Sergio Portesan of Shoreview, a founder of the USA Cup international youth soccer tournament held in Blaine, grew up in war-torn Italy playing soccer with a ball made of rags.
When he first coached kids in Shoreview, soccer balls were plentiful, but playing fields were not. Many of his players worked soccer in around Little League schedules.
But Portesan wasn't deterred. In 1969, he started with one youth team at Shoreview's St. Odilia Catholic Church; it grew into the North Suburban Soccer Association with more than 30 teams.
Portesan, 77, who had suffered from several illnesses, including heart disease and diabetes, died Feb. 25 in St. Paul after surgery for a broken hip.
"When you brought up soccer 40 years ago, people would look at you like you were from the moon," Portesan said in a 1992 Star Tribune article.
He served as president of the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association from 1977 to 1991, and in the mid-1980s helped found the Blaine tournament, the largest of its kind in North and South America.
During World War II, he played a lot of soccer with a homemade ball. For several years, his school was closed because of heavy fighting, and the family home was bombed, said his wife of 55 years, Marian, of Shoreview.
In 1952, the machinist and tool-and-diemaker attended Hamline University in St. Paul under a program sponsored by the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. He returned to Italy for a short while but moved to the Twin Cities, having met his wife-to-be at Hamline.
Marian Portesan has also been a leader in Minnesota soccer.
"He was so charismatic, and he had a lot of enthusiasm for soccer," she said. "He attended soccer events all over the state."
When the Portesans voluntarily led the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association, they also did the hands-on work, said Paul Erickson, executive director of the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission. "He ran Minnesota youth soccer like it was his family," said Erickson.
Portesan was registering teams at the Blaine tournament in 2006, helped as usual by his many family members.
He would say, "This is a way for my beloved sport to get standing in America among other sports," said Erickson, who with Portesan, Kris Bjerkness, the chief administrative officer at the National Sports Center in Blaine, and others founded the USA Cup.
Bjerkness said Portesan had a vision for the future of soccer in America. "He loved the game, and understood where it could go eventually," Bjerkness said.
Many of the good memories about his youth in Italy revolved around his family, most of whom immigrated to Minnesota, and soccer, said Erickson.
"He wanted soccer in every town and hamlet in Minnesota," said Erickson.
Portesan retired as a supervisor at the former Guidant Corp. in 1993.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sons, John of Seattle, Mike of Cottage Grove and Jim of Andover; three daughters, Gina Kowalski of Vadnais Heights, Mary Thiel of St. Paul and Julie Stagg of Lino Lakes; three sisters, Silla Tava of Brasilia, Brazil, Nives Zampa of Inver Grove Heights and Germana Nijim of Cedar Falls, Iowa; a brother, Luigi of Minneapolis, and 14 grandchildren.
Services have been held.
