Every time she touched the ball the song started again.
It's a familiar song, and you may have heard it if you've had Disney+ turned on in the last few years. The song is “Un Poco Loco,” the most popular song from the Pixar movie “Coco.” The title means “A Little Bit Crazy” in Spanish.
But to teenager Mia Godoy, the song wasn't a celebration of the film or Mexican culture; it was racist.
“My brain automatically went haywire,” said Godoy, an Argentinean teenager who lives in American Fork. “As soon as I heard that comment, my brain just shut down.”
Godoy plays for a girls' team at a youth soccer club called Utah Rio. In addition to singing, she said that while she was playing during a game in October 2022, parents of opposing players said, “Coco's got the ball.”
Godoy's experience is just one of several cases in which predominantly Hispanic youth soccer teams say they have suffered racist or discriminatory behavior from opposing players, parents and even referees.
According to data obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune, since last fall, UYSA has received 25 complaints about racist language being used during games. Ten of those cases resulted in suspensions. Most of the suspended players received two-game suspensions. One parent received an “indefinite” suspension.
“This is more than one team or one special situation,” said Eduardo Mendes, director of Weber County soccer club Gremio FC. “It's much more than that.”
Discrimination from adults
The Utah Youth Soccer Association, which oversees hundreds of youth soccer clubs across the state, has an “anti-discrimination” initiative, and in March, league commissioner and in-house counsel Scott Boyd led two training sessions on eliminating racist slurs.
But youth soccer coaches say they still see instances of derogatory language used against players, mainly coming from adults – parents and referees.
Last month, Mia's father, Diego Godoy, who coaches several teams in Rio, Utah, said parents on the opposing team's sidelines were yelling things like “Olale, olale” and “Hey Mexicans, leave the football alone.”
Diego Godoy said he spoke to the referee but was sent off without any explanation, and when he refused to leave until the referee gave him an explanation, the official simply yelled at him to leave.
Diego Godoy reportedly told the referee: “What you are doing to me is just racism. You hear racist comments from parents and you don't do anything about it?”
Chiqui Pelaez, currently the boys youth coach at Utah Rio, was previously the team manager at La Roca in Weber County, one of the most popular and elite youth soccer clubs in the state, and his two sons, Gabriel and Mateo, were members of both programs.
Pelaez said that when his sons were members of La Roca, parents would call the players “Mexicans” and tell them to “go back to your country.”
It's not just parents who are being bombarded with racist language and sentiment – referees have also been at the centre of complaints.
Diego Godoy, Pelleas and Mendes all said they, their coaches or their parents were reprimanded by referees for speaking Spanish to players.
Pelleas recalled two instances when he received a yellow card for coaching in Spanish. In one, he said the referee said, “You can't use that language here because I don't understand what you're saying to the kids.” In the other, a similar sequence of events unfolded, but the referee apologized after the game and said he would ask for the card to be revoked, Pelleas said.
Diego Godoy said that on one occasion, every time he passed his coach during a game, the assistant referee, who he remembers as white, would call him a derogatory term for Spanish people, a term that many Hispanics find offensive and even homophobic.
Mr. Mendez recalled a game last year in which an umpire threatened to end the game by issuing age verification signs to parents who were encouraging their children in Spanish, leading Mr. Mendez to eject one of the parents.
Boyd said he's heard of instances where umpires have given cards to coaches who spoke to players in Spanish. In those cases, he gives the umpire “one last chance to get it right.” If it happens again, the umpire will be fired.
“'You can't teach your kids in Spanish' is completely false,” Boyd said. “I don't care what language they use. It's completely ridiculous. I don't want that.”
Holly Gundred, director of operations for the Utah State Umpires Association, acknowledged that this issue has come up before, and in one case, she and Boyd spoke with the people involved and heard both sides.
Gundred said he sent an official to the umpire's next game “not only to educate the umpire, but to educate the parents as well.”
Discrimination from players
Incidents like the “coco” comment Godoy experienced appear to be commonplace, with players, many of them in their early teens, using words and phrases that paint their Hispanic origins in a negative light.
Real Salt Lake player Brian Oviedo, whose family is Costa Rican and whose son plays for Rio Utah, said that during one game, an opposing player told his son to “go get some tacos.”
Pelleas said the opposing goalkeeper made a similar comment during a game late last month, and when the referee acknowledged it, he asked the official to stop the game.
Aside from comments directed at Hispanic people, Boyd said UYSA also seeks to curb the use of the N-word, which ends with an “a,” during a training session in March, noting that three players were ejected and subsequently suspended from a tournament last summer for using the term.
