The South Valley Chivas Academy welcomes Gerardo Castro and all his coaching staff to the South Valley Chivas family.   

The new Bakersfield affilate will be know as South Valley Chivas Bakersfield and will have a training site of Walter Stiern Middle School,  2551 Morning Drive, Bakersfield, CA. 

For more information please call (661) 619-7244 or email Gerardo Castro at coachcastro27@yahoo.com.

Please visit the South Valley Chivas Bakersfield website.

The “Culture Of Soccer” website has written up article about our soccer academy.

“Culture of Soccer is a blog about the beautiful game and the people who play it. It looks at the way soccer intersects with economics, politics, religion, history, ethnicity, race, immigration, identity, psychology, sexuality, and other aspects of culture. Culture of Soccer does not cover breaking news. Instead, it looks to place aspects of the sport into broader cultural context. Culture of Soccer differs from many other blogs in that each post is a more in-depth discussion of a topic, rather than a quick snippet of what is happening that day.”

Click here to read article.

On Saturday, January 23, 2010 South Valley Chivas Academy in collaboration with Fresno Pacific University Men’s coach Jaime Ramirez and Fresno State Women coach Brian Zwaschka offered a free camp for 76 local boys and girls high school soccer players which came as far north as North Fork and as far south as Bakersfield to participate in the camp.

“The college prospect camp was something which Jaime Ramirez and I have been planning for the past year but unfortunately our schedules never allowed us to do it. Finally we planned it with anticipation and we couldn’t have asked for a better turnout”, said SVCA Director Gilbert Hernandez. “This was a total success! All players in attendance left with details, guidelines and recommendations on how to be recruited by a D1 or D2 collegiate soccer program”.

Apart from the two hour long college training session, the players and their parents were able to participate in a Q&A session offered by the collegiate coaches. Some of the topics discussed included the NCAA, NAIA, Eligibility Center, recruiting, academic requirements, financial aid and sports scholarships.

Coach Jaime Ramirez went into details of his Division II Sunbird soccer program at the Fresno Pacific University and the importance of using soccer as a stepping stone to get a college education. “It is important soccer players use their talent to get a college education”, said Ramirez. “I am here to speak and answer questions you might have on what it takes for you to play collegiate sports at all colleges and universities, not just Fresno Pacific University”. “Just the fact of you being here at this camp tells us that you want to succeed in soccer and more importantly you want to get a college education”. When asked about sports scholarships and financial aid, coach Ramirez said, “You cannot imagine how many financial aid sources you can find out there if you spent the time to do the research. “

Fresno State Women Soccer coach Brian Zwaschka talked to the group about the recruiting process and some of the NCAA regulations which don’t allow him to speak to players until the end of their high school junior year. “The NCAA doesn’t allow me to contact any player until their junior year of high school but there is nothing that says you cannot contact me or any other coach. Be persistent when contacting coaches. Just because they don’t answer your voicemail or emails it doesn’t mean they are not interested, it is just there are so many regulations imposed by the NCAA which don’t allow us to speak to prospects”.

When asked about full sports scholarships at their respective college both of them assure everyone that it is very uncommon to give out full sports scholarships in collegiate soccer. “What we do is try to find other financial aid sources to make up the difference” said Coach Ramirez. “At Fresno State I am given nine sports scholarships a year and I need to divide those nine scholarships amongst 25 rostered players. It would unwise for me to give out those nine scholarships to nine individuals, it just doesn’t happen”.

“If there was anything to complain about this camp, it would have to be the participation of local soccer players from the Porterville area”, said Gilbert Hernandez. “We had 15 players from Porterville participate out of a total of 76. With all the local soccer clubs and all three high school soccer in mid season, you would have to expect more than 15 players from Porterville. What coach or parent wouldn’t want their child to get this type of information and guidance from these college coaches for free? “

There are already plans for future camps and projects by the South Valley Chivas Academy with both Fresno Pacific and Fresno State Soccer programs, any details of information about this events will be posted on www.chivassouthvalley.com.

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To register for soccer camp please click here.

South Valley Chivas Academy and Fresno Pacific University Men’s head coach, Jaime Ramirez will be conducting a College Prospect Soccer Camp open to all local boys and girls high school and junior college soccer players interested in playing soccer at the collegiate level. Coach Ramirez will be looking for prospective players for the Men’s and Women’s Soccer Program at Fresno Pacific University.

UPDATE: Fresno State Women Head Coach, Brian Zwaschka will also be presented.

This is an excellent opportunity to receive top-notch training and be evaluated by a collegiate coach.

At the conclusion of the soccer camp there will be an informational Q&A session about collegiate soccer for all players and their parents.

