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 Age: 39.
Hometown: Whitehouse, Ohio (near Toledo). Now lives in Madison. Occupation: Graphic designer (he designed the logo on the Fightin' Orange Whips jersey). Also works at Trader Joe's. Current teams: Fightin' Orange Whips (coed), Nano Jets (men) and Weezers (over-40 men). How long have you been playing? Played youth soccer until junior high school, then didn't play again until 10 years ago. Favorite rec soccer moment: "There's a certain team and an individual that are like our arch-nemesis. We had a game with them about two years ago and he was playing goalie and the horn went off on the other field and he pulled up, thought the game was over, and we scored a goal with like 5 seconds to go. And he complained profusely about it. That was our greatest rec league victory ever, I think." Boots: "I've got the old-school adidas Sambas." Who's the best player you've played with or against? "I'll tell you right now, the best player I've ever played with is this girl Jen (Grandone) that's on our team right now. This is the first session she's played with us, she's a friend of another woman who's on our team this session, and she's just a great player. She's got a lot of skills. Completely controls the midfield and has flat-out humiliated men players on half the coed teams we've played so far. (A referee) asked if she played college soccer, and she hasn't, but she's that good." Why do you play? "I like sports where I can get a workout and not feel like I'm getting a workout. And it's a really good group of people that I play with — I've been playing with them for eight years now. Over the last couple of years, it's gotten ratcheted up as I've started playing on some more teams, but I really enjoy it. It's a nice outlet, plus getting a good workout." Do you have an on-field pet peeve? "Over-aggressive players that then whine when there's any aggressive play toward them. ... Guys that can dish it, but not take it in return. There's plenty of people that can dish it and take it, but there's a lot of them that are whiners, too. I've got a problem with that, especially at the coed rec level, when they're roughing up our female players, then can't take it when (teammate) Katie roughs them up." Are you a soccer fan? Do you follow a specific soccer league or club? "A lot of guys I play with in men's leagues ... some of them actually are European, so they have major team affiliations. I'm kind of new to the Premier League kind of stuff, so I watch matches with them, but I don't know that I have an affiliation really. I love watching it, definitely. ... I think it's more fun watching it with guys who have a major team affiliation, because I just like watching the soccer, but they're living and dying with it — which is like me with American football." Why do you think so many people like to play soccer, but aren't fans of the game? "For me, it's growing up with football and basketball and not growing up watching soccer. Because I've played, especially a lot more in the last couple years, I'm kind of coming to it later. But it's kind of like, I've started to pick up golf in the last four or five years — it's the same way. I could never watch golf until the last four or five years, but now that I'm starting to play it, I can definitely watch a lot more of it. It's kind of like with soccer: The more I play it, the more I like to watch it." Do you or your team have a rival? "It kind of shifts around. (The team mentioned in the above answer isn't in the same league anymore). The closest thing we have to a rival right now is DNR, but we've got a lot of friends on that team. So it's an on-field rivalry, but not an off-field rivalry. That's more evenly matched." What aspect of your game needs work? "I would say the offense. I play defender most of the time, so the offensive side of it, as far as playing under control on the offensive side. My defensive passing is pretty good, but my shooting and scoring is lacking."
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