Soccer A Savior For Re Former Gang Member Discovers New Way To Get Kicks - Legally

It’s a Saturday afternoon and 21-year-old Adrian Reyes is silently plotting.

Reyes carefully eyes his counterparts. He finally acquires his weapon; he runs quickly yet methodically toward his target. He knows what he must do.

Reyes finally gets within range, he takes aim, and shoots …

This is a typical day in the life of the Guadalajara, Mexico, native, who spends a lot of his time on soccer fields. Reyes plays in the most competitive division of the elite Pacific Northwest Soccer League as a member of the TCBY Yogurt team, which won the Spokane Cup as city champion last year.

A few years ago, this scenario would have taken place on Pasco’s tough streets instead of on a grass field. Reyes’ weapon would have been a gun or knife, not a ball.

Reyes’ teen years resembled a Spike Lee movie. Upon moving to Washington with his family at the age of 12, Reyes fell in with the wrong crowd. He soon acquired a rap sheet and a reputation to match. He became heavily involved with the gang scene in Pasco.

“I started just stealing toy cars,” he said. “Then it led to robbing houses. Then you beat up people just to do it.”

Reyes served small sentences in juvenile hall for petty crimes. He then served two years for selling drugs. This was quickly followed by other arrests, including one for first-degree robbery which got him locked up for a year.

After a long list of priors, fights, and even getting shot in the chest, Reyes woke up and realized he needed to change his lifestyle.

“Being locked up, I hit bottom,” he said. “You (begin to) not care. You lose your conscience. I’m glad I got locked up,” he said, then adding after a long pause, “or else I wouldn’t have known what I was doing (was wrong).”

As a last resort, Reyes was sent to the Riverview Youth Center in Spokane, where he showed such promise he was allowed to enroll at Rogers High School. There he met Rogers soccer coach Chris Sande, and teacher Barbara Silvey.

“Barb and Sande always pushed me to do better … to go to school,” he said.

Reyes has been playing soccer since the age of 5. Sande noticed his talent and immediately recruited him to play for the Pirates. Sande liked his hustle, even in the face of defeat.

Reyes’ talent was also noticed by Community Colleges of Spokane coach Cor van der Meer, whose 1995 team placed second in the conference playoffs with Reyes as one of its forwards.

Reyes plans on continuing his schooling in the Automotive Department at SCC as well as playing for van der Meer.

In addition to last year’s postseason team success, Reyes was selected as a member of the league’s all-state team.

When not busy with school, or his job at a local restaurant, Reyes assists Sande at Rogers. He has a supportive home life, living with Silvey, her son, and two Riverview youths.

With his life under control and a bright future in sight, Reyes senses the roughest part of the road is behind him. But to make sure he never forgets what prompted him to turn his life around in the first place, he hangs on to those unpleasant memories of his days as a gang member.

“When I got locked up, I missed my family. I’d be away from my mom. … I made her cry,” he said, eyes staring at the floor. “I missed my friends, too. Most of my homies are locked up. It was a lonely life spending your birthday and Christmas in jail.”

Family is important to Reyes, who regrets the time he lost while incarcerated.

“You gotta listen to your parents, communicate,” he said. “Think about the future; it’s not fun being locked up. You can’t do anything when you’re locked up. You will get caught; it may take years, but you will.”

Now the hard part is over, says Reyes.

“I’m in the right direction now,” he said. “I’m not a kid anymore. I want to have my own (automotive) business some day. I’m trying to be a man. I want to be somebody.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos