San Ramon Sports, located on Old Crow Canyon Road, has been around for 18 years, specializing in baseball with their batting cages and soccer with their two indoor fields.
These soccer fields are complete with scoreboards and referees to keep the games civilized.

According to John Penna, owner and operator of San Ramon Sports, they provide a safe environment to play indoor soccer. Players can put together their own teams with their friends/coworkers, they can use the classified ads available on the company’s website to form teams, or San Ramon Sports will assign players to teams.

The seasons last from November through April, and there are 80 adult leagues, which consist of roughly 1,000 players.

The leagues provided allow opportunity for all ages and abilities to play. Their competitive leagues are the 20- to 30-year-old male league that consists of current or recent college students, mainly from CSU East Bay, St. Mary’s, and local junior colleges and their 20- to 30-year-old co-ed league.

There are also players that are considered professional that like to play in a safe and fun environment such as this one, however they are put into their own league for safety and competitive reasons.

What stands out about this league is how many players that are over 40. According to Penna, there are some players that have been playing soccer at San Ramon Sports for the full 18 years that it has been open, including one who is in his sixties.

On a Thursday night earlier this month, was the over 40-year-olds night where players went out on the field to de-stress after a hard day at work while a few family members and friends cheered them on.

Matthew Jessick, manager and player of the WorkDaze team, was standing on the sidelines cheering on his teammates/coworkers because he injured himself the week before.

“We are a company sponsor team, just some guys that like to play soccer,” said Jessick. “The company that we work at, Work Day, supports us, as they do a couple other sports. We have a couple soccer teams, a couple softball teams and a couple basketball teams.”

“It gets us all a chance to get out here, work out some bugs, and have some fun. Unfortunately, you see that three of us are out, hurt,” continued Jessick, pointing to himself and two others sitting on the bench, one with crutches. “He got a bad hamstring last game, he actually got hurt at work, and I threw my back out when I got taken out by a goalie.”

Penna said that safety is their number one priority, which is why they provide the referees to enforce all of the rules. Their most strict rule, according to Penna, is any player will be ejected and not allowed to return to the league if they throw a punch at somebody.

“The sessions go year round so we come out every week,” continued Jessick. “Sometimes we have six guys out here, sometimes we have 12, you never know who’s going to show up because everyone’s busy with work. We usually have a good solid core of guys that show up, unless they are hurt. Most of them are always busy at work or at home, so they cannot always make it.”

San Ramon Sports also offers leagues for the younger generation. George Whitney, who is in charge of the Lil’ Kickers program, said that it is for players from the ages of 18 months through 10.

“It’s a great way for them to grow and learn valuable lessons about sports and sportsmanship,” said Whitney. San Ramon Sports started the Lil’ Kickers program five years ago, and has been hiring high school and college students to help teach the players how to play and, most importantly, have fun.”

This summer San Ramon Sports will be expanding to Seven Hills School in Walnut Creek.