What this project is about.
San Carlos United's 2006 Girls started at Bronze, the lowest level in NorCal Premier Soccer's system, and spent ten years climbing every rung — Silver, Gold, State Premier, the NPL — before winning the Spring 2023 ECNL-RL championship. For three straight years they fell just short of the NPL and broke through on the fourth, winning the NPL West and a league title — the first team in the club's roughly fifty-year history to reach that level. Ten of the original thirty players who tried out as children were still on the team in their final season. Coach Nick Dye started the age group, shaped it from around sixty players to thirty, and coached them for a decade. The club is a community club in the literal sense: an arrangement with the city keeps the roster overwhelmingly local — about 90% of players are from San Carlos itself.
How the work was made.
Tell a ten-year story in one evening, and let the people inside it carry the argument. The interviews came first — Nick Dye, then the players — built from a written question plan (19 questions for Nick, 12 for the players, 6 for parents) designed as a conversation, not a script. The years the camera was not there exist in the film as the families kept them: the team's own photo archive, cut against the eighteen-year-olds under the lights, so the film feels like memory. A second interview, with NorCal's Director of Competitions Dan Chamberlain at the State Cup, was added as the film's middle chapter: he explains the merit-based promotion-and-relegation structure that made the climb possible, which turns one team's story into evidence for the league's whole pathway.
The making of it.
- Role
- Filmed and edited by Leomar Moring.
- Shoot
- Monday, April 15, 2024, 7:00–10:00 p.m., Highlands Park, San Carlos — interviews, then evening practice under the lights; every interviewee signed a media release before rolling.
- Additional interview
- Dan Chamberlain, June 2, 2024, at the State Cup.
- Interviewees
- Nick Dye (Technical Director; head coach of the 2006 and 2007 girls), the players, Dan Chamberlain.
- Archive
- Team photo archive supplied by the club/families, as documented in the Field Note.
On location.
One night had to hold a decade. Shooting interviews first, in the early part of the evening, protected the honest pass at each question — with teenage athletes you get one — and left the practice session to close the night. The edit's safeguarding judgement is visible in the published cut: a brief emotional beat is kept brief, with teammates in frame, rather than extended. Desiree Hankerson's reply to the final cut was one word: "Okey."
The films.
Community Spotlight: The Rise of San Carlos United
Community Spotlight: The Rise of San Carlos United (10:39). Published by NorCal Premier Soccer on September 3, 2024, with NorCal's own written feature on the team. Leo's unlisted copy, with the published-cut title, description, and chapters, is embedded above. Read the field note: From Bronze to Champions: Filming San Carlos United's Decade-Long Climb
Where the work goes.
Purpose (verified): the film shows member clubs what NorCal's pathway looks like when it works, gives San Carlos United a permanent record of a once-in-a-generation team, and is forwardable — a coach or director can send it to a board member, a city partner, or a new family.
