SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. - To Luke Roberts, the distance between art and soccer is negligible.

``One of my mentor coaches taught me that teams need to be made of artists and soldiers - it can't just be one or the other,'' Roberts said. ``That's why I try to focus on developing those creative ideas in players - angles, options on the field so they can make things happen.''

Growing up in Virginia, art and soccer defined Roberts' life.

He was a goaltender at Virginia Commonwealth University where he majored in fine arts. Less than a semester away from earning his bachelor's degree, Roberts was convinced to join some friends who were enraptured with the idea of hiking through Costa Rica.

The group hitchhiked from Virginia to Florida where they caught a plane to Costa Rica. There, Roberts began playing recreationally with locals before catching the eye of a local professional team, which signed him as a backup goalie.

``It was like paradise,'' Roberts said. ``It was an incredible living experience. The culture and the people were awesome. I learned a lot about myself and it strengthened my relationship with Jesus Christ.''

When his year-and-a-half there was done, he moved to Oregon, became a soccer coach and never went back to school.

Twelve years later, he's enrolled this fall at the University of Arizona, hoping to complete his fine arts degree.

``I'm real excited to have designated space and time to do art,'' Roberts said. ``My specialty now is painting people, people I admire, musicians who've really inspired me with their music and athletes I really enjoy to watch.''

In 2000, when coaching a junior varsity soccer team in Oregon, Roberts first began mixing art and soccer.

``One of the things I did to inspire my players was a player of the match award,'' Roberts said. ``All I was doing at the time was coaching soccer, so leading up to the game, the assistant coaches would choose the player of the game and I'd make a quick drawing of the player, add some watercolors, colored pencil or pastel, make a color copy of it, throw it in a frame. It was an original piece of artwork for that guy. The kids started competing and really playing hard for it.''

Roberts continued to paint soccer players, be they Team USA or international stars, or high school players, including one of Chad Barrett, now a star for the Chicago Fire of the Major League Soccer, who in 2003 played for Roberts at Southridge High School in Beaverton, Ore.

The local newspaper ran a photograph of Barrett sliding on his knees in exultation over a 4-3 Southridge win and Roberts converted the image into an oil painting that hangs in the living room of his home in Sierra Vista.

Roberts also is fond of painting jazz and reggae musicians as well as renditions of the Virgin Mary. Raised a Lutheran, Roberts was converted to Catholicism by his experiences in Costa Rica and his wife.

Roberts first arrived in Sierra Vista three years ago to visit his sister-in-law. Drawn to the weather and the burgeoning local soccer scene, Roberts took a job as club director for the Sierra Vista Soccer Club. He did that for a year before branching out on an entrepreneurial endeavor.

He opened up a Futsal Academy on the northwesternmost court at the Kings' Court Tennis Club, and heading into its third year, the Academy is thriving with as many 72 players expected when the season starts in September.

Futsal is much like soccer, except that it has five members per team, the ball and the goal are smaller and the ball does not bounce.

Roberts also sees it as another subject for his brush.

``The futsal court itself is like an action photography studio,'' he said. ``We've got lots of action shots and tons of video that have come out to be great images. I definitely want to paint it.''

Roberts often does soccer paintings, like the one of the Eugene squad, on commission. He said he usually charges around $400-$500. His biggest payout to date was the $1,700 he got in exchange for a down payment on his pickup which now has Sierra Vista Futsal Academy emblazoned along the driver's side door.

In the meantime, soccer, futsal, painting and family define his life.

``Teaching kids how to see the game through the eyes of an artist is something I do that other coaches don't do,'' he said. ``I just hope to keep getting better and keep developing skills as a painter the way I have as a soccer player.''