It's not just for kicks for YVCC soccer sisters

By ROGER UNDERWOOD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

The inclination is to think of them only as players, as two members of the Yakima Valley women's soccer team. And Mariana Martinez and Leticia Reiber are in fact proud members of the first such Yaks squad.

But, truth be told, they have been so much more.

They are sisters, first and foremost, who along with genealogy share a genuine love of their sport.

They are students at YVCC, two women seeking to grow both personally and professionally.

They are older - older than all of their teammates and most of their classmates. Reiber, 36, and Martinez, 38, are prime examples of those who, for whatever reason, might start their post-high school educational and athletic experiences later than the norm.

And they are parents. Martinez is the mother of two daughters and one son and Reiber has four daughters - all of which makes all of the above all the more impressive.

"The word," coach Luiz Machado said, "would be passion. A lot of players today don't have that."

Nor do they face the obstacles that Martinez and Reiber meet on a regular basis.

Reiber, for example, starts her typical day at 4 a.m. She goes to the Yakima YMCA for a 90-minute workout, returns home to help her husband, Andrew, prepare Amber (10), Sarah (8), Meighen (4) and Brooke (22 months) for their days, goes to classes at YVCC from 7:30 to 9:30, then goes to work from 9:40 until 5 p.m.

Then it's time for soccer practice, or a match. And sometimes the competition involves an additional challenge in the form of an overnight trip.

"The matches away from home have been the hardest part for me," Reiber said. "Everything at home is on my husband's hands. I had never left my kids before."

Martinez faced similar hurdles until she dislocated and fractured her left ankle three matches into the season.

The injury came early enough, at least, so that her year of eligibility can be preserved through redshirting, and Martinez hopes to play the next two autumns for the Yaks.

She is taking computer classes to help with her work in real estate, and will perhaps go on to a degree in business or marketing.

Now able to use a walking boot, Martinez would like to attend practice. "But it's too depressing to just watch," she said.

For Reiber, it will be a one-season YVCC career since she plans to complete her Associate of Arts degree in education after one more quarter. Afterward, she hopes to pursue a teaching degree at Central Washington University.

On the field?

Reiber, a 5-foot-2 forward, leads the Yaks with nine goals and has added two assists in 13 matches. Martinez, a 5-4 midfielder, has scored one goal and assisted on three others.

And they have been co-captains of a team which, going into its last regular-season home match at noon Saturday against Highline, boasts a 4-6-4 record and a solid shot at the NWAACC playoffs.

The sisters' journey to YVCC soccer began in the southwestern Mexican state of Michoacan, where Reiber and Martinez were born. They moved to the Yakima Valley with their family when Martinez was 11 and Reiber was 9.

Both attended Naches Valley High School, with Martinez getting her GED from Washington State and Reiber completing hers from Davis High.

There was also beauty school, after which Reiber started her own business - Leticia's Sunset Styles on Lincoln Avenue. Martinez also worked there until recently, when she took a job with Aspen Real Estate.

They started families, too.

In addition to the aforementioned Reiber clan, Martinez and her husband, Jorge, have daughters Monique (14) and Briana (6) and son Isaac (7).

Soccer entered the equation after Reiber and Martinez completed high school.

"We have six brothers," Reiber said, "and they all played soccer. They needed us for a coed team. We begged our Dad to let us play, or I don't think he would have."

But play they did. They played well, too - enough so to have gotten Machado's attention as recreational standouts when he was seeking participants for his inaugural YVCC squad.

"They told me it was a dream of theirs to play at a higher level," Machado said. "And the first time I watched them play together, I knew they could play for us and help us."

As important as the obvious fact that the sisters could play was that they wanted to play. Each wanted to play community college soccer badly enough to alter her life.

"They are the kind of players I want to build my program upon," Machado said. "They are obviously good players, yes. But they are also very committed and they are also very responsible.

"I know they don't like me to use this term, but they're sort of like Moms to the younger girls. And the younger girls look up to them, because they are sort of like Moms to them."

To a Yakima Valley soccer program that's still in its infancy, too.

Soccer sisters and soccer moms, all at the same time.

"When I get to the end of a week, I think, 'Thank God it's Saturday,'" Reiber said. "'Now I can catch my breath and keep going.' It's been very difficult at times, but also it has been so much fun and I've gained so much from it. It's given me a little more confidence in myself. I think about it and it say, 'I guess I am important to the team.'"

Said Martinez, "I'm glad I went back to school and I'm glad I'm playing soccer. We both love the game and we will find a way to make time for it even though we're so busy.

"It's never too late to learn."

Or play.