Soccer has been growing exponentially during the pandemic, giving kids athletics and interaction.

On a cold evening approaching sunset, a group of about 20 mask-wearing girls are doing cone drills on the grass. They are warming up before starting their soccer defense and offense practice to learn the principles of pressure, cover and balance.

Being at the field and finally having scrimmages keeps the spirits high for this group of players in the Monterey Condors Club. “It’s very exciting to finally start feeling a sense of normal,” Xaria Cisneros says. “To have that thrill of excitement and that fire and competition again.” For months during the pandemic, she’d been doing conditioning and training, but not competing.

“During shelter-in-place we did it over Zoom, which was a little harder,” says 13-year-old Morgan Retterer. “When you are at home you can’t really do a lot of drills, especially not with other people.”

Since the girls have been training in small cohorts, they haven’t had many opportunities to play a normal game. “It has been a huge adjustment for them,” says Jordyn Dezago, youth coach for the Condors.

Mark Cisneros, director of coaching of the Monterey Condors Club, was also head coach for kids ages 5 to 15 when shelter-in-place started in March 2020. They met regularly at Cutino Park in Seaside, until they had to suddenly stop training.

After just a few weeks of SIP, parents and players started contacting Cisneros asking him for workouts they could do at home. He moved practice online in May, and in a few days the group grew to nearly 30 kids. Cisneros says it was exciting to see many kids engaged online.

“The only thing that was required was a soccer ball and a wall,” he says.

Online practice helped not just the players, but the coach as well as he went through his own emotional journey during SIP, and parents and club members urged him to stick with it. The Monterey Condors Club, a nonprofit based in Salinas, has been around since 2017 and provides opportunities for children to learn and play soccer. At the beginning, the club’s main focus was recreational, but for the past year they’ve been building a competitive year-round soccer program.

Part of the vision is to make soccer accessible to everyone, including low-income families, by offering financial help for families who can’t afford the club’s fees. Cisneros says besides the athletics and camaraderie, it’s part of the mission. He also has a personal mission: “To offer an exciting soccer program at a very reasonable price.” (The club gets its funding from registration, donations and fundraising.)

When the Monterey County Health Department released guidelines for recreational cohorts last summer, kids started with skill and conditioning training from August to November in Pacific Grove. Then in December and January during strict stay-at-home orders, they took a hiatus. During that time off, club organizers purchased lights so the club could practice at night, and they restarted in February.

During the pandemic, the numbers of competitive soccer players in the Condors has more than tripled, from a little over 20 to around 70 kids. Condors chair Mario Bertolucci says it’s thanks to Cisneros’ enthusiasm: “He loves soccer and loves kids.”

In addition, Bertolucci says, it’s because the club continued to operate during the pandemic, making necessary safety adaptations. “It was a big success,” he says. Coaches and players have to wear masks during practice, sanitize their hands, check temperatures upon arrival and they have to bring their own water.

Since the number of participants has grown, the club has hired more coaches, and parents have called from different cities including Salinas and the Monterey Peninsula.

Cisneros sees soccer training as an outlet for kids during the pandemic especially, as a way to focus emotional and physical energy: “We just want to be there and try to help them,” he says.

THE MONTEREY CONDORS CLUB offers soccer training for both boys and girls in a range of age groups. To learn more, call 594-2214 or visit montereycondorsclub.com.