Like father like son for Gorman soccer

Saturday, Sept. 9, 2006 | 7:43 a.m.

Before Victor Arbelaez Sr. was wheeled into the operating room at UCLA Medical Center, he had one request of the oldest of his three children.

Would you coach my Bishop Gorman High boys soccer team this season?

"At first, I was in shock," Nick Arbelaez said. "At the same time, you get butterflies. The thing I was most concerned with was the shoes I have to fill here. He's built such a great program."

For the second time in less than four years, Victor Arbelaez Sr. underwent delicate cancer surgery. In December 2002, a surgeon removed his tonsils and operated on a lung.

On July 25, he had a benign tumor removed from his jaw. An incision in the shape of an M was cut in Arbelaez's throat, and his jaw had to be broken and reconstructed. Surgery started at 7:30 a.m. and ended at 11 p.m.

But the 54-year-old Arbelaez didn't spend a minute in the intensive care unit.

"Which is amazing," Nick Arbelaez said. "Normally, (such a patient) would spend eight or nine days in ICU. But he recovered real well, and by the ninth day he was released from the hospital. They're confident they got everything."

A recent checkup at UCLA showed no irregularities, and Victor Arbelaez Sr. will soon begin radiation treatment. He received three dozen of those after the 2002 surgery.

For more than 20 years, Arbelaez (pronounced ARE-buh-lies) dealt blackjack at the old Mint and then the Riviera, and doctors attribute his bouts with cancer to secondhand smoke.

At his home recently, the patriarch of the Arbelaez family and pillar of the Las Vegas soccer community had some difficulty talking, but he wanted to let his colleagues, friends and players know that his spirits are high and that he wants to return to the touchline this season.

"It will be tough, but I am hoping to be back," he said. "It depends on how I heal, but I'm hanging in there. If not, the program is in good hands."

Nick Arbelaez, 26, served as an assistant coach for the women's team at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., for two years and coached the girls team at nearby Ontario High for two years.

"I'm not lacking in experience," he said. "But the coach who took over for the Chicago Bulls after Phil Jackson left definitely had shoes to fill that probably weren't able to be filled."

Bishop Gorman athletic director Kevin Hickman said the man who has coached the Gaels' boys since 1986, and started the girls' program in 1992, will be welcomed back as soon as he is able. Victor Sr. has circled November, when the girls' season begins.

In the meantime, Nick Arbelaez is a natural temporary boss for the boys team.

"It was an easy fit, especially since his dad is going through the stuff he's going through," Hickman said. "It's a good way for Victor to stay in touch with the team and keep in touch with the Gorman community."

Nick Arbelaez returned to Las Vegas from Southern California about seven months ago. He, his brother Victor Jr. (Boomer to anyone who knows him) and sister Jackie are all completing degrees at UNLV. Nick also is tending bar at a Black Angus restaurant.

His dad recently gave him some between-the-lines advice: Don't you or any players get thrown out of any games this season.

"He has his standards," Nick Arbelaez said, laughing. "He holds himself to them. He's gotten a couple of red cards, and I've given him a little bit of trouble for that. But it's all in fun."

The new coach faces another challenge: Bishop Gorman has been stripped of its preseason games because of what he calls a "recruiting issue." Hickman declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation by the Nevada Interscholastic Athletic Association. The Gaels open their season Sept. 18 against Western at the Bettye Wilson Soccer Complex.

Despite no warm-up matches, Nick Arbelaez said his players practice hard every day and have exhibited a camaraderie and chemistry that the new coach has rarely witnessed.

He and Boomer played for very good Gorman teams in the 1990s, but none of those squads meshed like this one.

Nick Arbelaez likened it to what his father said existed at the University of San Francisco in 1975, when Victor Sr. and a tight Dons team won an NCAA championship.

"That has really inspired me, and I really do feel that with this team," Nick Arbelaez said. "This is the deepest (Gorman) team, by far, I've ever seen."

Victor Arbelaez Sr. left Bogota, Colombia, for the San Francisco area when he was 15. While he attended Mission High and USF, he worked mornings - delivering the San Francisco Chronicle and baby-sitting - for school and meal money.

He came to Las Vegas in 1977 and spent part of his playing career with the Quicksilvers of the old NASL. He scored the lone goal of a famous final matchup between Pele and Portuguese wiz Eusebio, on a penalty kick past keeper Shep Messing, at the Silver Bowl (now Sam Boyd Stadium).

"When he tells me those stories wow," Nick Arbelaez said. "Really, impossible is nothing. We intend to win for him this season. I think, ultimately, that's what will happen."