Willie Sims (born January 18, 1984) is a Guatemalan

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who last played for

Los Angeles Misioneros LA Laguna FC was an American soccer team based in the Los Angeles area, United States. Founded in 2010, the team played in the Premier Development League (PDL) (now USL League Two), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Southw ...

in the

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

Career

College

Sims grew up in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

area of Los Angeles, California, attended

Reseda High School Reseda Charter High School (RCHS), established in 1955, is located in the Reseda section of the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California, United States. In the fall of 2018, the school became a charter and is now Reseda Charter Hig ...

, and then played

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

from 2003 to 2005, redshirting in 2002. Sims was named the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

Co-Offensive Player of the Year in the 2003 and 2004 seasons, and

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First-Team All-American in the 2005 season. CSUN made the

NCAA Men's Soccer Championship The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, sometimes known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I men's national champ ...

tournament all three seasons that Sims was on the team.

Professional

Sims was drafted in the second round (23rd overall) of the

2006 MLS SuperDraft The 2006 MLS SuperDraft, held in Philadelphia on January 20, 2006, was the seventh incarnation of the annual Major League Soccer SuperDraft. The first selection originally belonged to Chivas USA, but they traded it to the MetroStars for the fift ...

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

. He saw little time in his rookie season, but showed much potential for the Revolution, and was praised by Revolution head coach

Steve Nicol ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

. Sims led the Revolution's reserve squad in the 2006 season with 3 goals in ten games (the entire team only scored 9). His best performance for New England came in a pre-season exhibition match against Bermuda U-21 team, in which he scored 3 goals. He also had an

assist Assist or ASSIST may refer to: Sports Several sports have a statistic known as an "assist", generally relating to action by a player leading to a score by another player on their team: *Assist (basketball), a pass by a player that facilitates a ba ...

in a mid-season exhibition against Scottish giants

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. During his second year, Sims only saw regular time for the reserves, so the New England management decided to loan out Sims to the

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system b ...

side

Puerto Rico Islanders Puerto, a Spanish word meaning ''seaport'', may refer to: Places *El Puerto de Santa María, Andalusia, Spain *Puerto, a seaport town in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines *Puerto Colombia, Colombia *Puerto Cumarebo, Venezuela *Puerto Galera, Orient ...

to gain more experience and minutes. Sims made ten appearances for the Islanders, and became the first Islanders player ever to score a hattrick (against

Miami FC The Miami FC is an American professional soccer team based in Miami, Florida that competes in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. The club began play in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 2016 se ...

on August 19). Sims returned to New England for the final few months of the season, but was waived at the end of 2007. He subsequently signed for PDL side

San Fernando Valley Quakes San Fernando Valley Quakes was an American association football, soccer team based in Calabasas, California, Calabasas, California, United States. Founded in 2006, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of th ...

, where his brother

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has also played, and played one game for them against

Ventura County Fusion Ventura County Fusion is an American soccer team based in Ventura, California, United States. Founded in 2006, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The team plays its home games in the stadium on the ...

, before signing with

of the

in June 2008. Sims spent the rest of the 2008 USL season with

in the

, playing nine games during the final couple of months of the year, before and then travelled home to Guatemala when he signed with Suchitepéquez of the

Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala ''Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala'' (National Football League of Guatemala), formerly known as Liga Mayor "A" (Major League "A") is a professional football division in Guatemala, the highest one in the country. It is sanctioned by the ''Feder ...

in October 2008. Sims was released by Suchitepéquez in early 2009 and, having been unable to secure a professional contract elsewhere, signed for

Hollywood United Hitmen Hollywood United Hitmen was an American soccer team based in Los Angeles. The team was founded in 2009 and played in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and the USL Premier Development League (PDL). The team played its home games in Cougar ...

in the

in June. He made his debut, and scored his first goal for the team, on June 4, 2009, in a 3-2 loss to

. After starting the 2010 PDL season with the Hitmen he was released during the campaign, and switched to their league rivals

. After spending a year out of the game in 2011, Sims signed to play for the

in the

in 2012.

International

Sims's name is often discussed as a potential player for the Guatemalan National Team. Sims was born in Guatemala, and his father

played for the national team and in the Guatemalan League. Before the 2006 MLS SuperDraft, Sims said he had no interest in playing for ''La Azul y Blanco'', and that he was even considering becoming an American citizen, in hopes of one day playing for the U.S. National Team. By November 2006, Sims had changed his position, telling

La Opinión ''La Opinión'' is a Spanish-language daily newspaper and website based in Los Angeles, California. It is the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States and the second-most read newspaper in Los Angeles (after ''The Los Angeles Time ...

that he would be interested in playing for Guatemala in the

UNCAF Nations Cup 2007 The 2007 UNCAF Nations Cup was the ninth version of the biennial football tournament for the CONCACAF national teams of Central America. The event took place in San Salvador, El Salvador from February 8 to February 18, 2007. It was the second t ...

, and nearly joining the squad for a friendly against Venezuela on November 15.
Sims finally made his debut for the Guatemalan national team on 17 November 2007 in a game against Honduras, coming off the bench in the 85th minute. It was his first appearance at any national level, having been ignored by Guatemala at youth level in spite of his college performances. He would have also been in the Guatemalan Olympic team, but missed out because of the U23 rule that applies for that competition. As of January 2010, he did not add any caps to his tally.

References

External links

* *
MLSnet.com player bio

Miami FC player profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Willie 1984 births Living people Sportspeople from Guatemala City Guatemalan emigrants to the United States Guatemalan footballers Guatemala men's international footballers Cal State Northridge Matadors men's soccer players New England Revolution players Puerto Rico Islanders players San Fernando Valley Quakes players Miami FC (2006) players C.D. Suchitepéquez players Hollywood United Hitmen players Ventura County Fusion players LA Laguna FC players Expatriate soccer players in the United States Major League Soccer players USL First Division players USL League Two players New England Revolution draft picks Men's association football forwards All-American men's college soccer players