Soccer Field Sideline Beats City Hall Office for Aguilar

For Cesar Aguilar, it doesn’t get much better than Saturday morning during soccer season.

As coordinator for adult and youth soccer programs for the city of Rogers, he spends most of the week working behind the scenes, fulfilling administrative duties like ordering uniforms and scheduling games.

But, on Saturdays at about 10 a.m. — when the parking lot and bleachers are packed at the Rogers Activity Center, and the teams are on the field — his hard work pays off.

It’s what drives him to succeed.

“You see all those kids with big smiles, running around. That’s the most beauty, I think, in my job,” Aguilar said. “I like what I’m doing. There’s nothing like standing on the sidelines, watching the kids play.”

Since Aguilar took over the program eight years ago, the youth participation has increased each season and has almost doubled. In 2007, there were 880 children in the program, and now there are 1,520, as of the close of the spring season on May 16, he said.

When Aguilar was a member of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class of 2002, he expressed his passion for soccer, but was only able to pursue it in his spare time.

He worked at City Hall as director of the Rogers Community Support Center, where he was tasked with promoting multicultural awareness in the city. He held that position for three years, but on weeknights and Saturdays, he was often on the field.

As coach of the Oakdale Junior High School (later the Oakdale Middle School) team, he led the team to five consecutive Arkansas Soccer Association Scholastic State Cup championships, from 2004 to 2009.

Before that, in 1993, he co-founded the Rogers adult soccer league, which now boasts 44 teams in four different divisions, he said.

Aguilar is thrilled to now devote his efforts full time to soccer. His formal title is assistant program director of the recreation department for the city of Rogers.

A good portion of the growth in youth soccer participation rates has been at the middle-school level. It is a tendency for participation in activities like soccer to drop off in middle school, and that’s when the kids need it most, Aguilar said.

He made it his mission to grow the program for the sixth–eighth-grade age group. In 2007 there were two boys’ teams, with 35 total players, and now there are 240 male youth players. There was one girls’ team with 15 players, and now there are 200 female youth players, he said.

Aguilar believes it’s important to offer quality recreational activities to young people, to help thwart attraction to some negative activities and behaviors to which that age group is vulnerable. 

“At that age, teenagers should be occupied. If we offer what they want, they’re occupied. They don’t do anything crazy,” Aguilar said. “Being on the team, you are playing for your school, you’ve got your [team] colors, your teammates, that makes kids want to be a part of it.”

In that sense, Aguilar, 46, considers his work a service to the community, and it’s one of his proudest accomplishments — second only to his family.

Shortly after being featured in Forty Under 40, Aguilar married wife Karla. The couple has two children, Sofia, 8, and Diego, 12, who both attend the Arkansas Arts Academy and also play soccer. He also has a 24-year-old son, Cesar Jr. 

Aguilar, an El Salvador native, is a member of LULAC, the League of Latin American Citizens. However, he has lived in Northwest Arkansas since 1985.

“This is my home. I love it,” he said. To Aguilar, the region offers unparalleled quality of life.

He enjoys having access to some amenities you might find in a larger city, but “it is still kind of a small town,” he said. “I love that. You can go camping, you’ve got the nature here — everything.”

Aguilar hopes that his work in some measure adds to the community and even helps make it a safer place.

“That’s one of the things that make me proud of the work I’m doing to try to make a difference,” he said.