by Aleks V |
The eyes of three Aztec gods watch over
as men, women and children transform the basketball courts at Chicano
Park into a futsal fiesta. The mural, one of many, is both a backdrop
and an audience to a growing soccer scene under the San
Diego-Coronado Bridge, led by street soccer group Bridge Barkada.
“We have ages from as young as seven
or eight all the way up to people in their 50s,” cofounder Karl
Hurlbert says of Bridge Barkada's members. “San Diego is a
beautifully diverse city and that is reflected in our games: Mexican,
Filipino, French, German, Costa Rican, Moroccan, African, and the
list continues to grow. We have all ability levels as well, from
beginners to former and current professional players.”
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| Photo: Bridge Barkada |
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| Photo: Bridge Barkada |
Futsal Fridays and Saturdays are a
relatively new addition to San Diego's Barrio Logan neighborhood. It
all began on June 29, 2018, with “a conversation among friends that
San Diego doesn’t have any spots to play for free outside of grassy
public parks,” according to Hurlbert, who organized Bridge Barkada
together with fellow soccer enthusiasts Paul Nathan Nacu, Drew Steck,
Daryl Biggs, Hector Corona, and Brandon Rodriguez.
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| Photo: Bridge Barkada |
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| Photo: Bridge Barkada |
The name “barkada” means a group of
friends in Tagalog. “I was speaking to my wife, who is from the
Philippines, as I wanted to give our project a name,” Hurlbert
explains. “The meaning really tied together what and where we were
doing this as group.”
The organizers, most of whom “didn’t
know one another prior to this project or casually knew each other
from the soccer community,” modeled the project “after the skate
culture a few of us grew up in where you go to the park, your friends
are already there and you just join in.”
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| Photo: @photorenzy |
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| Photo: @photorenzy |
Weather proved to be an obstacle at the
group's original HQ. “The first heavy rains flooded the entire
court” at “The Bridge,” Hurlbert says. “So, we searched for
another spot to play and decided on Chicano Park, a central location
for the county and city.” And, it so happens, a National Historic
Landmark.
The Chicano Park Steering Committee, a
grassroots organization that pressured the city to keep its promise
of developing a park after the construction of the I-5 freeway in the
1960s, lists Bridge Barkada's futsal Friday and Saturday sessions on
its calendar.
Like the artists whose funky beats
provide the soundtrack to its DJ-ed games, the group goes on tour,
occasionally returning to “The Bridge.” It was recently spotted at
Balboa Park, bringing soccer to life before The San Diego Museum of
Art.
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| Photo: @photorenzy |
Being good stewards
Got nutmegged? “It's like a rite of
passage,” quips Nathan Nacu on the group's Facebook page. Such
banter is the norm, as are headcams, and, if you're lucky, free
offerings of Jarritos and chips.
It's all fun and games as long as
everyone follows the number one rule: respecting one's surroundings.
This includes “always cleaning up when we are done and not playing
the ball off the murals,” notes Hurlbert. “We care about the
people that come and join us, the people of neighborhood, and being
good stewards of our time in the community.”
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| Photo: @photorenzy |
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| Photo: @photorenzy |
Less than a year into its existence,
Bridge Barkada found itself featured on the first episode of San
Diego Soccer Shorts, a
mini-documentary series by Big Pine Digital that will be shown on
June 30 at Thr3e Punk Ales in Chula Vista. The film will wrap up “an
all ages event with pickup games in the back parking lot and a
DJ,” Hurlbert notes.
It comes a day after Bridge Barkada
celebrates its one-year anniversary. In line with its pop-up nature,
the project is already eyeing the possibility of expansion. Its
organizers hope the City of San Diego's Parks Master Plan, a
three-year “road map” meant to guide the future growth of the
city's parks, will at some point include dedicated futsal courts.
“Our hope for the future is that it
grows to a point where our city takes action,” Hurlbert says. “This
way the love of the game can further blossom and people will be able
to play any time, all the time without depending on someone bringing
[nets].”
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| Photo: Bridge Barkada |
