Ken Gibson, field coordinator for the Montclair Soccer Club, is holding soccer practice on Wednesday afternoons at Wade Johnson Park in West Oakland, and players of all soccer abilities -- or even no soccer abilities -- are welcome.

"Soccer is the largest sport in California, and the largest sport in Oakland in terms of participation, and the largest sport in the nation, no matter where you cut it, because we take everybody," Gibson said.

The Jack London Soccer League has about 7,000 players between the ages of 6 and 18, 4,500 of them playing on Oakland clubs. Consequently, there is often a struggle to find enough parks with large flat spaces to play, said Jim Ryugo, assistant parks director.

Baseball teams didn't want to play at Wade Johnson, so Gibson was invited to use to the field to recruit new youngsters from the neighborhood.

They've already gotten enough response to have one girls team and one boys team, possibly more. When kids in the neighborhood see other kids running around at practices on Wednesday afternoons, or at games at the park on Saturdays, they ask if they can play too, Gibson said.

He said the kids are getting exercise, having fun and staying out of trouble. It's also a sport where the girls are equal to the boys.

"The thing that is great about soccer, is it's evenly divided between girls and boys," he said. "We're very anxious for girls to come out."

The under-8 teams playing at Wade Johnson are also multicultural, with African-American, Latino, white and Asian kids showing up to play, he said.

Wade Johnson is adjacent to Cole Elementary-Middle School, which has an asphalt playground. With cutbacks at the schools and at the parks, most elementary schools lack team sports, Ryugo said. Schools that have after school programs are often paid for by parents, he said.

There has been some grumbling from neighbors that the fields in Oakland are being taken over completely by soccer players who don't live in the neighborhood or come from out of town, leaving no room for kids who just want to get together and throw a ball around.

Ryugo has told Councilmember Nancy Nadel (Downtown-West Oakland) that he will look into the issue, but Gibson said the only people they are displacing at Wade Johnson are homeless people, because hardly anyone uses the field. He'd like to fill it with kids from the neighborhood. His goal is to have four teams, playing on Saturdays, spread over two small fields.

When asked why he thinks soccer is so great, Gibson doesn't hesitate.

"It's cheap and parents don't have to drive three hours to get to the fields," Gibson said. "In an hour, we run 20 kids ragged."

Practice is Wednesday at 4 p.m., at Wade Johnson Park, 12th and Poplar streets, behind Cole Elementary-Middle School. New team registration is being held at Cole, 1011 Union St., on May 12 and May 13, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. For information, contact Hana McQuinn at## mcquinnhana@hotmail.com, or Ken Gibson at## kennethtgibson@cs.com .

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