Communication always key

Most high school students use after-school sports as a physical release.

Elgin High School boys soccer forward Joel Perez uses it for a linguistic release.

Perez, who said he can't speak his native Spanish language while in classes at school, lets it all out on the soccer field.

And he's not alone.

"Our first language is Spanish," Perez said of the Maroons. "We only have a couple of guys who don't speak Spanish (as a first language). We do speak English, but Spanish comes natural."

Elgin's soccer team is representative of a communication barrier many soccer teams in the area are facing. Teams are being filled with students who speak Spanish as a first language, while other teams may not speak Spanish at all. Even coaches have had to make adjustments in personnel in order to satisfy the needs of their teams.

Communication could become an issue as teams begin their postseason quest with regional action beginning Saturday in Hampshire and the rest of the area teams following suit on Monday.

Which leaves the question: How do you communicate when the words mean different things to different people?

But, speaking a different language than most teams you play doesn't just present problems. Some teams have even found a way to use it to their advantage.

"It gives us an advantage because there aren't many Spanish-speaking teams," Perez said. "We call the plays out in Spanish. Unless they have a guy on their team who can speak Spanish (they don't understand the play)."

In the Upstate Eight Conference, chances of finding another Spanish-speaking team are completely hit-and-miss. Elgin High School, which according to its 2006 Illinois State Board of Education school report card had 51.3 percent Hispanic population and a 14.9 percent limited English proficiency rate, is second among conference teams in both areas. Limited English Proficiency Rate (LEPR) is determined through a state-mandated test for all students who speak any language other than English as their primary language.

East Aurora (76.9 Hispanic, 16.9 LEPR) leads the 11-team league in both areas, while schools like St. Charles North (3.5 Hispanic, 0.1 LEPR) and Neuqua Valley (4.0 Hispanic, 0.9 LEPR) come in as predominately monolingual schools.

After East Aurora and Elgin, District U-46 schools occupy the next four spots. Larkin (41.6 Hispanic, 11.2 LEPR), Streamwood (38.9 Hispanic, 13.6 LEPR), South Elgin (22.0 Hispanic, 0.0 LEPR) and Bartlett (12.6 Hispanic, 0.0 LEPR) all face similar situations to Elgin in varying degrees.

Larkin has not used the language as an excuse for on-field sucess.

The Royals reached the title game of the Class AA sectional last season and played Neuqua Valley, ranked No. 1 in the Daily Herald's Top 20, to a 0-0 tie earlier in the year. Larkin's 9-3-2, 3-1-2 record has earned it some accolades, as the Royals are currently ranked No. 13 in the Daily Herald's Top 20 teams.

The trust and communicative efforts the Royals have built did not happen overnight though.

"Even the people who don't speak Spanish know what we're saying," Larkin co-captain David Rodriguez said. "We have a connection with each other. It's really important to communicate with each other and we do it really well. We have to communicate whether it's in English or Spanish. You have to do it really well."

A core group of Larkin's team has had the advantage of communicating together, regardless of the language, for the past three seasons. Seniors Rodriguez and co-captain Steven Drew, along with juniors Raul Sandoval and Fernando Alverez have all started on the varsity team for the past three seasons. After three years of playing together, Larkin knew that any language barriers were going to have to be put aside if the team was going to reach its full potential.

"I think it's always difficult communicating with people who speak a different language," Drew said. "Last year the communication wasn't there. This year you can see the improvement."

Added Rodriguez: "(As a sophomore) it was a little different because we didn't know each other. It's been a big improvement."

Larkin boys and girls soccer coach Ken Hall, who has been an assistant boys and girls basketball coach at Larkin as well, had a different take on why Larkin does not face communication problems. Hall feels that the cultural makeup of Elgin as a whole helps prepare the kids to work together on the soccer field.

"The thing about Elgin is that the kids have grown up in a town that is multicultural," said Hall, who coached at Wheaton North before coming to Larkin. "This is a natural occurrence. When you grow up and had that experience, it never posses a problem."

Hall added assistant coach Art Alvarado, who teaches Spanish at Glenbard South High School, to his coaching staff to make sure everything he says is processed fully. Alvarado, who was born in Mexico City, speaks Spanish fluently and is often seen communicating with players in Spanish during a game.

"He's an asset," Hall said. "When they don't understand something that I say, he can communicate it in Spanish."

Dundee-Crown, which has by far the largest Hispanic population (33.3) and LEPR (5.5) in either division of the Fox Valley Conference, is in a different situation than most teams in the conference.

That isn't always a bad thing, though. Chargers coach Rey Vargas said he uses his Spanish speaking skills as both a recruiting tool and a means of communicating to some of his players. Vargas said he has found students to come out for soccer, who might not have if he did not speak Spanish.

"There's plenty of kids that don't come out (because they can't speak English), I see them in the hallways," Vargas said. "I try to use both languages to our advantages."

Vargas said that the 7 Hispanic players on his roster all speak English, but at some of the lower levels, language barriers are present.

"Once in a while you have an older guy that can't speak English very well," said Vargas, who is proficient in both languages. "It's never been a problem. One of the coaches has always been able to communicate with them."

After Dundee-Crown, Woodstock (18.1 Hispanic, 3.0 LEPR) is second among FVC teams. Like the Upstate Eight, there is a huge line of divide. Prairie Ridge (3.0, 0.2 LEPR), Johnsburg (3.1 Hispanic, 0.0 LEPR), Cary-Grove (5.3 Hispanic, 1.5 LEPR), Crystal Lake South (5.7 Hispanic, 1.0 LEPR) and McHenry (6.3 Hispanic, 1.8 LEPR) are all below the state averages in both areas (18.7 Hispanic, 6.6 LEPR).

"One of the things you see at Dundee-Crown is a good mixture of Hispanic and American guys," said Vargas, an eighth-year coach. "On the soccer field, guys speak to themselves in Spanish."

Even some smaller schools are facing the language struggles. Hampshire (9.6 Hispanic, 3.1 LEPR) does not experience the same problems as Larkin or Dundee-Crown, but instead has seen schools like Harvard become a predominantly Spanish-speaking soccer team. Although, Harvard is the only team on either side of the Big Northern Conference which would be considered a Spanish-speaking team, a change in times has helped teams like Hampshire adjust. Since most of the students at Hampshire have taken Spanish classes since middle school, they are able to dissect what is being said of the field.

"They know (Spanish) and they can still pick it all out," Whip-Purs coach Patrick O'Brien said. "We know enough of the language to pick it out."

Teams speaking different languages in soccer, widely considered the world's most popular sport, is not necessarily new to the sport.

"That's what makes this sport so great," O'Brien said. "It's nothing new to the game. When I played in the 1980s (for DeKalb), Elgin was almost all Laotian and spoke Laotian."

Although most coaches said their players understand both English and Spanish, communication has long been both an ally and enemy for teams. Larkin, which opens its quest for an IHSA state berth as the No. 3 seed against South Elgin in the Class AA Streamwood regional, would not be content with anything other than a trip down state.

And sometimes when pursuing goals, talking might just be overrated.

"It's not just words, it's other communication," Drew said. "We just connect."