IT BEGAN WITH VALLEY SOCCER MOMS.

Byline: Steve Carney Staff Writer

They opened a new era for soccer, these pioneering females in a male-dominated sport. Not bad for a bunch of 8-year-olds.

It was 1969, and the girls tearing up and down the fields of Granada Hills didn't know it, but they were making history. The four squads became the first official girls' teams in the country when they joined the American Youth Soccer Organization that year.

``I loved to run. I loved passing. I loved scoring,'' said Jaymee Jusko, 38, of Long Beach, a player on one of those first Granada Hills teams. ``I knew I wanted to play and figured I'd be playing for a long time.

``My mom was eager to get the women's league started. She was very, very instrumental. Without her it would've taken another few years.''

Irene Jusko - the original soccer mom - had three sons and two daughters who ended up playing the sport.

``When the boys began to play at the park, the girls became interested,'' said Jusko, so she and several other mothers got together and organized teams from the 60 girls who signed up from Granada Hills and surrounding communities. The moms even made their uniforms - sort of colored ponchos, actually - by cutting head holes in 3-by-6 pieces of fabric.

They've come a long way. Now about 40 percent of the 650,000 kids playing AYSO soccer nationwide are girls, said the organization's national director, Dick Wilson. And he said he expects the success of the U.S. women's pursuit of the World Cup will boost sign-ups among girls by 10 percent next season.

``Those women are the role models for our kids, and they give back to the sport,'' said AYSO national public affairs manager Lolly Keys. ``They are wonderful representatives, and we're really proud of them.

``Girls all over are now looking at this team and thinking, I can live out my dream.''

Keys said the season starts in September, ``so if they're not already signed up, it's getting late.'' Interested parents can call (800) USA-AYSO for information.

The Hawthorne-based AYSO began in Torrance in 1964, and it sponsors soccer teams nationwide for children from 4-1/2 to 18 years old.

Only five years after AYSO first admitted girls' teams, 20 percent of the players nationwide were girls, Wilson said. He said girls' teams formed in Torrance and the South Bay about the same time or shortly after the Granada Hills teams.

In the beginning, while some of the most skilled girls were able to compete on boys' teams, he said, ``the average athlete was reluctant to play on a boys' team. But the average girl blossomed when put on a girls' team.''

In fact, Keys said, three players on the U.S. team are AYSO veterans - Julie Foudy from Mission Viejo, Joy Fawcett from Huntington Beach and Brandi Chastain from San Jose.

``I think it's marvelous young women have the same opportunities boys do,'' Irene Jusko said. ``It's just wonderful to see the parks in the Valley - well, all over the city - just teeming with children. I think it's really, really exciting.''

She said the girls learn important lessons on the soccer field that they should carry to their careers and everyday lives, such as teamwork, and winning and losing graciously.

In the beginning, though, just learning the rules of the game was hard enough. Players often abandoned their positions and simply swarmed the ball during games, said Mario Machado, the Granada Hills resident, CBS broadcaster and former player who kicked off the soccer craze in that area.

He began teaching the game to interested boys at his church, St. John the Baptist De La Salle. Interest grew, the games moved to Petit Park, and interest grew yet more.

``It was a grass-roots program,'' Machado said. ``The girls wanted to play, and we said, we'll teach you how to play.''

Jaymee Jusko, who now works as a project manager for a telecommunications company, loved the game as soon as she started playing. But she had to give it up when she went to Kennedy High School, which didn't have girls' soccer. Instead she played volleyball and basketball, and earned a scholarship to Pepperdine.

Now girls who play soccer have those same opportunities - to parlay their skills into a college education, with soccer scholarships available at universities nationwide.

The 8-year-old girls venturing onto soccer fields today have wide-open futures compared to what Jaymee Jusko faced 30 years ago.

She imagines what her foreshortened soccer career could have been if she had been born a few years later, when girls could play in high school and college and on the national team. She dreamed it might have been her playing on the Rose Bowl field Saturday.

``Oh my God. Can you imagine?'' she said. ``That would be awesome. I wish the knees were good enough - too many slide tackles.''

But she lauded the achievements of the U.S. women.

``I just salute them,'' she said. ``They've set a great example for the nation and the whole world.''

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Photo: (color) Irene Jusko of Granada Hills, right, holds a photo of her daughter, Jaymee, left, as a member of one of the nation's first girls' soccer teams, while Jaymee holds tickets to the Women's World Cup final.

Gus Ruelas/Daily News