Soccer is the most popular youth sport in America, but the path to college scholarships and professional opportunities is far from equal.
For many kids in San Diego, summer means club soccer — tournaments held locally and across the country, often in front of dozens of college coaches scouting for new talent. But those opportunities come at a steep price.
"It's a very expensive sport. It's a very expensive pay-to-play model," Beto Vega told ABC 10News.
Vega is the athletic program director for Yours in Soccer, a free program held at UC San Diego that works to open doors for talented players whose families cannot afford club fees.
"Our foundation is 100% free. There's no cost to our student-athletes," Vega said.
The program has already helped place athletes at some of the most prestigious universities in the country.
"We had three kids at Harvard that were placed here. One kid was at Columbia, another one at Cornell," Vega said, highlighting just a few of the program's success stories.
For the athletes themselves, the stakes are high.
"I'm trying to get a really good D-1 scholarship, and from there, do my education, and get a good degree," Santiago Salgado said, as he completes his second year in the Summer Scholars program.
Yours in Soccer goes beyond the field. Athletes attend daily classes featuring guest speakers and lessons on topics designed to prepare them for life after soccer.
"How to set goals, how to set timelines, financial literacy," Vega said.
For some players, those sessions have been eye-opening.
"A lot of players can be iffy about college, about...I don't want to do school. I think this program really helps you open your eyes and see what you really want," said Anthony Valadez, another local Yours in Soccer athlete from Chula Vista.
The program culminates this weekend when the Yours in Soccer team competes in the Surf Cup, one of the premier tournaments in the country, going up against top club programs.
Salgado said his team is ready for the challenge.
"We have a really good team. A really, really, good team. A lot of talented kids. Really talented, mentally, wanting to win every time."
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