History
Balón USA developed out of a grassroots soccer program started in 2009 by Germán Zárate-Bohorquez at Foster Elementary in Arvada, where his wife Amanda Duncan, was a teacher. Germán saw a high interest in soccer at the school, but noticed that few students were signing up for the available soccer leagues. Students could not access the leagues because of a lack of transportation, high cost, busy parent work schedules, and sometimes cultural or linguistic barriers. He realized the community needed a low-cost, culturally-relevant and high-quality soccer program right at the school site. He mobilized volunteers and leveraged resources to provide a quality program for his team with full-sized goal posts with nets, striped fields, referees and uniforms. He began with one team at the school and used his contacts to engage other teams in non-competitive games around the metro Denver area.
In 2015, a $5000 Active Living Mini-Grant through the Healthy Places Initiative from the Colorado Health Foundation helped expand the program to six local elementary schools, and the Southeast Arvada Youth Soccer League was formed. Germán recruited parents, teachers, and community members to be coaches and began building a culturally-inclusive soccer program with many bilingual and bicultural coaches. A strategic partnership was formed with Colorado Rapids Soccer for Success to combine resources in order to better serve the community. The program served 120-180 children each year between 2015 and 2018. In May 2018, Soccer for Success announced it was no longer able to support southeast Arvada. This motivated Germán to form Balón USA as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to continue to provide this valuable service to underserved communities.
Balón USA received its 501(c)(3) status in 2019, and continues to build and grow local, culturally-relevant after-school soccer programs for students in the Denver Metro Area. Balón USA believes that this type of soccer programming is a powerful way to strengthen underserved communities and schools.
Germán Zárate-Bohórquez, Executive Director
The Executive Director and Founder of Balón USA is Germán Zárate-Bohórquez. He is originally from Oaxaca, Mexico. Germán is passionate about soccer, and cherishes the memories he has of playing as a child in the streets or on dirt fields. Germán believes that life should include a balance of activities: family, work, study, and physical exercise. Soccer provided him the focus he needed to complete a Law Degree in Mexico.
Germán has a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management from Regis University (2016) and a Law Degree from Universidad Autónoma Benito Juárez de Oaxaca, México (1993). He has built a career in community outreach and engagement, research, fostering collaboration, and program management and enhancement. Germán was honored by Channel 7 as an Everyday Hero. See the article and video here. He was also recognized by the City of Arvada and by Arvada High School with The Community Teammate Award.
Germán and Amanda live in Lakewood. Their two daughters are currently studying in college.
Amanda Duncan, Director of Operations
Amanda has been a dual language teacher for over 25 years. She learned early on that soccer is a very popular sport for her dual language students, and that being able to talk about it helped her build relationships with them. This has always been a powerful tool for engaging and motivating her students. Amanda was named Colorado Bilingual Educator of the Year in 2017.
Amanda was a dual language teacher at Foster Elementary from 2006-2018, and together with Germán they started the soccer program there. She remains committed to bringing soccer opportunities to under-resourced communities and also encourages teachers to attend the games as a way to connect to the students and families they serve. She is currently the Dual Language Instructional Coach at Edgewater Elementary. She holds a Masters degree in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education from the University of Colorado and a Bachelors degree in Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico.
Miguel Ramirez, Board President
Miguel came to the United States in 1993, like many other immigrants, with the desire to have a better future for himself and eventually for his family in Mexico and the one he formed here as well. He has been married to his wife Dana since 1996. They have two children, Manuel and Natalia. They have lived in the Westwood neighborhood since 1998.
Miguel first attended the community college of Denver to get his GED. He has worked for the City and County of Denver since 1997. He has participated in events with non-profit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Re-Vision, Westwood Unidos, Extreme Community Makeover, West Denver Renaissance Collaborative, Treks Colorado. He was part of the Re-Vision board of directors from 2013-2015.
Miguel enjoys getting involved with the community. He feels it is very important in these times to fight diseases and living conditions with physical activity like the sport of soccer.
Margarita Ruiz, Board Secretary
Margarita Ruiz is a community connector and has worked in this field for the past 20 years. Through this professional journey, she used her bicultural and bilingual skills to connect and build trust with the Spanish and English speaking communities, and recently with the community from Afghanistan.
Margarita worked for 18+ years with a nonprofit as part of the Community Investing Division. She managed a program that helped transform people’s lives and see the value of return of investment. She also worked Community Engagement, and led partnerships with three local school districts to increase academic achievement. Margarita has attended career development courses such as: Project Management, Strategic Thinking, DEI-Diversity Equity Inclusion, Fundraising, Leadership, Asset Building, Financial Literacy, and others.
Margarita feels that life is a gift, and it gives us all opportunities to empower our community. As a new empty-nester, she feels thankful to have the time to volunteer in causes where her skills can be useful. Margarita wants to spread the privilege of community service to her family, particularly to her 4-year-old grandson, encouraging him to develop a personal commitment to the prosperity of the community.
Marcella D’Orazio, Board Treasurer
Marcella has been an educator for over 30 years in both Jeffco Public Schools and Denver Public Schools. She is fortunate to have worked primarily with students and families living in poverty, and is an advocate for access to programs and opportunities that come to the schools. Marcella values these opportunities provided by Balón USA, because they create relationships with students and community, and they build students’ skills, confidence.
Throughout the years, Marcella has been a dual language teacher in 4th grade, 2nd grade, and Kindergarten. Additionally, she worked as a bilingual reading interventionist for 10 years. She is the Principal of Edgewater Elementary School , where she has been since 2012. Marcella holds an Education Specialist degree in Administrative Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Colorado-Denver, a Master’s degree in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of Colorado-Denver, and a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education, with a minor in Spanish, from Western Colorado University.
Rudy Torrez, Board Member
Rudy is a Denver Native who has been involved in the community his entire life. He started as parish youth leader and choir leader at Annunciation, Cathedral and St Dominic’s parishes. After buying his first home in West Denver, Rudy was elected a block captain which then proceeded as President of the La Alma-Lincoln Park Neighborhood Organization. He represented the neighborhood in the development of the Speer Development. Rudy also served on the boards of the Denver Housing Authority and the Westside Action Council. Through his work at AT&T, he was a union representative and then elected as a CWA District Leader. Later he was elected District Captain of Colorado State House District 5. Rudy was then a candidate for the House of Representatives. When the Denver economy went down he started as a HUD counselor trying to help people save their homes from foreclosure. In this role he was elected VP of the Colorado Housing Counseling Coalition.