Real So Cal White is a working class team alright.

Norman Mejia’s U16 Boys squad majors in discipline and work ethic, and that has earned them such accomplishments as a Region IV Championship last season, a Far West Regional League title in the fall, and most recently a big win at the 30th Dallas Cup, where they beat Southern California rivals Arsenal FC on penalty kicks in the final.

Mejia says it all starts with players behaving well.

“The number one thing would have to be discipline, on and off the field,” Mejia said. “Look at our GPA. It’s very high as a team. That shows the discipline we’re trying to establish. We trust them to take care of things off the field so I can trust them on the field.”

Mejia said the discipline then carries over to matters on the field.

“We try to find out who we’re playing against, what their strategy and system are, and then sticking to our game plan,” he said. “Not only with the other team, but we’re keeping our yellow cards to a minimum, not getting into mind games with other teams and that sort of thing. Discipline off the field helps with that a lot. When we were at Dallas for over a week, we were not watching the kids 24/7. Discipline comes in there. The boys help make sure there are no problems in the rooms and everybody stays real focused on the trip.”

From there Mejia, who has coached this group from midway through their U13 season, stresses physical fitness, work rate and good execution of set pieces.

“We won two games in Dallas in the elimination round on PKs,” he said. “Some teams take that for granted, but we practice penalty kicks and study who our best PK shooters are. It can make a difference.”

Mejia said some of this team will play as developmental players in the USSF Development Academy next year, but that the team should stay together. In the meantime, the group is pressing toward a national title bid, having already qualified for the Region IV Championships by winning the Far West Regional League.

“Our academy team and us practice on the same days on the same field,” he said. “It’s a great relationship between us. If (moving to Academy) is what is best for the player, then that is what is best, and if there is a player maybe not quite ready for that, they can send them to us. We’ll do whatever is best for the player.

“But it should be noted that our players are getting a lot of attention right now from the colleges,” he continued. “Everybody on the team played a lot of minutes, not because we wanted them to but because we needed everybody. It really was a team effort and in the end we beat a team with a lot of Academy players on it.”

Team member Phil Muscarella said the group is a closely knit, balanced team.

“When we were younger, there used to be a couple of standouts,” Muscarella said. “But we’ve kept our core group together and as everybody has progressed and is getting older, everybody is pretty much even. We work together really well, which makes it a good team.”

Muscarella still believes the best is yet to come from this squad.

“Last year we were able to make it to nationals and this year we want to win it all,” he said. “We’re just getting started.”

Real So Cal White Roster
Goalkeeper: Jordan Dorn
Defenders: Steve Carranza, Alex Markes, Andrew Vu, Blake Steele, Willie Alviso, Jordan Mandelbaum, Aidan Apel
Midfielders: Dennis Martinez, Erick Esquivel, Andrew Tusazemajja, Manny Munguia, Eli Wininger, Phil Muscarella, Josh Lerner
Forwards: Enrique Ruiz, Israel Sandoval