San Luis Rey sports programs offer alternatives

OCEANSIDE — Sign ups are now underway for the Spring 2010 San Luis Rey Athletic Association Trojans AAU sports programs. Register now for unlimited weight football, both spring and fall, year-round boys and girls basketball and for track and field. For more information, visit www.slrtrojans.org or contact Dan Armentrout at (760) 612-6634.
SLRAA has now launched cheer, track and field and basketball in addition to football and will be launching martial arts, boxing, soccer, bowling (in need of a good coach,) volleyball and girls fast-pitch softball this coming summer.
San Luis Rey Athletic Association utilizes multiple sports venues in Oceanside. Because it has transitioned to an AAU Club organization, it offers 34 total sports. The club plays at facilities that Oceanside Unified School District and the city of Oceanside both make available to groups. It has no geographic boundaries and athletes may play for the Trojans from any area they wish.
“My focus is to offer the highest level of competition for our athletes (the AAU is by far the best organization for this) and to keep these sports affordable,” Dan Armentrout of SLRAA said. “For example with our football program (unlimited weight and played by age) we have always charged $100 for returning players and $125 for first time players. As you might imagine, many cannot pay even these low fees. We turn no child away.”
“We have some great success stories,” Armentrout said. “Joe Naatala (Army Navy Academy) is one of our kids who, if not for SLR, would not have been able to play youth football. ANA saw him play because we used their football field for a season,” Armentrout said.
“Another success story is Toah Gannon. Toah’s brother went to prison for life for killing a police officer. I went to Toah’s house every day for a week until his parents let me talk to him,” Armentrout said. “I didn’t want him to fall victim to the same influences his brother did. If we didn’t have a football program that would allow Toah to play, he would not have been able to get into sports. He’s playing at El Camino High School now and is a great kid.”
Armentrout spoke of stories whereby folks were able to join the Trojans family and have their youngsters play and focus on being good student athletes.
“They will tell you, if not for the Trojans, they would not be able to have their kids belong to a sports program,” he said. “Josh Faasaua was struggling in school. We got him on my team and worked on him from the inside, stressing to him how important schooling is and working with his parents to get his grades up. We mandated that Josh had to forego a day of practice each week so he could devote that day as additional school study time. Josh’s grades improved dramatically and Josh, age 12, was named as a “Football University All American” for 2009. He was one of 60 players in the nation to be afforded that honor.”