Just For Kicks

By Al Chase

Sunday, August 26, 2001

Freehan moves to Region
IV job in Las Vegas

RICK Freehan never played soccer, but became involved when his daughter began playing for the American Youth Soccer Organization 18 years ago. He started off as a referee.

Since then he has coached, been on more committees than he cares to remember and served as treasurer of Hawaii Youth Soccer Association twice, sandwiched around a stint as president. Most recently, he served as treasurer of U.S. Youth Soccer Region IV.

Freehan was the one who nurtured and guided the proposals through U.S. Soccer Federation's officialdom maze that resulted in a $50,000 grant that provided the goal posts and corner flags for all the fields at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park.

Freehan's next assignment is at the national level. Friday, he left for the Region IV headquarters in Las Vegas, where he will tackle new duties as the region's marketing coordinator.

"This is a national program that generates millions of dollars from sponsors. One of my jobs will be to make sure the sponsors get value for their contributions," Freehan said.

Region IV encompasses 14 state associations in 13 Western states (California is divided into north and south). Freehan will work with each state association to help them to grow, increase the numbers and retain their youth players.

He noted in many sports, including soccer, youngsters at about age 13 or 14 find different peer groups, attend different schools and drop out of sports.

"We'll be developing new and interesting ways to keep those children involved in the game," he said. "In particular, I want to work with the beginning parent and explain to them what U.S. Youth Soccer has to offer.

"I want kids to know the players they see in Major League Soccer and on our national teams are products of U.S. Youth Soccer. We have about 3 million youngsters registered. I'm sure many of the players in HYSA don't realize they are part of U.S. Youth Soccer."

The Olympic Development Program is the development arm of U.S. Soccer. Freehan likes to refer to ODP as the SAT test of soccer.

"We had over 100 college coaches at our Region IV ODP camps this summer and the first thing they look for is how a player did in ODP. That's their first screening process," Freehan said. "It's an opportunity for a youngster to see if he or she can play college soccer, because the time requirements are immense. Even making the state ODP team is a big thing."

FREEHAN SAYS the relationship in Hawaii between AYSO and HYSA, organizations with different philosophies, is good and different from the mainland.

"Here you have Max Sword, the president of AYSO, coaching a HYSA team and Scott Keopuhiwa, HYSA president, coaching an AYSO team. They find that hard to believe on the mainland," Freehan said.

"What the two organizations have said is, this game is for the kids, so let's do what we can to make sure they get every opportunity to play."

After 18 years as a volunteer, Freehan's new position comes with compensation.

"It won't pay me a whole bunch, but it is a full-time position," he said.