SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - Everyone in the Santa Clarita Valley’s booming soccer community knows Carlos Marroquin. He has been a pied piper of sorts for the sport since moving into town 15 years ago, working with youth teams and clubs in the area and running a soccer store.

But this was something else.

Marroquin, a former professional player, long wanted to bring an elite women’s team to town. How he made his dream happen -- and how he quickly positioned the Santa Clarita Blue Heat as a community asset -- provides a perfect primer on how to make minor-league sports a success.

Marroquin is basking in that success this weekend as the Blue Heat play host to the championship final four in the W-League, a national amateur/semipro women’s league run by the Tampa, Fla.-based United Soccer Leagues. It’s the second tier of women’s soccer in America, just below Women’s Professional Soccer, with a mix of talented veterans, former (and current) pros, college players and high schoolers with promise.

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