Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Cover Story

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Soccer parents John (right) and Genevieve Cleveland chip in and help during their children's practices. In this case, the two are setting up the goal for a daughter Mariah's Los Gatos Metro team.

Goal Oriented

A family that plays together, stays together--and the Clevelands are living proof

By Mike Barnhart

When John and Genevieve Cleveland's first child was 3 years old, the young Los Gatos couple tried out a common parenting strategy. They got their son involved in an organized activity.

Just like many parents before them, the Clevelands enrolled their little boy in the Los Gatos Recreation Department's soccer program for toddlers, "Kidz Love Soccer."

Just like many toddlers before him, Jeremy loved his new activity. So, quite naturally, his parents signed him up for more of the same. And as it became clear that soccer was more than a passing fancy for Jeremy, Dad and Mom decided to step up their involvement.

When Jeremy became old enough to be on an under-8 recreational team with the Los Gatos United Soccer League, John became an assistant coach. But, he was not an ordinary assistant coach.

"John went to check out a board meeting, because we heard they needed volunteers," Genevieve recalls, "and he came home with a huge job--recreation commissioner. Nobody else wanted to do it."

Little did the Clevelands know that, in terms of parent volunteerism, it was the start of something big.

By the time Jeremy and John were on that first team, the Cleveland family had grown. Geoffrey, almost 3 years younger, could not just stand on the sidelines while big brother played. So he already was kicking along in the recreation program. Little sister Mariah came along about a year and half later.

"Geoffrey started playing at about the same age as Jeremy did," John explains. "Mariah, with two older brothers playing soccer, just kind of followed along."

And none of the Cleveland kids have stopped. Year after year, no matter if it was a class, a clinic or a competition, their hearts grew fonder of the game of soccer.

Jeremy, who graduated from Los Gatos High School last June and turned 18 last October, recently completed his first season of collegiate soccer at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. In addition to starting 17 games as a defender, Jeremy excelled in the classroom with a first-term grade point average of 3.8.

Geoffrey, who will turn 16 this summer, is in the middle of his sophomore year at Los Gatos High. He just finished his first season on the school's varsity soccer team, which captured the league championship. Geoffrey, who aspires to be a college player, also is a member of the USA Seventeen Youth Soccer Academy's 1990 boys team.

Mariah, almost 14 and an eighth-grader at Fisher Middle School, is a member of Los Gatos Metro, a club team affiliated with USA Seventeen.

So, over the past 15 years, John the human resources professional and Genevieve the physical therapist became soccer parents extraordinaire.

"I was on the board for eight years," John says, "holding just about every job, including president for three years. I also was on the CYSA [California Youth Soccer Association] District board. I have been involved as a coach, administrator and manager."

Both John and Genevieve attended three different classes through CYSA to earn national coaching licenses, and John also became qualified to referee. Although John and Genevieve are licensed coaches, they are managers for Geoffrey's and Mariah's academy teams.

"When the kids' skill levels got to a point where what they needed from a coach exceeded our knowledge base, we moved on to professional coaching," says Genevieve, who for several years has helped former D.C. United and San Jose Clash player Shawn Medved with Mariah's team. "I do the paperwork, assist with practice, whatever Shawn wants me to do to help the team."

John, who played only a season of junior varsity soccer while attending Blackford High in West San Jose during the early 1970s, learned a lot about soccer during the past 15 years, but not enough to propel Jeremy and Geoffrey to the higher levels of the game.

"As the boys grew beyond my ability to really coach them, as their soccer skills grew, they needed pro coaches, former professional players," explains John Cleveland, who now yields to Tim Martin, another former Clash player and founder of USA Seventeen. "Tim has forgotten more about soccer than I will ever know."

Martin, also an assistant coach for the men's program at Santa Clara University, has coached both Cleveland boys and currently is the head coach of Geoffrey's squad.

"My goal in supporting Geoffrey's team is making it as easy for Tim as possible so he can concentrate on coaching," John Cleveland says. "I handle travel, logistics, communicating with parents."

While serving on the Los Gatos United board, John Cleveland used his communication skills to persuade members of the San Jose Earthquakes to share their talents with youth soccer players.

