Hosting Pali Blues Players: A Win-Win Deal

Last year, when the plea went out for Pacific Palisades residents to open their homes for Pali Blues women soccer players, most of whom are in college and receive zero-dollar amateur contracts, Gina Kornfeind e-mailed Kenzo Bergeron, the team’s director of operations: ‘If you ever need a place for a player, let me know.’ The Blues, who played their first season last year as a member of the new 41-team, nationwide W-League, will once again practice on the Palisades High field and play their home games there, starting May 9. Kornfeind, the mother of four girls (Meredith, 16, Molly, 14, Lindsay, 11, and Maggie, 6), forgot to tell her husband Fred, a psychologist at the Veterans Administration, about the e-mail, but within a week she heard from Bergeron that he indeed had a player, Jill Oakes, who needed a room from early May through early August. The Kornfeind girls were excited. They had seen Oakes play at UCLA and they knew she was dating Lakers guard Jordan Farmer. What father could say no to the prospect of the possibility of housing a sports celebrity, as well as meeting a second one? He agreed. Alas, Oakes called Kornfeind back and told her that she was moving in with her boyfriend, but that she had two friends who needed a place to stay: Rosie Tantillo, a USC graduate and Sasha Andrews, a University of Nebraska graduate. The family had only one guest room, but Kornfeind, who works part-time as a social worker and a bereavement counselor, agreed to meet both women.   ’I already knew Tantillo, who had worked out with my daughter’s club team,’ said Kornfeind, who has volunteered for several years as an AYSO commissioner. After visiting with the two players in the family’s kitchen in the Marquez area, Kornfeind offered them both a place to stay’if they wanted it. One girl could have the guest room, the other a space in the family’s unfinished basement. During their ‘interview,’ Kornfeind discussed expectations, which she said were minimal, because she felt that taking players in was a kind of ministry that helped the community by supporting a professional sport and exceptional women whom youth could emulate. ‘I expected that since they were grown women, they would be using our home as more of a boarding house,’ Kornfeind told the Palisadian-Post. Although Andrews had been living unsuccessfully with a family in Brentwood and Tantillo was sleeping on a sofa at the home of Blues head coach Charlie Naimo, Kornfeind was surprised’but pleased’when they both said ‘yes’ to her offer and moved immediately into the family’s sparse living quarters. ‘It turned out to be the most unbelievable, rich, exciting experience,’ Kornfeind said. ‘It was like having two new daughters. Every day after school, my younger daughters would come home and ask if Rosie and Sasha were there.’ Kornfeind said that even though she had no expectations, the soccer players proved to be helpful. They drove her girls places such as the orthodontist and soccer practices, helped with dinner, served as confidantes for the older daughters, and were inspirations for how hard one has to work at a sport to reach the next level.   ’My kids learned that if you want to be that good, you have to do more than practice two times a week,’ Kornfeind said. Tantillo and Andrews tried out for the inaugural women pro soccer teams, which debut this week, but weren’t chosen. ‘It was good for my daughters to see them deal with disappointment,’ Kornfeind said. ‘They [the players] had a sad day or two and then went for a run down to the pier and back.’ Meanwhile last year, Tantillo and Andrews attended various Kornfeind soccer games games and brought other Pali Blues players to cheer them on. Tantillo told Meredith, who plays for PaliHi, ‘Charlie loves that style of play, and you could play for the Blues someday.’ Kornfeind said it was a real confidence booster for her daughter, who went on to make first team All-Western League.   Unlike most W-League players, who stayed with families and moved out when the season ended in August, the two players are still living here, but will soon move out: Tantillo to Buffalo and Andrews to Indiana to join new soccer teams for the upcoming season.   ’We’re really sad they’re leaving’it’s going to be hard,’ Kornfeind said. ‘They’ve become such a part of our family. As much as we gave them, we got back more.’   Her husband, whose experience had to be akin to living in a sorority house, must agree, because he told his wife: ‘If they leave, I think we should take in another player.’   Host families are needed immediately for about a dozen players. Please contact Jason Lemire at (310) 264-4649. Visit: www.bluessoccerclub.com