About a year and a half ago, Ricardo Perez was representing Larimer County’s Office of Emergency Management at a community outreach event at the Nueva Vida Mobile Home Park.
There, he learned that kids played fútbol using the grass field’s wooden fence as a goal. As a former professional soccer player, he had an idea, what if they built them an actual field?
On Sunday, that became a reality, as the community inaugurated its new cancha de fútbol, or soccer field.
“I would have loved to have a soccer field growing up. The idea came from how every neighborhood in Mexico has one,” Perez said during an interview that conducted in Spanish.
Transitioning from professional sports
Born in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Perez and his family moved to Fort Collins in 2003, where he eventually graduated from Rocky Mountain High School with his older brother.
Perez then played soccer at Creighton University before signing with the Colorado Rapids .
But he knew that he couldn’t play full time for his entire life. To prepare himself for that transition, Perez was also getting a data analytics master’s degree.
As he got closer to finishing his program while recovering from a second knee injury, the COVID-19 pandemic swept the nation — and canceled the soccer season.
“It was a very difficult moment, moving away from professional soccer, which had been a part of my entire life. But it was the right thing,” Perez said.
His goal was to get a job where he could help other people, so when an opportunity came up to be an emergency bilingual communicator with the county, he took it.
‘They do get cared for’
After the outreach event in Nueva Vida, Perez was introduced to Jasmine Juarez who’d pitched that idea at one of the community’s monthly meetings.
Seeing that the children loved to play there but there were no goals or fences to prevent the balls from running on the streets (with the kids behind them), Juarez wanted to provide them a safe space.
“And then kind of just to show the kids that they are listening, they do get cared for,” Juarez said.
So, the duo got to work using all their connections to make this happen.
At first, the kids didn’t believe it when Juarez told them what they were planning, but once they saw their newly painted goals, which were donated by Arsenal Colorado, they were stoked.
On Sunday’s event, everyone gathered for the official opening. Just hours before the Copa América final, parents and other volunteers wore their Argentine and Colombian jerseys as they set up the music and food.
After a brief rain interruption, Perez made a few drills for the kids to kick some balls with the Colorado Rapids mascot as goalie before the pickup games started. Even the firefighters and county commissioner John Kefalas participated.
Paying it forward
To play organized soccer, Perez said, you need a lot of resources: registration fees, gear, travel.
Eduardo Santiago, an academy coach at Northern Colorado Hailstorm who was there to support the event, said he hopes having a dedicated field in their community can lower that barrier for kids at Nueva Vida.
“Hoping that it opens the doors up for a lot of kids. I think a lot of those kids are underrepresented and I think there's a lot of talent that don't have the opportunity to showcase themselves to other clubs,” Santiago said.
As for next steps, Juarez is thinking about doing this for other mobile home communities.
Perez feels he’s been supported throughout his soccer career and is keen to do the same for others. He’s considering an organization that could provide scholarships for children to play.
When Perez’s parents first heard about what he was doing at Nueva Vida, they were excited that los días de fútbol — the soccer days — were back.
“They supported me with so much time, driving, and with all the love to give my older brother and me opportunities to play soccer,” Perez said.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: How a former Colorado Rapids player helped a mobile home park get a new soccer field
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