It all started when a youth league soccer coach named Steve Citron brought a team of 12-year-olds to a local beach soccer tournament in Oceanside, California back in the spring of 2013. He and the players just wanted to have some fun and experience this incredible sport at one of the larger venues on the West Coast of the United States, but this was just the beginning of several seasons of fun, excitement, and great memories.
After the first event, the team attended another tournament in Long Beach, advancing as far as the semi-finals. At that point, both the players and parents fell in love with the sport of beach soccer. The coach made a few roster changes and with the collective support of some very special parents, established a competitive beach soccer travel team called SoCal Legacy (currently affiliated with SoCal Beach Soccer Club). The newly branded team made its first “official” appearance in July 2013, advancing to a golden goal overtime final in Belmont Shores. Less than a month later they won their first championship at El Segundo (and continued to win this annual event 4 years in a row until the organizer discontinued hosting at this location).
Since that time, excluding all friendlies, unofficial tournaments, and ID Cups during the COVID 2020 season, SoCal Legacy has played a total of 156 matches in 37 tournaments, winning 26 championships and being a finalist in 5 others. Some of the most notable victories include the following: Two consecutive Major Beach Soccer (MBS) National Championship Titles in Clearwater Beach, Florida in 2015 and 2016 (for U14 and U16 age divisions respectively), the 2017 North American Sand Soccer Championships (NASSC) in the highest competitive U16 “Surf” Division at Virginia Beach, and three consecutive titles at the Beach Soccer Championships in their hometown of Oceanside - with the most recent while playing-up in age in the Men’s Open division (when they could have played U18). Notably, the team also won the bronze medal in the first annual Madjer International Youth Beach Soccer Cup hosted in 2018 at Figueira da Foz, Portugal, defeating the Isle of Wight (from the UK) in a thrilling, sudden death penalty shootout. With an incredible overall record of 133-18-5, Legacy has become a proven powerhouse in the sport, scoring nearly a thousand registered goals (986 currently) since inception, an average of nearly 6.5 goals a game. Up until their somewhat recent transition (from 2018 forward) into the adult arena and international competition, Legacy had only 9 total match losses in roughly 100 matches. and most of those losses occurred in the beginning, when the team was just starting out.
As the players and their families competed in organized tournaments up and down the southern California coast, some of the younger brothers and friends of Legacy players wanted to form a team as well. So another volunteer youth coach, named Arturo Michel, led the effort to form “Barcelona”, and in the early years both of these teams and their families traveled to several tournaments, staying at the same hotels, having cook-outs together at the beach as one big “soccer family”, and cheering each other onto victory. It is an incredible, one-of-a-kind experience to be part of a beach soccer travel team family!
In 2015, SoCal Legacy (aka Southern California Beach Soccer Club or SoCal BSC for short) became an incorporated 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and in 2016 several independent beach soccer teams became affiliated with the club. Under the guidance of Coach Citron, these teams met the requirements to qualify for the 2016 MBS National Championships, an invitational “Tournament of Champions” held each December in Clearwater Beach, Florida.
By this time, Coach Michel, who had done an excellent job in organizing and laying a firm foundation for the younger team, stepped down from his coaching duties, giving the reigns to two new coaches, Richard Nevarez and Cesar Olmedo, who “rebranded” the younger team from “Oceanside Barcelona” to “SoCal Barcelona” (commonly referred to on social media as the “Barca Boys”). Having already been to Florida and winning the MBS National Championship the prior year, Coach Citron, his wife (“Mrs. C”), and a few other SoCal Legacy parents played an instrumental role in funding the Barca Boys, so they could participate in the MBS U14 event, since neither Coach Nevarez nor Olmedo had sufficient experience in fundraising, planning, and implementing such a major endeavor.
Coach Citron also assisted two U18 teams with their travel itineraries, such as arranging group airline reservations and sharing other critical details to help their cross-country journey go smoothly. These two older youth teams were from rival schools with “Crown Heights” featuring players from Oceanside High School and “Swap Meet” featuring players from across town El Camino High School. In all, 80 people, consisting of players from 4 teams, several parents, coaching staff, friends, and family members made the long journey from Oceanside, California to Clearwater Beach, Florida, something that would have never happened without SoCal Legacy winning the MBS National Championship the year before, then using that experience to help teach, lead, and guide the other three teams to make the same journey the following year in 2016.
The squads from SoCal Beach Soccer Club dominated the event as 3 of the 4 teams returned with medals. “SoCal Barcelona” (aka “Barca Boys”) was the finalist for the U14 division, “SoCal Legacy” was victorious against the previously undefeated, Miami-based “Dune Dawgs”, bringing home their second consecutive MBS National Championship medals, and Crown Heights, who soundly defeated a team from New York, cinched the U18 National Championship in a very impressive victory as well. Although “Swap Meet” did not place at the event, they continued to compete in other tournaments, eventually changing their team name to “Castaways BSC” and departed from the club shortly after their return from Florida. Coach Nevarez and Olmedo eventually parted ways with the club about two years later, primarily due to differences in philosophy related to the development of the sport, with Citron and others on the board strongly in favor of growing the amount of teams in the area and volunteering in local and international events, while Nevarez and Olmedo preferred to focus their time and attention solely on the Barca Boys and heavily promoting them on social media. The fundamental differences in vision for the club, and opposing opinions towards growth of the sport, drove their departure in the fall of 2018. More recently, it was announced that the remaining players from the “Barca Boys” are combining with the remnants of “Castaways” and will be rebranded with a new logo. While these and other teams have retired, re-invented themselves, combined, or morphed over the years, SoCal Legacy has continued to build on its achievements, while transitioning from being the most successful youth beach soccer team in the nation to fast becoming a driving force within the sport.
The club continues to seek, create, and contribute to the growth of the sport and provide new opportunities for exceptionally talented players at home and abroad. In 2017, the club President formed a strategic partnership with “Figueira Beach Sports City” and “Doctor Sport” with the goal of creating an annually recurring international youth beach soccer tournament. This vision was realized in 2018, when the first edition of the Madjer International Youth Beach Soccer Cup was held in Portugal and featured 16 youth teams, representing 6 different countries. In 2019, the second edition of the event was organized and featured 18 teams from 7 different countries, competing in what is essentially the Beach Soccer Youth World Cup (see madjercup.com for more information). A third edition of the event was planned in 2020, but was eventually cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. Through a combination of fundraising and sponsorship, the club once again played an instrumental role in sending players from our local community to represent the USA at both the first and second edition of these prestigious events, raising the visibility of the club and placing SoCal Legacy, on the world’s stage not just once but twice. It was a unique and unforgettable experience for all the players involved in these two incredible events and the kind of activity that our club will be focused on supporting more in the future to help grow the sport.
Our mission is to help create lifelong memories and lasting friendships between players, parents, and coaches from around the world as they learn and enjoy the great sport of beach soccer. We do not host or run organized leagues or tournaments but we help guide, direct, and refer coaches, players, and teams to existing tournaments and other beach soccer related events and we help individuals and teams participate in beach soccer by teaching them how to fundraise, connecting them to sponsors of the sport, and in providing financial support when possible to help them achieve their goals. Please contact us if you would like more information about our organization and/or the sport of beach soccer in general.
