school blacktop with Emilio Navarro-Perez, the club’s founder. Johanna struggled to find the right team. Before COVID-19, the boys played in a Richmond league with coaches more interested in winning than developing players. “If they didn’t win, they’d get a whole speech of you guys didn’t do good,” she says. “I don’t like that, especially to younger kids.” Then a rec team in El Cerrito “wasn’t really a welcoming environment for us,” Johanna says. “Being Latino, the organization is like not us. We were kind of pushed to the side.” The COVID-19 layoff inspired Johanna to look again for a team that fits her family’s schedule and lifestyle. Victor joined a select team he likes. Both boys joined their school team. Their mom never considered a City of Oakland rec team. “There is programming that’s accessible, but the quality is not there,” she says. Instead, she’s paying $1,600 for Victor’s select team, which she says is manageable given that payments can be made through installments. She hasn’t applied for available scholarships. “When the child has more talent, the sport becomes more accessible to them because it’s easier to navigate scholarships,” Johanna says. “For kids who are starting out, you have to figure out what paperwork to submit and when the deadlines are. It feels like a hassle.” These are the details parents and guardians must navigate. Johanna wishes sports in Oakland were more local within each community. She used to drive 30 minutes each way for David and Victor to learn swimming. There aren’t enough safe parks and pools she trusts for her kids to visit.
Victor Sanchez, 13 David Sanchez, 9
COVID-19 restrictions took a toll on the Sanchez brothers. Their typical day involved sitting around the house playing video games and watching screens for hours at a time. “We’ve seen every movie because of quarantine,” says Victor, a seventh-grader at Berkley Maynard Academy, where his brother David is in fourth grade. “We don’t know what to watch now.” Johanna Mota Garcia, the boys’ mom, had other ideas. As restrictions were lifted, she forced them to return to soccer and play for the Oaktown Futbol Club. Johanna likes that it’s a free experience through the boys’ school, limiting cost barriers and transportation challenges since she works odd hours at Target. Most importantly, it allows her sons to play with friends again. Staying indoors during the pandemic “was tough and it was a little boring without seeing any of my friends,” says David, who went 18 months without in-person connections and only became motivated to play soccer once he saw Victor return. “Now it’s fun seeing friends.”
For now, though, her children are happy again. And that’s all that matters to this mom.
With limited field access in Oakland, the Oaktown Futbol Club practices on the middle
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PROJECT PLAY — AN INITIATIVE OF THE ASPEN INSTITUTE
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