Martín Steinhaus Adding Coaching Depth to Kiahuna Club's Futsal Program in Kauai

By Tim Sheldon

KAUAI, Hawaii (3-8-10) – Martín Steinhaus grew up playing Futsal in Brazil and is now a Kauai resident and major supporter of the youth and adult Futsal programs at the Kiahuna Swim & Tennis Club.

Steinhaus plays Futsal regularly at the club, and his six-year-old son is a mainstay of the Kiahuna youth Futsal program.

"Jorge has a good program going on here," Steinhaus said. "Futsal is a great tool to develop soccer skills in the young players. It's definitely a benefit for whoever wants to play soccer."

Steinhaus, who works with Hawaii's social services department,  plans to continue playing Futsal at the club and help with the youth Futsal training as much as he can, :and "eventually help develop a league for the young kids. The kids love it."

Steinhaus began playing Futsal when he was 10 years old  in Brazil.

"It was a smaller court and much heavier ball," he recalled. "Today's game is much easier, to tell the truth. There's more space, and the ball is not as hard. To be a goalie in the game we played in Brazil, with the smaller spaces and harder ball, you would have to be crazy. The ball would come at you like a rock. Nowadays the ball is a little bouncier, the field is larger, and the ball flows better."

Steinhaus is from Porto Alegre, the capital of the southernmost state in Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul. "It would have a rainy, cold season, and that's when we would go indoors and play Futsal. I remember playing in school gyms, church gyms, YMCA's. When there was a gym available, my friends and I would be there kicking the ball."

Steinhaus did not get into a Futsal league until he was 17.

"The approach to soccer in Brazil is much different. Kids play freely and don't get coached until they turn 12 or 13. That can be highly beneficial to them, because they can develop their skills without anyone telling them to get rid of the ball. By the time they get coaching as teenagers, they already know how to pass, dribble, shoot. You just have to discipline them and teach them some tactics. You already have a player there."

Steinhaus bypassed professional Futsal in Brazil and accepted a scholarship to Dominican College in the San Francisco Bay Area and received his degree in 1997. From there he went on to coach soccer in high school and junior college. He helped JoJo Saunders with his soccer camp in Squaw Valley, Calif., and met Christian Marston, who talked him into helping out with a soccer camp in Kauai.

"Because of soccer, I moved to the U.S., and because of soccer I moved to Hawaii. The minute I stepped out of the plane, it looked just like Brazil."

A few months later, he met and married his wife and became a permanent resident of Kauai.

In Kauai, there was "no such luxury" of earning a living coaching soccer, so Steinhaus used his degree from Dominican College to gain the post with state social services. That was about 10 years ago.

Steinhaus played outdoor soccer in Kauai until he met Jorge Bordt in January, 2009.

"Jorge told me what he was planning to do, and I said, 'hey, I know that man is going to help everybody involved. That's good'. And I started helping him as much as possible."

Steinhaus now uses his extensive experience in Futsal to help out Bordt whenever possible, particularly with the younger players. "We became members of Jorge's club, and my kid goes there religiously. My kid has improved so much because of Futsal. All kids, if they have a passion for the game and move to Futsal, when you move them back to the soccer field, they feel so much space and time, they do whatever they want, basically."

Steinhaus said the Kiahuna Club's program to attract visitors to Kauai to play Futsal has been bearing fruit.

"Last week a Canadian visitor joined us. We have had Italians there and a couple of Brazilians. We've had one Mexican, and a couple of Colombians, too..It's quite an international flavor. These people have Futsal in their countries and know what it's all about. They just come and join us."

The same is true for kids visiting with their parents.

"Sometimes the parents are on vacation there and see the kids play Futsal, and they send their kids in there, and we welcome them. It's great.".

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