More adults getting their kicks from playing soccer

Irene Garcia, mother of three, was the stereotypical soccer mom.

Every week, it was pile the kids in the car, take them to soccer practice on one day, then soccer games on another. Multiply that by her son and two daughters and who has time to do anything else? She certainly couldn't play tennis anymore.

"I started getting angry," said Garcia, 40. "When was I going to be able to do something for myself?"

So Garcia did what no frazzled, selfless soccer mom would dream of doing: She started her own soccer team.

Thus, the NeU-moms were born, a ragtag band of 12 soccer moms who had long been devoted to their children's sport at the expense of their own time and hobbies.

Long a popular youth sport with more than 3 million players nationwide, according to U.S. Youth Soccer, Garcia and her friends are only a handful of the hundreds of adults who get their kicks on soccer fields across the valley. She plays in the women's league at Las Vegas Indoor Soccer.

"We've never played soccer; it's a lot of fun, it's like a mom's night," she said. "The kids like it, they think it's fun. It's become something we can all do together."

The "U" in the team name refers to the age groups their children play in, such as Under 14, Under 8 and others. They play every Monday night while their children attend soccer practice with their dads. It has been nearly two months and Garcia can't believe she didn't think of this sooner.

"After our first game, it was so much fun," Garcia says. "We actually lost but it was a blast."

Garcia had never played soccer before but says she found it easy to pick up the rules. Her kids are happy to offer advice, since they've been playing for most of their lives. She's now looking to start a coed team.

"I'm trying to get people from my husband's office to play as a bonding thing," Garcia says.

Meeting new people from a variety of backgrounds is part of the fun, she adds.

Soccer has wide appeal, attracting an array of players. There are lighting designers, doctors, bartenders, students. Moms and dads.

For 45 minutes once a week, they become superheroes of a sort, says Jeremy Anderson, 28.

A co-captain of his coed team Top Secret, Anderson has been a lifelong soccer player. He joined a coed team at the indoor field a few years ago.

"I love it for the exercise, for the competitiveness of it," he says after scoring a point.

On a recent Thursday, Anderson's team was leading Cheyenne Saloon 6-3 at halftime but fatigue and a lack of women subs helped their opponents come from behind and win 10-6.

Each team fields six players, three women and three men. A cool part about playing coed? When girls score, they're awarded two points. That's an incentive to keep the women involved in the game. The indoor fields allow teams to play year-round; Anderson's and Garcia's teams are on 10-week schedules.

Everyone is out there to have fun but occasionally, tempers flare, players say. A referee is always there to call fouls. It can get a little rough, too.

One woman from Top Secret took a soccer ball to the chest while protecting their goal.

"Ow," she said, almost doubled over.

Top Secret member Jeff Meyer, 33, kicked the ball just as a female opponent did. She went down, he did not.

"If you have a woman who can play goalie, it's a huge advantage," Meyer said later. The team had just taken on a new female goalie. "It allows you to play three guys in the middle. It may sound sexist but it's true."

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@ reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.