When Cheryl Kukac was growing up in south suburban Orland Park, her primary dream was to become a great high school gymnast. It`s not hard to understand why she had these dreams. Kukac, who now stands 5 feet 2 inches and weighs 110 pounds, has a graceful, slender body and muscular legs tailor-made for doing body flips on the balance beam.
And, in fact, the 18-year-old Kukac was once a budding gymnast for the Mokena-based district of the United States Gymnastics Federation. ”My parents called me `The Powerhouse` because my legs were so developed from always practicing for gymnastics,” said Kukac, who started performing with the U.S. Gymanstics Federation when she was 7. ”I put a lot of time and effort into that sport.”
Kukac, however, found another love that forced her to turn away from gymnastics during her freshman year at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park.
The new love? Soccer.
”I started playing soccer for my high school team, and I found that I really enjoyed the game from the beginning,” Kukac said. ”I had played soccer for fun during gym class in grammar school. But I really loved playing for a team.”
Now a senior at Sandburg, Kukac starts at the midfielder`s position and is also a captain on the team. She never regrets dropping gymnastics.
Like Kukac, a legion of youngsters in the south suburbs and in the Chicago area also have discovered the joys of soccer, especially in the past 10 to 15 years.
Here are the facts:
The United States had only 103,000 registered youth soccer players in 1974. In 1990, there were about 1.5 million players, according to the U.S. Soccer Federation, Chicago.
In the Chicago area, there are more than 50,000 children playing for the Illinois Youth Soccer Association (IYSA) and the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), the two major youth leagues for the game in the Chicago area. Ten to 15 years ago, there were probably half as many youths playing organized soccer, according to officials from those two leagues.
This year, the American Youth Soccer Organization has roughly 20,000 kids in 30 leagues throughout the six-county metropolitan area, according to Beverly-Morgan Park AYSO commissioner Len Karczewski. ”There were probably only 5,000 kids who played AYSO ball in the six-county area in 1980,”
Karczewski said.
The Illinois High School Association now reports there are 10,423 boys and 2,883 girls playing prep soccer. In 1982, there were only 9,245 boys and 853 girls playing soccer, according to IHSA assistant executive director Marty Hickman.
In the south suburbs, ”5,000 to 6,000” adolescents and teenagers play youth soccer for the Illinois Youth Soccer Organization, according to Peter Richardson, the president of the IYSA-affiliated Northern Illinois Soccer League. Ten years ago, the IYSA was lucky if it had more than 1,000 south suburban youngsters playing the sport, Richardson said.
The south suburbs are an apt symbol for the growth of youth soccer in the Chicago area, particularly among IYSA teams. Ten years ago, there were a few scattered IYSA regions in the area. Now, according to Richardson, there are 11: Lincoln-Way, Frankfort, Homewood-Flossmoor, Bolingbrook, Oswego, Plainfield, Troy, Orland Park, Park Forest, Oak Forest and Providence-New Lenox.
Why is there increased interest in youth soccer in the area?
Soccer is an easy, democratic sport where mass participation is a key. Young people like the constant movement and skillful ball handling. Parents like the fact that there is less physical contact than football or basketball. ”Soccer is free-flowing, and the players are their own bosses,”
Richardson said. ”In most other sports, you have to do what the coach tells you. And you have to be an exceptional athlete to find significant playing time in other sports. That`s not true in soccer. If you`re reasonably well-coordinated, you can play.”
”It`s a fairly easy game,” adds IYSA president Dave Knox. ”It lends itself physically to people playing.”
”Parents have an attitude about football,” Knox said. ”They are concerned about injuries or the game tiring out their kids. But that`s not a problem in soccer. And it`s an equal opportunity sport-girls and women can also play.”
The AYSO, which has teams for those from 5 to 16 years of age, runs spring leagues from April through May and fall leagues from September to November. The IYSA, which fields squads for ages 5 to 19, runs leagues from April through July and from September through November.
But there are problems. After a player graduates from a youth soccer league or a high school program, where does he or she go? There are soccer programs at most NCAA and NAIA-affiliated colleges. However, with the dearth of professional leagues in the United States, even the excellent youth players abandon the game once they reach a certain age.
Two North American Soccer League teams that settled in the Chicago area in the past 20 years folded. The Chicago Power of the National Professional Soccer League has played professional indoor soccer at the Rosemont Horizon for the past four years. Team officials say that at least 30 percent of the Power`s players are alumni from local youth soccer leagues.
Indoor soccer, however, is not accepted by many of the game`s traditionalists. ”The indoor leagues are fine,” Knox said. ”But those who are purists still say that there is no place for a good outdoor player after college.”
Area coaches would like to see the resurrection of an outdoor professional league in this country. That, however, is not economically feasible considering professional soccer`s track record in the U.S.
So youth soccer educators and high school coaches are looking forward to 1994, when Chicago will host the World Cup games, along with eight other U.S. cities.
Knox is already enthusiastic about related developments involving the World Cup. He is particularly pleased with plans for a new $1 million indoor- outdoor soccer complex, scheduled to be built somewhere in the Chicago area by 1994.
The facility would most probably be open to the public. If so, then Cheryl Kukac would be a frequent visitor. You see, Kukac will never lose her love for the game, even when she is forced to stop playing after her high school career is over.
”I get so much intensity and motivation from soccer,” Kukac said. ”My only regret is that I never had a chance to play youth soccer when I was in grade school.”
