T
Meet Jake Oetinger
A Young Man
On A Mission …
A Soccer Mission
Written By Larry J. Mickartz
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016
ake the energy, fan support, farm
systems and professionalism of
football, basketball and baseball
and roll then all into one sport…
and you have European soccer. Add an
athletic twelve-year-old and expose him
to this on a two-week summer vacation.
You then have a young man for whom
soccer is “a part of his personality,”
according to his father.
That young man is Jake Oetinger,
a Gilroy resident and sixth grader at
Valley Christian. The father is winemaker
Matt Oetinger, who along with his wife,
Tiffany, own and operated Fernwood
Cellars in Gilroy.
Jake has been played with the
Barcelona Bay Area Soccer Club. Most
of the players on this trip were from the
local Barcelona Club.
Jake can rattle off the names, rank-
ings and trivia about most European
soccer clubs. On this trip he visited West
Ham United, Chelsea and Real Madrid
Clubs. He also visited the National
Football (soccer) Museum in England.
He attended several professional
matches. He played in “Friendly Fixtures”
(translation: exhibition matches) in
England and Spain. And as a versatile
midfielder, he scored several goals.
The first week and a half of the trip
was all about soccer with multiple games
and daily training sessions. There was
some time devoted to sight seeing but it
was mostly soccer. The last part of the
trip slowed down and included a visit to
some former Gilroy residents who now
live in Switzerland.
One highlight of the trip was a
three-day training session at the Real
Madrid Football Club. The training com-
plex consists of 36 fields. Parents and
coaches were allowed to accompany
the players to the practice fields but
then were promptly bused away after
the kids were dropped off. Photos were
not allowed on the journey in or out!
The final day of training ended with a
“friendly fixture” against JuventudSanse,
affiliated with Federación de Fútbol
de Madrid.
Jake now understands how in Europe
soccer can “becomes a religion for you.”
If all goes well, Jake will travel again
this summer with the Barcelona Bay Area
Club for training and games in England
and Scotland.
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