By Dennis Miller
Playing soccer in Pleasanton from your time as a youth, up into adulthood, was pretty much a rite of passage.
You played for Ballistic United or the Pleasanton Girls’ Soccer Association (now the Rage) to begin with, then moved on the leagues in your 20’s with college soccer a viable possibility.
Then you hit 30 and it was time to play in Pleasanton Adult Sunday Soccer (PASS). This was a coed team with the women getting to start at a younger age.
It was something you did, and more importantly, you extended your chance to play the sport you love with your good buddies for another 10-20 years.
For many of us we started watching PASS play when we were still playing youth soccer, but our parents got into the fledgling years of the program.
The most fun part of watching was that so many of the parents had never played soccer – heck most of them did not know much about the game.
Sure, there were some parents and coaches that had played the game. I can remember how much fun it was to watch my mom, who was fairly athletic in her younger years, try to tackle the basics on the soccer field.
My good buddies and I would look forward to hanging at the Aquatic Center fields where the games took place every Sunday when PASS first started.
As the years went by, the talent level got to the point where there needed to be divisions to be established to even the playing field for all the teams.
Initially when I hit 30, I played with a group of friends from Amador. We were a decent team but certainly not a top-tier squad.
After a couple of years, I made the leap when one of the top teams came calling. It was a very good team with a roster of players that came from the college ranks on both the male and female sides.
What is great about PASS is that they had divisions so beginning teams could play against each other, while the advanced teams had a more competitive league that got the juices going on each week.
Over the years, the team numbers have declined, and the league was set to go away because of the lack of interest by the city of Pleasanton in running the program.
Ballistic stepped up and put PASS under the Ballistic umbrella so the league could continue. But over the years one thing continued to happen – the number of Pleasanton residents has continued to decline.
Currently only 26 percent of 531 players in the league live in Pleasanton. That could eventually force BUSC to pay a fee for using the fields, which then would increase the registration fee to play.
Somewhat ironic since Ballistic stepped up to save the league since the city had no desire to run an adult soccer league.
The solution is to have more Pleasanton residents step up and play in the league. You won’t regret it, and you will love the competitive juices playing would bring on a regular basis.
And don’t forget how much your kids would enjoy watching you play! I am now 63 but still remember my teens when my buddies and I got together and watched our parents play.
As a parent it will increase your overall knowledge of the game and will help you to relate to your child and their games.
There are other programs that are being worked on the increase the number of Pleasanton residents and we will be touching on those soon.
There are pick-up games available which is a great way to gauge your interest. For more information reach out to PASS coordinator Angela Woodward at angwoodward@comcast.net.
