Vail Valley Foundation celebrates 15 years of COPA soccer program
Summer program is less about soccer and more about making sure everyone feels they belong
YouthPower365/Courtesy photo
Ricky Luevanos found true love on the pitch.
“It was funny — I think I married my job,” YouthPower365’s senior manager of youth development recalled of a particular COPA soccer postgame proposal several years ago. Then just one of the ever-important volunteer coaches, Luevanos lost the game — but won the day. The man who today helps spearhead the seven-week summer soccer program for children ages 3-17 got down on bended knee and asked his now-wife of seven years to spend the rest of his life with him.
Even though his love and work are uniquely intertwined, his story is just one slice of the pie. Now in its 15th year as an initiative of the Vail Valley Foundation, the ethos of COPA soccer, which runs June 11-July 30, is less about kicking a ball and more about community-building. It’s about belonging.
“I could say my favorite memory from COPA has to be having fun with who I would consider my second family,” said 2022 Battle Mountain soccer graduate Diego Perez.
“I have so many favorite memories of COPA, but my favorite was when I was 5 years old and I was taking the ball to score. And all the fans were screaming and I was so happy because I thought they were cheering but once I scored, I (realized) I had scored on my own goal.” — Cassandra Ledezma
Everyone gets a jersey
The idea for COPA, named after the famous South American tournament, was the brainchild of two young local parents, Porfirio Reyes and Ramon Lopez.
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“They envisioned ‘Hey, let’s get our kids off the street and make this soccer program on Sundays. And YouthPower, we came in and helped them get uniforms, soccer balls, volunteer coaches,” Luevanos said. The mission — “to keep children throughout Eagle County engaged in the summer months while providing a structured environment that instills self-discipline, builds self-confidence and soccer skills, and strengthens connections to their peers, family, and community” — is at the heart of what every one of the 50 volunteer coaches does.
YouthPower365/Courtesy photo
“It’s really cool how it’s built community around this sport,” Luevanos continued. “We’re keeping kids in a safe program where they’re playing and belonging.”
For $35, children ages 3-17 are placed on one of 50 teams — with names like “The Hot Cheetos” — broken into five categories by age. Two practices per week and games at Freedom Park on Sundays culminate in a season-ending tournament and a parent and community party. Perhaps the most important item kids receive is a jersey.
“When the kids get a jersey, they feel like they belong. They feel like professional soccer players,” Luevanos said. Sometimes they actually are, as in the case of COPA alumnus and current Colorado Rapids second-team signee, Cain Castellon. For others, the jersey symbolizes something deeper. Perez said such a sense of belonging helped him overcome his social anxiety and fostered his well-rounded personal development.
“Not only was I able to create new companions but I also created a better me,” the former defenseman said. “Not only did COPA help me at work but also in my personal life, making sure that I was always well mentally and physically.”
Driving that athletic and personal maturation are COPA’s coaches. When asked how the program has grown and how he wants to see it continue to evolve in the future, Luevanos pointed to coaching development.
YouthPower365/Courtesy photo
“That’s one of the things we’re really focused on,” he said, adding that this year two of his coaches participated with 10,000 others from across the globe to hear from pro players and staff at the United Soccer Convention in Philadelphia.
“It was very exciting to have them come back and share that experience with our other coaches,” he said. Often, those roles are filled by former players.
Lasting Legacy
YouthPower365/Courtesy photo
Yesenia Duran, YouthPower365’s soccer program coordinator, got into COPA in middle school because of her dad’s passion for the sport, but discovered she enjoyed being involved and having mentors who were like her.
“The coaches were Hispanic, and when we were growing up, there weren’t that many Hispanic or Latino mentors or leaders yet,” she said. “I feel like the more I grew, the more I found more.”
“It’s like, now a kid sees someone that represents them,” Luevanos added. “I can relate to you — we speak the same language: soccer.”
Now, Duran is a mentor herself. After wrapping up her own soccer-playing career as a freshman, she remained connected to the sport as a volunteer coach through high school. She coached her younger sister, Monica — now a scoring savvy senior on the Western Slope league-leading Battle Mountain team — and several other future Huskies from the 6-8-year-old age group through middle school in the COPA program.
“Having my sister as my coach was wonderful,” the younger Duran stated. “She made sure to hold me to my highest standard. She not only taught me the physical game of soccer, but the mental game as well. Without her, I wouldn’t be the player I now am.”
YouthPower365/Courtesy photo
Maria Herrera still remembers a semifinal where Duran allowed her to play up with the older girls. Down 2-0, Herrera scored twice to help her team advance to the final.
“Seeing all the older girls as a younger player and how proud they were of me made me feel so much more confident in my skills and how I played the game,” Herrera said. “COPA has shaped me as a person because it’s somewhere I can go and have fun with refs who are fair and teams that get along well. It has shaped me as an athlete because when COPA comes around, I get so much practice in and learn so many new things by also having fun.”
Cassandra Ledezma, now a senior forward averaging a goal a game for Battle Mountain, put the ball through the net as a youngster at COPA, too.
“I have so many favorite memories of COPA, but my favorite was when I was 5 years old and I was taking the ball to score,” she recalled. “And all the fans were screaming and I was so happy because I thought they were cheering but once I scored, I (realized) I had scored on my own goal.”
Having participated in COPA for 12 years and counting, Ledezma can laugh about the moment now, recognizing how influential her experiences were in molding her character.
“I have learned how to love and care for everyone, how to support, and really how to be responsible,” she said. “It has shaped me as an athlete because I learned that making mistakes is OK and that’s how you learn. (I learned how) to be determined and never give up.”
Though numerous COPA alumni have starred locally or even gone onto post-prep levels of play, judging by the end-of-season parent party, complete with bouncy castles and free sponsor swag, the main goal of COPA isn’t as a stepping stone to a pro contract.
“The most valuable aspect of COPA to the community is how it brings people together,” Duran said. “And to myself, I have made more connections and friends through this program. I used to be a shy little girl, and with the help of COPA, it helped me break my shell and step out of my comfort zone.”
It’s why many players, like her sister, often progress to become coaches themselves.
“It’s cool to see that path,” Luevanos said. “Once they graduate high school, in the summer, this is where they want to be; they want to be here with us. It’s like, even if I leave, I can still come back and I know that it’s a place where I’m welcome.”
“I can play soccer,” he continued. “I can be a part of it.”
To register for COPA Soccer this year, visit YouthPower365.org.
