lot from them. It's a different league. It's tougher. It's faster. It's quicker. It's really very, very skillful. So definitely they can pick up some points from them."

The Hispanic influence — an ethnic reference to people of Spanish descent — is now obvious countywide. Local high school soccer rosters are littered with names of players with roots in Central and South America.

"It is good to see that they can participate in a sport that is growing in popularity in this country," said Haydee Anderson, who helped establish rules and a constitution to revamp the league in 1996. "The teen-agers are seeing how excited crowds get at the adult games on Sunday and they also want to be part of that. They want the recognition and they want to integrate."

See also:
Growth marks rise of grass-roots league
League isn't Hispanics only
League president has a passion for soccer

Dan Washburn is a sports writer for The Times in Gainesville, Ga.
Copyright © 1999 by The Times