MVLA’s embarks on its 40th year with a philosophy about developing the youth in the community.
MVLA takes great pride in the development of young soccer players. Their goal is to develop both the player, and the person. They focus on a physical, social and intellectual balance. As they work with children from the ages of 6-19, they fill the rolls of coach, teacher and often social counselors. Albertin Montoya, Director of Coaching at MVLA, “ We try to create a comfortable learning and social environment for the players’ development, with an emphasis on a healthy life style and positive choices. It is important that our players learn to show genuine respect for their parents, coaches and other players. Our focus at the younger ages is not on results (i.e. winning). We play an attractive, attacking style of soccer, and combined with all the other elements, individual successes and team wins come as a result.”
This philosophy has continued to be successful with the number of players going to play in college and on national teams. This season alone, 4 MVLA Teams won state titles and will be playing at the regionals.
However, MVLA has grown to be more than a competitive soccer club. Their new tagline, “More than a Club” inspired by FC Barcelona “ Mas que en club” is indicative of MVLA’s commitment to the community and players. “We want soccer to be part of the community in whatever capacity a child chooses to play”, Albertin continues to explain., This past spring, MVLA brought soccer clinics to the Los Altos School District and other local schools as an afterschool program. This provided children grades 1-3 the opportunity to try out soccer and learn some things from the professional coaches. It was a great success and MVLA is planning on growing this to include more grades and additional schools both in Mountain View and Los Altos in the fall.
See MVLA in Action:
http://youtu.be/TzIiIdHUlIM
Furthermore, MVLA is now reaching out to hosting tournaments and jamborees for
their 900+ players and surrounding communities. The provides the local communities of
Mountain View and Los Altos the opportunity to watch some great soccer at the local schools. MVLA has hosted several tournaments this past year, bringing community together as well as opportunity for local vendors to participate and sell.
“We will be planning more community events in 2011-2012 season to really be able to bring a soccer culture to the community and help the local businesses” Kim Cesena, MVLA Field Coordinator explains “ Over these past couple of weekends, we have had over 500 people in the area, eating at our local restaurants and shopping. This is a win win for everyone”.
