SOCCER TEAM READY TO RATTLE VS. L.A. GALAXY TONIGHT'S GAME A DREAM FOR FOUNDER.

Byline: GIDEON RUBIN

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- In many ways, tonight's franchise debut of the Lancaster Rattlers is the culmination of founder and general manager Gerald Brunner's dream.

But to Brunner, the 7:30 p.m. exhibition soccer game against the L.A. Galaxy at Antelope Valley College is only the start.

Brunner, a 52-year-old commission salesman with no prior sports management experience, is a self-described dreamer who these days is dreaming big.

Less than a year after landing the Antelope Valley's first Premier Development League soccer franchise, he has made the Rattlers the centerpiece of a brazenly ambitious five-year plan to bring Lancaster a professional United Soccer League team.

Also in the works is a women's PDL team.

He's counting on passionate area soccer fans to support his franchise. He also hopes there will be enough enthusiasm to pressure the city of Lancaster to build the franchise a stadium.

"I was taught a long time ago in order to accomplish any kind of goal or dream, you have to have little ones, little peaks," he said. "This is our first peak."

Brunner's plans are based on a European soccer model he calls a "pyramid of development." He said the Rattlers have already established the framework for the pyramid, organizing an in-house recreation league, club teams and a Super 20 team -- ostensibly the Rattlers' farm team.

He said the pyramid model, if adopted nationally as some have suggested, could eventually supplant the draft.

"Sometimes I go at things half-baked, but I believe whatever your mind can believe, it can achieve," Brunner said.

Brunner's approach has nevertheless produced remarkable results.

He's formed a cross-promotion partnership with ChivasUSA, a Mexican club program that fields a Major League Soccer team. The Rattlers will play exhibition games against Chivas on June 5 and July 11.

The deal also includes plans for a Rattlers night at a Chivas home game at The Home Depot Center in Carson this summer.

The Rattlers will feature several high-profile talents, including former Littlerock High School scoring sensation Oscar Sandoval and former Palmdale High School star Jose Garay.

Sandoval, who plays at Div. I Sacramento State, and Garay, who plays at Div. III Kansas Wesleyan, will join the team later this spring when the semester ends.

The Rattlers open their PDL season April 28 against the Ventura County Fusion at Knight High School. They will play the remainder of their regular season home games at Palmdale High School, and the Chivas exhibition games at AVC.

Garay said the franchise has created a buzz on message boards, with soccer players across the nation intrigued by the Galaxy matchup.

"I think it's going to be great for all the soccer players in the Antelope Valley," Garay said. "Obviously, (Brunner's) determination is tremendous."

Lemuel Galvao, who coaches AVC's women's and Highland High School's boys' soccer teams, said he thinks the Rattlers will be a boon for the fast-growing sport.

"Letting kids know that there is a place to go beyond high school and college works to help the sport," Galvao said. "That's why I think it's important for the community to get behind it."

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Gerald Brunner is founder and general manager of the Lancaster Rattlers, the valley's first Premier Development League soccer franchise.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer