Coach Bios
Ariel Gazzera
Ariel Gazzera was born in Cordoba, Argentina, the 2nd largest city in the country,
and started playing soccer when he was 4 years old. He dreamed of playing professional
soccer and created his own training field in his yard with goals made of tree branches.
Since those early years, Ariel led his high school team in local and multi-county
tournaments including winning the Departamento Colon county tournament & the
State tournament at age sixteen. One year later, Ariel was promoted to play in the
first division professional soccer team in Cordoba, Villa Allende Sport Club (VASC).
He scored 35 goals in 85 appearances and at age eighteen scored the only two goals
in the State Tournament championship game to win the match. At age nineteen, Ariel
was drafted and picked by Club Atletico River Plate (CARP) in Buenos Aires to join
their minor league team.
Ariel moved to Los Angeles, CA two years later to start a life in the United States
and has continued playing on numerous local teams for the past seven years and coaches
children as the co-founder of GOLS Soccer, Inc. and at schools such as The Country
School.
Marta Ferro
Marta Ferro is the President and co-founder of GOLS Soccer, Inc. and of mFerro consulting,
Inc., a business consulting company with a focus on for-profit and non-profit business
consulting as well as the China marketplace. During her career she has worked at
Goldman, Sachs and Co. and has founded several companies including a popular spa
in Los Angeles and a marketing company in China. She earned her MBA from UCLA Anderson
School of Management and her undergraduate degree from Vassar College, majoring
in Psychology and Education. She has been extremely active in the Los Angeles community
for over ten years including Chairing the Step Up Women’s Network and C5 Youth Foundation
boards and serving as a board member on C4C at UCLA Anderson, The Eisner Pediatric
& Family Medical Center, Global Children’s Organization, The Dubnoff Center
and the Fulfillment Fund’s Financial Advisory Council.
Marta began her love affair with soccer at the age of five and has continued playing
for over 30 years. She was recruited into WAGS in the Washington, DC area at the
age of eight, and captained both her varsity high school and college teams. Marta
coached kids of all ages at the Martha’s Vineyard Soccer School with MLS player
Charlie Greene and assistant coached her high school team, winning the league championship,
after graduating from college. She continues to hold scoring, assist and points
records at Vassar College and remains an offensive threat on her current teams.
In the past couple of years, she has been playing four times a week for both the
DIVAS USA women’s team and the Action News Team in the Manhattan Beach co-ed league.
Her soccer family includes Ariel, Caroline, Vin, Christina and Elizabeth, and she
is thrilled to encourage young children and players of all ages to learn the game
of soccer as well as advocates fostering defined skill building for the more experienced
players. Marta strongly believes that playing soccer throughout ones childhood and
life enhances teamwork and leadership skills, as well as one’s self-confidence,
self-esteem and the work ethic and drive required to succeed in school, work and
life.
Elizabeth Norwood
Elizabeth is living her dream as a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Kindergarten
teacher at the Rosa Parks Learning Center. She is a native of Los Angeles who graduated
with honors from California State University, Northridge.
Elizabeth started playing soccer when she was six years old with AYSO in Woodland
Hills and was invited to join the all-star team when she was eight years old. She
also played with tournament teams and at the age of ten began playing with club
soccer teams where she was the top striker forward. During Elizabeth’s first year
in high school she was one of four freshmen that made the Varsity team for El Camino
Real High School. Four years later, the team earned the State Championship capping
off her senior year. Elizabeth recently resurrected her passion for soccer when
she started to play with the DIVAS USA in the Griffith Park women’s soccer league.
She is an instrumental offensive and defensive player on the team and always has
a big grin on her face and hustle in her step on the field.
Christina Fujii
Christina is part of the Interior Design team at Johnson Fain, an urban planning,
architecture, and interiors firm in Los Angeles. She is also a Principal and co-founder
of Q & F Design, Inc., an architecture and interiors firm with focus on residential
and boutique hospitality projects. She earned her undergraduate degree from The
University of Notre Dame and later, her professional degree from The Fashion Institute
of Design and Merchandising.
Christina began playing soccer with AYSO in Irvine when she was 10 years old. She
was chosen for all-star and spring select teams where she was recruited to joining
a club team at age 12. As a forward for the Mission Viejo Elite Soccer Club, she
helped lead her team to four Coast Soccer League Championships as well as a California
State Championship. She was also instrumental in capturing three CIF titles for
her Varsity squad in high school. Christina’s hard work and dedication paid off
when she made the regional Olympic Development Program (ODP) as a high school freshmen.
In her senior year, she was privileged to coach a girls AYSO team of 10 and 11 year
olds. For the past several years Christina has been playing as the only women on
Celtic F.C. in the Griffith Park men’s soccer league and has recently joined Marta,
Caroline, Elizabeth and Vin on the DIVAS USA.
Caroline Chen
Caroline Chen was born and raised in North Carolina and started playing soccer at
a young age playing pick up with the boys at her school and church. She wasn't on
her first official soccer team until 7th grade when she played center midfield and
was one of the leading scorers for her team. In high school, she joined her first
select club team with The Triangle Futbol Club League (formerly called Carolina
United) and traveled throughout the southern United States for tournaments and matches.
As a member of her high school varsity team for Leesville Road High School, she
played a variety of positions ranging from forward to defense. Recently, Caroline
has been playing center midfield for the Divas USA women's team and the Action News
Team, part of the co-ed Manhattan Beach league. She is an instrumental offensive
and defensive player on both squads.
After graduating from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with a BS. in
chemistry, Caroline joined the Teach For America movement and was placed in the
Los Angeles area as a corp member in 2005. She is now in her fourth year of teaching
eighth grade math and science at John Liechty Middle School in downtown Los Angeles.
Vinchenza “Vin” Harley
Vin was born and raised in Visalia, CA and is currently working as a Registered
Nurse (RN) at Children's Hospital Los Angeles in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
She has lived in the Los Angeles area for the past four years and earned her nursing
degree from Glendale Community College and her Bachelors of Science in Biology from
The University of California, Davis.
Raised in an extremely athletic family, Vin started playing soccer at the age of
four in AYSO and played all-stars since age nine. She began playing on a club team
(CYSA) at age 12 and played high school varsity soccer all four years, including
as the captain and MVP for the last three years. She also played on the All-Valley
club team for the last two years of high school. As she entered college, Vin played
on UC Davis's first-ever women's club team for two years and captained the team
in her second year. As an adult, Vin has played on the Action News Team (co-ed)
for almost three years and the DIVAS USA women’s team for over two years. She is
one of the most skilled, fit, competitive and sweetest players on the teams and
plays a pivotal role in the middle of the field with incredibly strong defensive
and offensive skill sets and distribution abilities. Vin is excited to combine her
love of soccer with her love of working with and helping children.
Jorge “George” Sandoval
George was born in Ciudad Guzman Jalisco, Mexico and he started playing soccer when
he was eight years old in his home town streets. Immigrating to the Unites States
at the age of 14, he has lived in the San Fernando Valley for 20 years. At the age
of 15, George went back to his hometown to play in the City Tournament and was noticed
by a scout from Club Atlas De Guadalajara. He was asked to join the minor league
team of the Club and from there went on to play for Club Deportivo Mazorqueros,
a third division professional team. When he came back to the United States four
months later, George continued to study and was eventually accepted onto the Chivas
USA minor league team and subsequently Club Hollywood Way in the semi-professional
Super Metro league. On this team, George helped to represent Los Angeles in the
County Tournament where they finished in third place. To this day, George still
plays soccer actively on a Los Angeles semi-professional team as well as practices
with other players helping them prepare for their competitive games. His goal is
to coach a serious club team and to help young, promising soccer players achieve
their dreams of becoming professional players in the future.