San Jose Parks Foundation

The campaign goal is $250,000.

As Jan. 4, 2013, we have raised over $16,000.

We are over 6% of our goal!

See our donors here

"I think this is a great cause and I am honored to be affiliated
with this project as the spokesperson."

--Steven Beitashour, San Jose Earthquakes defender 

Click here for Official Press Release from

Soccer Silicon Valley Soccer Federation

Inspirations

"Umberto was an inspiration to me. I spent a lot of time in his barber shop talking soccer during his last few years. As a long time team manager in the Peninsula Soccer League, Umberto helped my find my childhood as an adult through playing soccer and I will always be grateful of the example he set for all of us!"   John Houston, Donor to the Abronzino Fund

In 2007, Watson Bowl was renamed for the late Umberto Abronzino, credited as being the father of soccer in Santa Clara Valley. As the San Jose Mercury News reported in his 2006 obituary, although Abronzino lived in the Willow Glen neighborhood, "[h]is home, however, was truly at Watson Bowl..."

Watson Park, built on a former San Jose city dump, was closed for several years for toxic remediation. In August 2011, the park re-opened, and the soccer bowl now contains two beautiful new fields, one grass and one artificial turf, both with lights to allow night play. The vision of making the Abronzino Bowl a recreational soccer showpiece includes (among other amenities elsewhere in the park), a soccer field house replete with restrooms, concessions, office space, storage – and a permanent exhibit wall on Umberto Abronzino and the history of recreational soccer in Silicon Valley curated by our local history museum.

Which is where the soccer community and the surrounding neighborhood step in.

"We can make the dream a reality," says local neighborhood activist and SSV/CF president Don Gagliardi. "Our motto is 'building community through soccer,' and what better way than to bring our community of soccer players and fans to build a beautiful field house that will benefit untold numbers of youth and recreational soccer players as well as serve as a shrine to San Jose's role as 'Soccer City U.S.A.'"

The Abronzino Field House Committee:

Al Abronzino
Linda Abronzino (Committee Chair)
Carol Beebe (Chair, Friends of Watson Park)
Steven Beitashour (San Jose Earthquakes Defender)
Alida Bray (History San Jose Executive Director)
Matt Cano (San Jose Parks & Recreation Capital Projects)
Lawrence DeSantis (Architect, Barry Swenson Builder)
Don Gagliardi (SSV/CF President & 13th Street NAC President)
Justin Garcia (City National Bank)
John Jussen (Almaden Valley Youth Soccer League Past
President and SSV/CF Board Member)
Dave Kaval (San Jose Earthquakes President)
Sam Liccardo (San Jose City Councilmember)
James Reber (San Jose Parks Foundation Executive Director)
Nat Robinson (Strong Neighborhoods Initiative Leader)
Corky Silva (Project Manager, Barry Swenson Builder)