Monday, June 6, 2011, 11:10 am
A career reborn
In back-to-back years in the 1990s, the Bernkastel Festhaus club dominated Port Orange youth soccer (or at least one age level of it).
Aside from having the best kit sponsor (and by kit I mean a T-shirt), we had the best coaching and talent around. At least from what I can remember. I do clearly recall receiving two gold-painted trophies declaring us champions. I also remember one magical afternoon I was better than Maradona. I don’t remember it well, just that my parents were out of town and that I scored the only two goals of the match.
I don’t know how many more seasons I played — maybe two — before jumping to American football, where I was deemed an offensive lineman. But a few years ago — as I got more and more into watching the beautiful game again — I bought some boots (or cleats, as you colonists would say) and joined a summer league in St. Augustine. I didn’t play well, but my one shining moment came in a game against Flagler College’s summer squad. One of the players was dribbling toward the goal, and I came in with a slide tackle and got the ball. I still got a yellow card (slide tackles weren’t allowed int that league), and that more than made up for my goalless season.
Since then I have been playing off and on at various fields. My buddy Mike McCall and I have recently started going head-to-head with penalty shootouts, and I’ve had a few shots to be proud of.
The next goal is to score one again in league play, even if it’s a league for middle-aged guys in Gainesville who haven’t played since their elementary school days — in my case, the glory years.
