SOCCER: direct communication between God and man

Carlos Lopez, a Chilean and now the pontifex maximus of soccer on the Peninsula, describes the growth of soccer in the US. For some reason the subject line reads "Direct communication between God and man", so apparently soccer is a religion. He writes:

"When you met me as a student, I was a college soccer player, a "rare avis". Soccer was so rare that I remember driving during my job as a garbage company route manager and stopping my truck to talk to a young man who was kicking a soccer ball on the street! It was 1959 and I had never seen that before in the USA. Then, only San Francisco high schools played soccer, and there were seven colleges in the Bay Area in one Northern California Intercollegiate Soccer Conference. I played with and against some famous people: Leo Weinstein for one. Look at what progress we have made today: more high schools and colleges play soccer than American football, there are soccer camps, men and women's recreational leagues, professional leagues, AYSO, etc. Where is the bottleneck that prevents soccer from being big? I can think of several reasons. One is the enormous revenues brought by the big three, another is the prestige, specially in high school of playing American football, and of course the pride and the false hopes of becoming a baseball star. This last desire satisfies parents and grandparents. I have experienced this with my own and my grandchildren. Will soccer ever become big? I am not concerned. I like it as it is: those that enjoy the game can play it and followed it up. Popularity is not my concern. I will get up at 4 AM any day to see a good match".

My questions. Carlos, will you get up at 4 AM to answer Hank Greely's questions? What is AYSO? Big Three?

Ronald Hilton - 6/7/02