Teaching with a passion

Nick Christensen

Thursday, Dec. 11, 2003 | 10:05 a.m.

For more than 15 years, Bishop Gorman soccer has been Victor Arbelaez.

He has helped to guide the boys' team since 1986, and coached the girls' team since its inception in 1992. His players openly acknowledge that Arbelaez is the reason they are at the private school. His reputation as a premier soccer coach precedes him not only at Gorman, but throughout Las Vegas.

But this time last year, everything came to a screeching halt.

In just a week, Arbelaez saw his world turned upside down with a former player dying in a car accident and a diagnosis of throat cancer that kept him in recovery for the next two months.

"I had that, the results, the funeral, they had to take the tonsils out, and I still had cancer," Arbelaez said.

A local legend

Arbelaez's thick soccer roots go back to San Francisco, where he was one of 11 seniors on the USF Dons squad that won the 1975 NCAA championship. He came to Las Vegas in 1977, when he played for the Las Vegas Quicksilver of the North American Soccer League. Arbelaez later wound up with the NASL's San Diego Seagulls, which moved to Las Vegas in 1979 after the Quicksilver folded.

His playing career winding down, Arbelaez came back to Las Vegas, this time as a dealer at the old Mint hotel and an assistant coach on UNLV's fledgling soccer team.

Arbelaez began forging his own name in 1988, when he took over the Gorman program from current Durango coach Barry Forget after spending two years as an assistant with the Gaels. His experience and teaching ability have made Arbelaez one of the most respected coaches in Las Vegas. A man in love with the game, Arbelaez also officiates youth and college soccer.

"I do it because I enjoy it," Arbelaez said. "I played the game, and I can relate to the players. I know how to talk to them, and I know where they're coming from."

Arbelaez's coaching success is easily credited to his passion.

"He doesn't fool around. He knows exactly what he wants from each player," said Justin George, a former Gorman winger now studying at UNLV. "He doesn't just tell you what to do, or yell about mistakes, he points them out, then shows you how to improve."

It's that demonstration that Arbelaez takes the most pride in.

"The most satisfying thing that I love to do is teach," Arbelaez says. "We can all coach any sport, but can you teach it?"

The challenges Arbelaez had helped his players through, however, could never prepare him for the challenges he faced last autumn.

The hardest week

Arbelaez saw his doctor in November 2002 after noticing a black spot in his throat. The doctor gave him antibiotics and sent him on his way.

At that point, Arbelaez had been dealing cards in smoky casinos for 22 years. After the antibiotics had no impact, he had a biopsy performed and awaited the results. They were due the first Wednesday of December.

The weekend before, former Gorman standout Joe Zaher returned to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving after an impressive freshman season at Oregon State. He spent time with his old coach before an accident on a rainy Saturday night took his life.

And the results came back with the bad news of cancer.

"That week was the hardest week of my life," Arbalaez said.

He said he underwent 36 radiation treatments that lasted until Feb. 18, and while he lost considerable weight, he didn't have to undergo chemotherapy. It helped Arbelaez's spirit to see his girls' team go on to a surprising runner-up finish in the 2003 Sunset Region playoffs.

"The girls were outstanding, considering the stuff going on," Arbelaez said. "We lost to Green Valley, but I was surprised how far the girls went."

"We had an extra push to do better. We could have done better," Gorman's Whitney Hawkins said this week. "But we did it all for him."

Back to work

Now apparently cancer-free and working as a customer service representative at the Las Vegas Valley Water District, Arbelaez took back the reins of the Gorman team this year after assistant Laura Howard guided the Gaels in his absence.

Gorman captain Krystal Jackson said she "(didn't) think a lot of players would have come back" if Arbelaez did not return.

Many of Gorman's players meet up with Arbelaez after they participate on the two club teams he coaches -- the girls' Storm team plays in the fall, and the boys' Neusport plays spring soccer.

Despite his success in preps, Arbelaez still aspires to move on to the next level.

Arbelaez, who never got a college degree, said he has considered getting a degree so he could teach, or go on to coach in college.

"I didn't finish school, and I think that's what's stopping me from getting a college job," Arbelaez said. "That's how I want to finish my career, coaching college."

But even untrained, his passion to teach soccer radiates.

"Everybody wants to have the best team. Everybody wants to have the best players," Arbelaez said. "No matter what you have, you still have to teach the game. You still have to go through all the things they need to get better.

"You can't call yourself a coach if you can't relate to players and tell them what it's all about. I like challenges ... to watch players get better, and do something, not only in soccer, but in their lives. You have to teach, that's what I love to do.

"You take it a day at a time and enjoy it because you never know about tomorrow."