Each weekday, for as long as any of them can remember, Pepperdine employees who hail from all over the globe have come together to play the sport they love.
By Jeremy Tammaro
Sports Assistant
It happens every day at high noon. On a little field overlooking the Pepperdine University campus, employees from Facility Management and Planning and Warehouse Services gather for a 30-minute break. They gather to get away from the workday. They gather to relieve the stresses in their lives.
They gather to play soccer.
“It’s fun,” Ignacio Alamillio, 36, said. “It makes you feel good. We have fun. It is one of the nicest places to play.”
Alamillio, going into his 16th year working for FMP, has been playing soccer since he left Zacatecas, Mexico, and began working at Pepperdine.
As a lead in the landscape division, Alamillio has a great appreciation for the work he is a part of.
“We take care of the fields and (I) feel proud of it,” Alamillio said. “(Pepperdine) is a nice place to work.”
And his reward is an enjoyment he gets to share with numerous other Pepperdine employees.
The men begin to make their way up the hill to the lacrosse field just before their noon lunch break rolls around, but they never actually take the time to eat.
“We don’t go to eat at 12 o’clock,” Virgilio Campos said. “We come here to play. That’s why a lot of guys eat a lot of food in the morning, so they won’t be hungry when they come here.”
The lacrosse goals serve as soccer goals for the games and an old soccer ball becomes a daily friend. Some of the men take the time to change out of their work shoes, and into soccer cleats. Some even take the time to put on a pair of shorts and the long soccer socks and shin guards.
While it is just for fun, these soccer games are still serious business — in a friendly way.
“We do play serious,” Leonardo Alvarenga said. “We want to win. But I don’t care if I lose today because I know I can come and win tomorrow. It’s like an endless game.”
Each day is just another episode in this never-ending soccer saga. The score means nothing, but what goes on during these 30 minutes in the sun gives life to the rest of the work week.
“During the weekend we talk about the whole week,” Campos said. “Who played, games we won or lost. Who did good. If they know that a guy didn’t play well they give him a hard time, but it’s all in fun, just joking around.”
Not all of the men play, however. Some of them just like to be a part of the experience.
“I come every day to watch,” landscaper Herberto Montos, 33, said. “I never really tried to play, but I have fun.”
And when that ill-fated mess-up does take place, all in attendance are quick to point it out. While the average, non-Spanish speaking observer may not be able to follow the conversations taking place on and off the field, the laughter is something that all may share.
“The guys that don’t play (just watch), they make a lot of noise for us,” Alvarenga said. “If we fall down, they make fun of us, give us a hard time, but we just have to get up and keep playing. They’re always saying something. Sometimes they have more fun than us.”
Director of Campus Services Rick Leach understands the impact these soccer games have on the men who work with him.
“It allows them to interact in a non-work environment,” Leach said. “They get to relieve the stress and tensions. It is a time when there are no supervisors or bosses, just teammates.”
They’re teammates and friends. Most of these men do not work directly with one another, so it serves as a nice opportunity for interaction. Playing together helps them work together when the opportunity to do so arises.
“Guys come from all over,” roofer Ernesto Vega said. “From gardening, electrical, the warehouse, housekeeping — they all mix in and play.”
Even students join in the games from time to time.
“Sometimes we get two or three (students),” Vega said. “We like having students come play.”
In fact, students are welcome to play whenever they want to, even if they are not all that good.
This is not to say that the FMP employees are not good. They set one another up on long runs.
They are capable of playing the ball on the ground and in the air. Some of the men have even kept some of their moves from earlier playing days.
In fact, the men are such avid soccer fans that they recently challenged some friends from Cal State Fullerton.
“Some of the guys who have left for higher salaries and shorter commutes really miss the soccer games,” Leach said.
The Pepperdine team won 6-1, and enjoyed every moment of it.
“We had an audience and everything,” Alamillio said. “It was exciting.”
They cooked up some carne asada and had a barbeque with their friends and the spectators. They even brought in a referee and wore jerseys.
But that is as serious as these guys get.
When it all comes down to it, they are just having fun, just getting away for a while from a hard day at work.
“Even when we come from doing hard work, no matter how tired you are you still come and play,” Alvarenga said. “We can’t miss any day here, we just have to be here. It makes us feel good.”
October 03, 2002