CIFS SECTION ADMINISTRATION WAS MADE AWARE OF THE CAMP AND THEY HAVE CONFIRMED THAT IN NO WAY WILL THIS CAMP RISK YOUR ELIGIBILITY TO PLAY HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER.

Date & Time
Saturday, January 23, 2010
9:00-12:00pm

Location
Porterville Sports Complex
2701 W Scranton Ave
Porterville, CA. 93257
Map to complex

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUR WEBSITE FOR ANY CHANGES.

South Valley Chivas Academy is putting together a “select” girls team to travel to Tula in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico to play two friendly games against Mexican U17 Women National Team who is preparing for the upcoming CONCACAF World Qualifiers.

The team will travel from August 13-16, 2009.

Games are scheduled on August 14 and August 15, 2009.

For more information please email: chivasacademy@hotmail.com

UPDATED: Click here for gallery of images.
 

Images courtesy of Gabe Villa

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The newly formed SVCA G98 team won the G98 Gold Division championship at the Pleasanton Rage College Showcase Tournament on August 1-2, 2009 which was the first US Club Soccer competitive tournament which they attended.

With win of 4-0 against Rage U11 Grey, 5-0 against Bay Oaks Bombers Blue,  a tie versus Diablo FC 98 Blue in the preliminary rounds the South Valley Chivas G98 team squared off against Diablo FC Black team in the championship game which they eventually won 4-2.

SVCA G98 team members are: Caitlan Albinson, Alexis Contreras, Ally Holloway, Zaina Ilyas, Samanth Oliveria, Alyson O’Bosky, Valeria Rios, Cassidy Taylor, Kayla Watson.  Team coaches are Joe Oliveria and Karen Holloway.

For tournament scores/results please visit the Rage College Showcase tournament page.

For more information about the South Valley Chivas G98 please visit their team website.

Ismael Perez (92), Roberto Sandoval (92), Alexis Hernandez (92), Michael Perez (94), Oscar Torres (94), Daniel Villareal (95), and Victor Lopez (96) will all travel to different parts of Mexico to tryout for professional soccer clubs fuerza basicas team. 

Some will travel to Guadalajara while others will travel to Monterrey and Mexico City starting July 27 – August 16, 2009.  Players were invited by scouts from the different mexican clubs thru tryouts held by the San Joaquin Valley Premier Soccer League.

Oscar Torres (94) player of South Valley Chivas Academy was called up to help the Chivas Guadalajara 94 Fuerza Basica team which participated in the 2009 Copa Chivas from July 19-July 25, 2009.

Oscar debuted with the 94 Chivas Fuerza Basica team on July 19, 2009 in the inaugural game which was played at the Estadio Jalisco current home stadium of Chivas Guadalajara.

Oscar Torres lives in Earlimart, Ca and attends our academy practices in Delano, Ca.

 Special thanks to Jorge Dominguez, coordinador de visores in Chivas Guadalajara, for inviting Oscar to participate.

On June 19, 2009 a group of about 50 academy players and families along with players from the Bakersfield Alliance had the opportunity to attend a Chivas USA practice in the morning and in the afternoon had the priviledge to have USC Trojan Women Soccer coach, Ali Khosroshahin talked to them about the Trojan women soccer program college recruitment in general and education.

The Chivas USA practice started at 10am and finished up about 11:30am.  Players and their families had the opportunity to witness the intensity of a full professional soccer practice.   At the conclusion of the practice Chivas USA players came over and gave autographs to all the academy members.   Notable Chivas USA players at the practices where: Claudio Suarez, Eduardo Lilingston, Mariano Trujillo, Maykel Galindo, Jesse March, Zack Thornton, Ante Razov, Paulo Nagamura and Alecko Eskandrian.

The next stop after witnessing the Chivas USA practice was the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles.   After a quick tour of the campus players and families were escorted to Heritage Hall in the center of campus and where they would be treated to a one hour workshop about soccer scholarships, college recruitment, college soccer by USC with Trojan Women soccer coach, Ali Khosroshahin.  There coach Ali K talked and answered questions related to college soccer.  Having one of the top women college soccer coaches in the states, talked to them and answer questions for many of our members was once in a lifetime opportunity. 

On behalf of the South Valley Chivas Academy administration we would like to take the time to thank Chivas USA staff Jose Arce, Julio Cano and especially Luis Gaitan for being with our group throughout our visit to the Home Depot Center.  Special thanks for coach Ali K for taking the time of his busy schedule to talk to our players and enlighten them to aspire to play at the college level one day.

 Thank you!!

Images of USC coach Ali K

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