West Virginia Soccer Association Executive Director Dave Laraba has dedicated a large portion of his life’s work to the advancement of soccer in the state of West Virginia.
Earlier this week, Laraba’s labor love was rewarded in a big way.
During the U.S. Youth Soccer annual awards gala in Anaheim, Ca., Laraba was inducted into the USYS Hall of Fame along with a former star from the United States women’s national team, Joy Fawcett and legendary coach Dr. Lauren Gregg.
“I appreciate it for sure and it is a great honor,” Laraba said. “The group that I went in with is really good! It was kind of like, what am I doing here? In my speech I used the old George Gobel line, I feel like a pair of brown shoes with a tuxedo. You have these two giants of the women’s game, in the world, and then you have me. How did that happen? “It definitely is big for me and it was really nice.”
Involved with soccer in West Virginia for roughly 40 years, Laraba has impacted the game in the Mountain State as a member of various committees or councils with U.S. Soccer, U.S. Youth Soccer and the West Virginia Soccer Association.
Although he now serves currently as the Executive Director of the West Virginia Soccer Association, a positions he has held for three decades, Laraba started his journey from the ground up as a coach in the YMCA recreational league back in the early 1980’s.
“I started with Dave Harrah who went on to help Rocky Powell at Woodrow Wilson High School. Our coaching started with three books from the library, which was all they had, and an old big reel-to-reel film by Pele’ on soccer,” Laraba said. “We kept coaching as our sons got older. We (worked as referees) and I went on to get involved in the administrative end, working with the YMCA program.”
Also starting from humble beginnings, the YMCA program has expanded into something Laraba could never have imagined now playing at the massive YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex that has eight fields.
“There has been a lot of people,” Laraba said about the growth of the recreational leagues. “If I start naming people I am going to leave somebody out, but all of the contributions have been tremendous. People in the community have stepped up and we can’t forget Chris Cline who got behind the program and helped financially. You need those kind of people to step up.”
In the early days, soccer was played in Beckley in various places across Raleigh County.
“Back in the 80’s we were playing at one field up at New River Park beside the pool,” Laraba said. “We played out at behind what became the Alternative School in Sophia. We played behind the old Beckley Stratton School and behind the old Shady Spring High School. We played at at different places. We got the three-field complex out by Tamarack which we thought was amazing because there wasn’t anywhere in the state that had three fields back then.”
“When I sit up there in the press box at the Sports Complex on say a Tuesday night and you see all of the kids out there that are different ages and have different levels of play, there is no way that could have been envisioned that back in the 80’s.”
As President of the YMCA league, Laraba was afforded the opportunity to then be involved with soccer at the state level and help run the state tournaments.
“I wound up being the first state tournament director and then vice-president before being named president. I became the the first president of the WV Soccer Association and served a six-year term which was the limit at that time.”
Still very much involved with West Virginia Soccer, most of Laraba’s work these days is behind the scenes.
“What I have done for 30 years now with USYS soccer has to do with appeals and discipline hearings,” Laraba said. “What we established over the 30 years was a system of procedures and policies to protect. Back in the 80’s and 90’s it was the “Wild West” in a lot of places. Now there is is set of bi-laws and policies that have to be followed for fair hearings and we have a one level appeal system now.”
Laraba is also involved with workshops, appeals, discipline issues, leadership development and risk management to protect the players and evaluate coaches.
The newest USYS Hall of Fame member is also anxious to keep growing the sport in more areas of the Mountain State.
“Beckley was one of the first communities to invest in a complex,” Laraba said. “Barboursville has done some stuff. We have Shawnee Sports Complex now, a complex in Morgantown and Bridgeport. We need something in the Eastern Panhandle and the Northern Panhandle. We want communities to get behind soccer and help out the YMCA.”
Laraba’s induction was part of a banner night for West Virginia which included three other state residents bringing home national recognition.
“John Allen from the the Princeton area was named, Young Male Referee of the Year,” Laraba said. “Nate Testman from South Hills Soccer was the Boys Grassroots Coach of the Year and Lloyd McIntyre from the Shawnee Soccer Recreation Academy was the Girls Grassroots Coach of the Year. Out of nine national awards, we had three of them. It was a great night for West Virginia.”
