15-year-old Peyton Marcisz and 17-year-old Andrea Kitahata were excited to be back on the soccer field. Because of shelter-in-place restrictions, the team had to take a three-month break from in-person training and only recently had started practicing on the field.

"It was special to be able to go out once a week," said Marcisz. "It was really exciting even at the time and not being able to train for three months prior to that."

Now, the team practices three times a week and are working their way up to full contact with other players. But Marcisz and Kitahata are just glad to be on the field after the turbulent summer they've had.

[pullquote size=medium align=right citation="Andrea Kitahata, member of FC Bay Area soccer team"]'We don't know if we're going to get shut down in a week or if we're not going to play for a while, so I do appreciate every moment I have on the field now."[/pullquote]

The girls used to be part of the San Jose Earthquakes Girls Academy. For the past three years, the San Jose-based professional soccer team provided training programs for boys aged 13-19, and girls aged 14 to 19. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the academy paused in-person practice.

It was a blow for many of the players.

"It was kind of our life," said Marcisz. "Soccer was basically our 24/7 with school."

On April 15, the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, a national soccer league which connected local teams across the country, permanently folded due to pandemic-related budget cuts. Then, in May, the San Jose Earthquakes decided it would shut down their girls program.

According to Major League Soccer (MLS) rules, the Earthquakes are "required to have a boys academy program, but they are not currently required to have a girls program," said Andres Deza, a former coach for the Earthquakes' girls program.

Boys can train in the Earthquakes training program and eventually join the professional team. But because there is no professional women's team for the Earthquakes, the company has less incentive to keep the girl's program running.

Peter Marcisz, Peyton's dad, said the decision by the Development Academy and the Earthquakes to cut the girls program didn't sit well with him. To him, it reeked of gender inequity.

"There is absolutely something to the fact that it's a girls team and we're keeping the boys [team] and getting rid of the girls [team]," Marcisz said. "That was pretty rude to say the least. All that commitment that all these kids across the country and their parents have made are all just blown up."

The Earthquakes didn't respond to a request for comment, but the San Jose team is one of a number across the country, including the Los Angeles-based team LA Galaxy, to make similar decisions.

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"It was really hard for us because in a short period of time, we lost the Girls Academy, the league, and then we lost the backing of the Earthquakes, which we had been developing for three years," Deza said.

But Deza said he didn't want to give up the team without a fight.

"We decided that we'd give it a shot and try to see if we could, you know, keep the program together somehow."

[aside tag="soccer" label="related stories"]

A few weeks after the Earthquakes shut down the Girls Academy, Deza and some of the other coaches from the girls program started their own club, which they named FC Bay Area. Deza said once they opened registration for their club, they were pleasantly surprised to find that about 90% of their original membership decided to move to the new club.

"The players and the families decided to stick with us, which was very humbling," Deza said.

Kitahata said the decision was clear for her: Deza was the best coach she had had and she was eager to be back out on the field.

"Us not being able to play for months on end — for me, it kinda put a fire in my belly about wanting to improve and be my best every time I step on the field because nothing's guaranteed at this point," Kitahata said. "We don't know if we're going to get shut down in a week or if we're not going to play for a while, so I do appreciate every moment I have on the field now."

The girls and boys teams train three days a week now and are slowly working their way up to full contact with another player. "I think it's a privilege to be able to play and live in an area with all these great girls," said player Peyton Marcisz. — The new soccer club, FC Bay Area, train three days a week now and are slowly working their way up to full contact with another player. "I think it's a privilege to be able to play and live in an area with all these great girls," said player Peyton Marcisz. (Adhiti Bandlamudi/ KQED)

Since starting up in the July, FC Bay Area has joined several leagues, including the Girls Academy League, the Boys MLS Youth Elite League and the Women's Premier Soccer League.

Even boys have joined the team. "We have a boys training program at Twin Creeks, training side-by-side with the girls," Deza said.

The teams are practicing three times a week and slowly working their way up to full contact with another player. Everyone is looking forward to when the pandemic ends and matches can be scheduled again.

Deza is excited about the developments for the program, but he says it's expensive to run.

"I'm basically a volunteer for a non-profit organization," he said. "As you can imagine, the budget is very tight."

Teams must pay for equipment, first aid, coaches and fees for sports fields. Now with the pandemic, there's the added costs of personal protective equipment and needing more space for social distancing. Deza hopes to rely on parents' chipping in more fees and on fundraising and corporate sponsorships.

"Financially, the viability of this project is going to be very challenging," Deza said. "But we're going to try."

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