Former Earthquake and current England pro Eddie Lewis served as the Los Gatos United trainer for two years. One day, Cleveland arranged for Earthquake Jeff Agoos to attend a practice.

"We had five teams sitting around Jeff," Cleveland recalls. "Pro players are good role models for the kids. They tell kids, 'If you want to pursue this dream, you can do it.' "

Jeremy Cleveland's burn for soccer likely was fueled by an Earthquakes experience he had at age 12. After sitting on the bench with players during a game, he was able to meet many players.

"After the game, he had a soccer ball and a Sharpie pen," Dad Cleveland says. "John Doyle took Jeremy into the locker room to get autographs and meet people."

Geoffrey had a similar experience when the Major League Soccer all-star game was held at San Jose's Spartan Stadium.

"He was a water boy, or towel boy, so he sat on the sideline with players like Landon Donovan," John says. "That kind of exposure is great for kids."

Soccer was not offered as a competitive sport for girls when Genevieve Bilkiewicz attended Los Gatos High in the late 1970s, but her father took her to see the old San Jose Earthquakes of the North American Soccer League at Spartan Stadium.

"I remember watching Pele play for the New York Cosmos," Genevieve says.

As John Cleveland and Genevieve Bilkiewicz grew up, the pair always valued recreation and athletics.

John swam competitively for West Valley Aquatics and UC-Berkeley, then as a young adult competed in local triathlons and in two Ironman competitions in Canada. Genevieve ran track, swam and played field hockey at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.

After marriage, John and Genevieve continued to make room in their professional lives for fitness and recreation.

"The kids were born into an athletic family," Genevieve points out. "We are some of those crazy people who are up early, running down the streets of Los Gatos at 5:45 a.m.

"We also used to do lots of skiing and snowboarding, but soccer puts that on hold."

Although much of life for the Cleveland family during the past 15 years has revolved around soccer schedules, neither Genevieve nor John regret any of it.

"We are a family that likes to take vacations, and we've been able to go marvelous places with soccer," Genevieve notes. "Mariah's team went to England two years ago. Jeremy has been to England and all over the United States. Geoffrey has been to Dallas and Chicago."

And usually, where a Cleveland soccer player travels, at least one Cleveland soccer parent is nearby. Last summer, the Clevelands went to Boise, Idaho, for a regional event and to Greensboro, N.C., for a national competition.

"Sure there are travel expenses, but we are traveling together with family," Genevieve says. "Soccer is a real good bonding sport. I wouldn't consider it lost money."

The Clevelands "have met a lot of great people in the soccer community," John says, and sometimes they run into old acquaintances. "At the tournament in Boise last summer, a man came up and said he used to live in Los Gatos. It turns out that he knew Genevieve."

Mariah has played with some of the same kids since she was 5 years old. "It's like a second family in some cases," Genevieve says.

Although Jeremy took to soccer right away, he also played other organized sports--Little League and Pony Baseball, and even was part of a Los Gatos Little League all-star team that played in the United States Western Regional at San Bernardino.

Jeremy and Geoffrey both ran cross-country as freshmen, but ultimately reached the same conclusion.

"They both found out that playing club soccer and doing another sport at the same time, while maintaining good grades, was too demanding of their time," Genevieve says.

"Managing time between studies and sports commitment is beneficial, teaches a life skill which can pay dividends when they get out in to the working world," John says.

Mariah has not played any other team sports, but soccer is not her only interest. "She enjoys Irish dancing," her mother reports. "She saw the River Dance on TV in second grade and fell in love with it."

In the Cleveland family, it has been the children's love for soccer and the parents' love for their children that has directed their lives for the past 15 years.

"We want our kids to be happy, whether they get a scholarship for soccer or not," says John, who earned an industrial psychology degree at Berkeley and an MBA from Pepperdine. "Soccer is another avenue, an opportunity. They can do as much as they can with it. They will never be able to do this again."

"What we did was take the same time and energy that we were using for other things and redirected them into our children's activities," he adds. "In supporting our children's activity, I have been fortunate to help provide opportunities for other kids to get outdoors, too.

"If our first son would have chosen another sport, we probably would have been involved in that."