Everett G. Germain Jr., 75; Led Annandale Youth Sports Club

Everett Grant Germain Jr., 75, a lawyer who founded the Annandale Boys' & Girls' Club that became a powerhouse of youth soccer and other sports, died of cancer May 11 at his home in Falls Church.

Mr. Germain founded the youth club out of his home in 1959 and served as president for 47 years. The club later moved to Mr. Germain's law offices, offering football, baseball, basketball, wrestling and other sports.

In 1962, Mr. Germain started the soccer program in Annandale with four teams and 60 youngsters. Since there were no other programs or competition in the area, the teams played among themselves. Later, the search for competition spawned the travel soccer program, as it is now known, with trips to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Canada and Mexico.

The club grew to be the largest youth soccer program in the country at one time, capturing national titles and international trophies from North America and Europe and yielding numerous national and international professional athletes.

In the 1970s, Washington Post articles noted Mr. Germain's early influence on youth soccer in the region. In 1977, one article said Mr. Germain was "generally credited with making the Washington area one of the nation's strongest youth soccer centers."

Mr. Germain, a native of Washington, grew up immersed in sports. He was active in the Boys Club of Greater Washington and the Eastern Boys Club in Washington. He was a D.C. Golden Gloves champion boxer in his teens and a quarterback on youth football teams. He graduated from Eastern High School in Washington and from Virginia Tech in 1953 as an Air Force cadet, and he played quarterback on the football team. He served in the Air Force and left the reserves as a captain.

Mr. Germain received a law degree from the George Washington University Law School, where he was elected president of the Student Bar Association, in 1958. He partnered in a small law firm and soon after decided to enter private practice in Annandale.

Along with practicing patent law, Mr. Germain devoted countless hours to the youth club he founded. The club's Annandale Bulldogs football program became a revered competitor in the area, winning a number of titles.

Over the years, Mr. Germain's aggressive approach to sports attracted detractors. And at one time, police investigated the club's popular bingo games. But nothing came of the probe.

After moving to Falls Church in 1963, Mr. Germain was active in St. Anthony's Parish, where he was an usher. In 1965, he was an unsuccessful candidate for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. In later years, he was active in the Rotary Club.

In the 1970s, he formed and managed a professional soccer team in Washington that played in the American Soccer League; successfully lobbied for varsity status for boys' and girls' soccer programs in Fairfax County high schools; and founded and funded 10 women's college club programs in Virginia. He also started an apprenticeship program, modeled after the British system, that immersed players in professional-level soccer training while they maintained a college curriculum.

In 1978, he was invited to Seoul as an ambassador of soccer with the Washington Diplomats. He was an inaugural inductee in the Virginia-D.C. Soccer Hall of Fame in 2001.

Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Lois Germain of Falls Church; six children, Kip Germain of McLean, Kevin Germain and Betsy Cary of Bristow, Julie Thompson of Dumfries, Greg Germain of Chantilly and Rusty Germain of Falls Church; and 17 grandchildren.