Ironically, in both his coaching and referee training, Boyd spells out words on the slides. He explains that the reason he does this, especially during referee training, is because FIFA requires him to spell out any words he hears or is unsure of.
“I had to remind them that they actually had to write it out,” Boyd said, “and if I refused to write it out in the instructions, that would put me in trouble.”
Boyd said he emailed instructions last fall to coaches and team managers of teams with players age 14 and older explaining how to handle allegations of racist remarks.
“That age group has largely eliminated that issue,” said Boyd, who lowered the age limit to players 12 and older this spring after finding that 13- and 14-year-olds were using the same language.
Reporting an issue
After any UYSA sanctioned match, umpires are required to submit a match report through an online portal. Coaches can report scores through the same portal, add match comments if required, and can also check a box to request a match review by UYSA.
Boyd said it's paramount that coaches use reporting tools to catch any potential racist comments.
“The biggest thing is communication,” Boyd said. “I need to know. Get informed.”
Trinh Anglin, the state's youth refereeing administrator, said referees are so focused on player safety, the game itself and how coaches are handling the situation that they don't pay much attention to what parents nearby are saying.
“I personally rarely hear the parents during the game because I'm not paying attention,” Anglin said. “If a parent says, 'That parent said something,' the umpire probably won't hear them unless they're really loud.”
Coaches acknowledge that they don't report all incidents to the UYSA. Diego Godoy didn't report it when his daughter was called “Coco” in October 2022. Pelaez also didn't report one instance where a referee told players not to give instructions in Spanish.
Mendez said if he and other coaches were to report every incident, “we would be reporting it every week,” but acknowledged it would be necessary to make a difference.
“I think we responded incorrectly by not reporting all scenarios and not following up,” Mendez said.
Michael Anglin, another youth umpire administrator in the state, appealed to parents and coaches to report any significant incidents to UYSA or the umpires association and not to worry about whether there were too many reports.
“If there's a significant issue, an issue that needs to be addressed, an issue that is meaningful, then by all means, you should report it,” Michael Anglin said.
Some coaches feel the UYSA doesn't communicate well enough when they report issues. Late last month, Pelaez was suspended for two games after an opposing goalkeeper asked him, “Do you want to go get some tacos?” Boyd didn't inform Pelaez of the disciplinary action.
Boyd said there wasn't enough time to respond in detail to all the coaches and umpires who reported incidents and wanted to be informed of any discipline handed down.
“But,” Boyd said, “I think it's a valid criticism and a valid concern. … We'll try to address it better.”
Gundred said he doesn't feel comfortable giving any details beyond simply whether anyone was disciplined and for how long.
Boyd also said one of the challenges in disciplining someone who makes racist comments is when an allegation is made and no one can back it up.
At a training session in March, Boyd outlined new procedures for umpires who are informed of suspected racist comments: If umpires hear racist comments, they have the power to take any disciplinary action they deem necessary, including ejection.
“If it is determined that racist language was used, there will be an automatic two-game suspension,” Boyd said. “If it's a parent who uses racist language, that parent will likely miss the remainder of the season. I don't want to see that parent on the sidelines.”
Diego Godoy said the procedure was not followed during last month's match and that he had filed a complaint with the UYSA.
“The umpire laughed in our faces, shouted in our faces, talked to my players, shouted at them,” Diego Godoy said.
What is the solution?
Oviedo highlighted the impact of hearing racist slurs on pre-adolescent children.
“If a young person starting out in their career is treated like that now, who wants to go pro later on in their career?” Oviedo said. “It could be traumatic for them.”
That's why coaches and parents of teams with minority players are seeking UYSA's help to make them feel heard: Too often, they say, their issues and complaints are ignored or not adequately investigated.
“I think it's going to take forever to solve because there's just not enough time or attention to the scenario,” Mendez said.
Oviedo said maybe more players should receive training on UYSA's zero tolerance policy on racist remarks.
UYSA says it is doing its best to reduce racist language and is educating all stakeholders on its efforts and how to help.
“For the most part, our coaching staff, players and parents are all great,” Boyd said, “90 percent of the games go off without a hitch, but 10 percent of the games, there are moments during the game where it gets bloody.”
“My plea to parents, umpires, coaches and players is to be at your best in those moments, not your worst. Unfortunately, sometimes you're going to be at your worst and we end up having to deal with that and try to fix it.”
Godoy considers herself a strong-willed player who can ignore comments about her performance on the field – she says they're part of the game – but she has particular issues with racism and discrimination.
“I think it's unfair that 12- and 13-year-olds have to endure these racist insults,” Godoy said. “What can they do? There's nothing they can do. If they do anything, it will be seen as disrespectful. It shouldn't be like that.”
Editor's Note • This story is available to Salt Lake City Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.