Former Pittsburg High soccer coach and KSHSAA soccer referee Wraine Meadows said that he wanted to do something bigger this year for the 43 young men and women participating in the Iguanas Soccer Camp at Countryside Christian Church.
Meadows has known James “Hollywood” Ortega, founder and proprietor of the Futboleros, a soccer entertainment company known as the “Harlem Globetrotters” of soccer, for 17 years. Ortega visited the camp then and the two have maintained their friendship over the years.
Ortega made a return visit to the soccer camp Wednesday and took the 43 campers through four hours of exercises, drills and tricks at Countryside and the high school pitch just a small distance away.
Ortega’s lifelong commitment to soccer and his passion for teaching the sport to younger people both came through in his smile and charm, his upbeat manner and his collective and individual teaching.
“Since I was 4 and I am 58 now,” Ortega said. “It’s always been a passion of mine. I grew up playing it. I’m from Ecuador, was born here and raised in Connecticut. I grew up with a bunch of Italians and Polish and that’s all we did was play soccer since I was a child. I always played with older players and some older siblings. Yeah, it was kind of a niche.
“My father said that you’re not going to be a basketball player because you’re not going to be 6-feet tall. You’re going to be like a (Diego) Maradona, who’s only about 5-5 but he’s quick and agile and fast and he knows what to do with the ball. Ever since that, I’ve carried that on.”
The Iguanas Soccer Camp pupils took naturally to Ortega.
“Every camp is unique and different,” Ortega said. “I probably do about 150-200 events a year and perform for Gold Cup America halftime shows for the MLS. It could be anywhere from as many as 40 kids here to 60,000 people. Every event is special in a way because kids don’t get to see this everyday.
“If you’re lucky enough to get to go to a big soccer game, you’ll see it there. But a lot of kids are not fortunate in different parts of the world and even here in America. So, for me coming out, it’s foreign but I see that the kids have the ambition to learn and I can see the sparkle in their eye when they see something magical and they want to try and learn that. That’s what makes it more special.
“When you love your work and you love your job as long as I’ve been doing it, you can say that you don’t hate it and you want to go to work because this is what you thrive on. It gives you the adrenaline and when you see kids like this and parents when they’re like, ‘Oh my God! I’ve never seen anything like that’ makes it even more special.”
The Futboleros perform at over 300 events annually, ranging from corporate events to school assemblies and parties. This is an especially busy time for the organization because of the upcoming FIFA World Cup that will feature 104 matches, an expanded 48-team format and 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
“I have a team of about 6-8 members,” Ortega said. “We’ll be at every part of the country and every venue performing doing events. We’ll be performing at viewing parties, pregame entertainment inside stadiums and I’ll be traveling everyday starting this week. This is my first appearance and then I’m off to Chicago, Columbus, Boston, Rhode Island, Houston, L.A., San Francisco. All over the place.”
This sports reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/fund/support-local-journalism-project-fund
