Futbol: The Beautiful Game

Foreword

I feel very fortunate about what this beautiful sport has given me over the years. Not only has provided me with a way of staying healthy and fit, which is something we are going to ackowdlege later in our lives, but has brought me my best friends and a great deal of exciting moments, which have come to complement the other activities I do in life.

In addition, playing officially in competitive leagues can teach the individual a lot of things in life like responsabilty and commitment, or like how to be humble in the glorious moments by giving your rival due respect and credit for their job, how to give everything you got to do your best, how to accept defeat, or how to face adversity when things are not going your way. This has been so valuable and precious for me. I keep every moment in the bottom of my heart, glory and tears, joy and defeat.

My Teams

Even though my father was a great futbol player and he tried to encourage me to play in my early years it was not until I was 10 when I finally started to become interested in this sport. I got to play at school breaks and with my neighbors. We used to play our daily cascarita in the streets, which was an excellent field since nobody had cars in that neighborhood at that time.

I made my official debut in February 1981 (age 14) playing for my barrio (neighborhood) team, Deportivo Nogalar. After three trial seasons, we formed our Viajes Kino squad (sponsored by a travel agency). Starting in Division U-15, we played together in all youth divisions, all the way up to Division 2 and 1. Excitement was our trademark. We usually finished every season as the top offense (a bit rare given that we played a 4-4-2 system). Our defense was more worried on attacking than on defending so we did receive a lot of goals too. It was a great team that grew together througout the years. We won several trophies for our club exhibit including one cup title. Those were great years, but unfortunately everything has an end and we met our fate in 1987, after 16 seasons over a 5-year span.

I then joined the amazing Santa Rosa, led by Chendo, one my dearest friends from school. Santa Rosa is a small town, about 20 minutes from San Nicolás, in the city of Apodaca. This was a big change for me as I had to make the trip to Apodaca every Sunday. But it was worth it. The team was very talented and the league very competitive. We had such glorious moments and I enjoyed every piece of it. Sometime in the middle there was an attempt to reunite Viajes Kino so I left the team. However, thinks did not work out so I returned to Santa Rosa after one season. In December 1990 I played my last game of my pre-Austin era as I was set to start my graduate studies in Austin, Texas. It could have not been any better as we grabbed our second league title in a very exciting match.

After arriving at Austin, I remained without playing in an official league, partly due to some injuries I had to heal and partly because I did not know the right contact. However, in November 1993 I joined Dumex, a team formed mostly by Mexicans (from Durango), in the Hispano Soccer League. The team was as talented as irresponsible. We practically played with 9-10 players all of our games. Those few games we managed to play with our full roster we had outstanding performances against the top teams in the league. Unfortunately that did not happen as often as we would have liked to so we finished near the bottom of the standings.

I did not renew my contract (well, we could hardly say we had a team) so I joined the great Dolores in September 1994, thanks to the recommendation of our UT intramural teammate Germán Gómez, who was playing for that team at that time. The core of Dolores was a group of players from Trancas, a small town in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato. We had great seasons too, including my first title ever since coming to Austin, when we became the 1996 HSL Cup Champions by defeating archi-rival Santos 3-2 in sudden-death over time, in a memorable and exciting showdown. I played my last match on June 1997 as I graduated from UT-Austin.

Then we moved to Houston in July 1997. My wife soon found a team to play on Sundays, so I did the baby sitting for almost a year. In June 1998, I was invited to join Valle Hermoso, a squad formed by Mexicans, playing in one of the Hispanic leagues in the city. The team was very talented, and played very well. We made it all the way up to the semi-finals, where we lost in a penalty shoot-out. Unfortunately, I had to leave the team, mainly because the playing fields were very far away from home. I then joined the United Grenadiers, of the Houston Football Association, in Septembre 1998. I had a great time playing for United, a team with a nice mixture of old warriors and young blood. We finished up in Third Place. I missed the last quarter of the season due to a severe knee injury.

After returning to México, it was not until January 2000 when I signed up for Victoria, invited my former teammate Juan Argueta. This was an over-30 team where Tobi and Ferna, old teammates from Viajes Kino, were also playing. The team was good, but needed a few good players to make it a strong contender. Unfortunately, during my first season, I torn my Achilles' tendon and had to undergo reconstructive surgery on February 2000. Wishing for a good rehab.

In 2007, I returned to Victoria, after overcoming several injuries. This was my last season so far at Sunday leagues as I preferred to spend more time with my family.

Team	Dates	Highlights
Victoria	My/2007 - Oc/2007 Ja/2000 - Ap/2000	2 seasons 2000 Independiente League 3rd Place
United Grenadiers	Sp/1998 - My/1999	1 season 1998-99 HFA 3rd Place
Valle Hermoso	Jn/1998 - Ag/1998	1 season 1998 HHSL 3rd Place
Dolores	Sp/1994 - Jn/1997	7 seasons 1996-97 LSAA Cup 3rd Place 1996 AHSL Cup Champion, Top Offense 1995-96 AHSL Top Offense 1994-95 AHSL Top Defense
Dumex	Nv/1993 - Jn/1994	1 season
Santa Rosa	Ag/1990 - Dc/1990 Mr/1987 - My/1989	7 seasons 1990 AL Champion 1988-89 AL Group 1st Place, Top Offense, Top Defense 1988 AL Champion 1987 AL Runner-up 1987 AL Group 1st Place, Top Offense
Viajes Kino	Ap/1990 - My/1990 Ja/1982 - Ja/1987	16 seasons 1986 LV Cup Champion, Top Defense 1985-86 FOOJ League 3rd Place 1985 FOOJ League 3rd Place, Top Offense 1983-84 HL 3rd Place, Top Offense 1983-84 FL 3rd Place 1982 HL Runner-Up
Deportivo Nogalar	Fb/1981 - Dc/1981	3 seasons

Other Very Special Teams

I also got to play in teams other than the regular Saturday/Sunday leagues mentioned in the previous section.

Several members of our Viajes Kino squad (including myself) played the 1984 Benito Juárez tournament representing the Liga Hispano. This was the Nuevo León qualifier round. We did a good job, but lost the pass to the state semi-finals against Liga Valle Verde. That year the team from Liga San Nicolás won the tournament and the right to represent our state in the national contest.

I also was selected (well, the school was not too big) to play for my undergraduate school squad, in the UANL Inter-University League. I played for the Facultad de Ciencias Físico-Matemáticas (FCFM) for three seasons. Even though our school had had a very poor history in this tournament, our generation decided to write history on their own. I truly enjoyed those college years. I got to make friends that would later share other exciting moments in other teams.

Before graduating from college, I played the 1987 FCFM Cup for Suspiro Final (mostly formed by players from our fut-sal squad). We lost the final on penalty kicks in an unforgettable match.

In 1988, I played for Vitro Tec (my job's team) for one season. Bad experience. The team was not so good, but worst, the players hardly showed up for the games.

In Austin, my first futbol experience (even before I joined Dumex in the Sunday league) was throughout the UT-Austin Intramural League. This tournament is held every Fall semester and is extremely competitive (more than I had thougth it would be). In 1992, I played for School Board in the Independent Division, a team formed mostly by guys who were more interested in watching the NFL Dallas Cowboys than showing up for the games. I then met Germán Gómez, another of my great friends, and joined his team, Inter, where I played for two seasons. This was a good team, we had some great matches, but we failed to make it to the playoffs, just barely. Finally, in 1996, I played for STR, Andy Smith's squad. Again, we won some tough matches, but lost the decisive one and did not make it to the playoffs. Playing intramurals, though, was another great experience for me.

One of the finest experiences I have ever had was playing intramurals in a co-ed team. I don't think I have the words to describe the feeling. Women give to the game a very special flavor, and oh boy can they play! In 1994 we decided to have this adventure and formed our Dínamo team. This team was truly exceptional and very successful. We had oustanding seasons. In the first one, we reached the semi-final undefeated and lost in an unforgettable, heart-breaking match. The second year, we again made it to the playoffs, beat the defending (and undefeated for 2 years) champion, but lost in the semi-final in a penalty shoot-out. The third year, we reached the Round of 16 undefeated, and lost again in a penalty shoot-out. However, we finally reached the extasis of a title when we grabbed the 1997 Texas Cup by defeating the defending two-time champion and displaying a superb performance from start to finish. It was just awesome.

We moved to Houston in the Summer 1997. My first team was PROS, a consulting firm for the airline and energy industries. I was involved professionally with some folks at PROS, so they knew me and invited me to play. The team had great heart, but that was about it. Despite having a few good players, we just never performed collectively, as a team. I played a couple of very frustrating seasons with this team and left for better hopes when the team failed to sign up for the Summer 1998 season. In that Summer, I accepted an invitation from one of my indoor soccer teammates to join their co-ed team, Griffs. It was a very good team, and the league quite comptetitive, although with only a few teams. During the Summer season we fall just short of getting the title. The Fall was also fabulous, but again, finished as Runner-Up as we splitted the final 2-game showdown with Spring Branch, a superb squad. That was my last season with Griffs because in February 1999, just before the Spring season started I had a severe knee injury that kept me on the sideline for the rest of our stay in Houston.

After returning to San Nico, I had a terrible Achilles' tendon injury that kept me inactive for over a year. After my rehab, I signed up for Carnes Viba, a team formed by old teammates like Chendo, Reynaldo, Barbosa, Morro, and Eligio. At that time, Chendo and Rey were working for Carnes Viba and they invited us to play with them. So I returned to the fields in June 2001. I played two seasons before having a probably carrer-ending injury in my right knee tendon. I took over as the coach for the last seven seasons. We lost a final and were in three other semifinals. The team finished its era in 2004.

Team	Dates	Highlights
Carnes Viba	Jn/2001 - Jl/2004	9 seasons (2 as a player) 2004 Top Defense, Top scorer, 2nd place 2002 Nova League Runner-up 2001-02 Nova League Third Place
Griffs	Jn/1998 - Ja/1999	2 seasons 1998 HWSL Runner-Up 1998-99 HWSL Runner-Up
PROS	Sp/1997 - Jn/1998	2 seasons
Dínamo	Nv/1994 - Ap/1997	4 seasons 1997 Texas Cup Champion 1995 UT League 3rd Place 1994 UT League 4th Place
STR	Oc/1996 - Nv/1996	1 season
Inter	Oc/1993 - Nv/1994	2 seasons
School Board	Oc/1992 - Nv/1992	1 season
Vitro Tec	Sp/1988 - Dc/1988	1 season 1988 Vitro League 3rd Place
Suspiro Final	Fb/1987 - Mr/1987	1 season 1987 FCFM Cup Runner-Up
Facultad de Ciencias Físico-Matemáticas	Mr/1985 - Dc/1986	3 seasons 1986 UANL League 4th Place
Selección Liga Hispano	My/1984	1 season

Coaching

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