I find it ironic that my driving extravaganza begins by taking me past some of the places where I developed my interest in soccer. As Soccer Americana goes I think the way someone as crazy about the game as me first got interested is a worthwhile topic.

The absolute genesis comes in the early 70s at about age 6 or 7 across the street from my home in the Avalon subdivision of Fort Wayne, Indiana (or Waynedale, not sure if that is actually a town). There were a pair of boys who were probably 11 or 12 and typically, I looked up to them and always wanted to be a part of what they were doing. Jeff Carrier and Eric Hesterman lived across the street and one day I walked to the Carriers’ backyard and instead of the customary whiffleball game going on, they were playing something else; a game that involved kicking a black and white ball back and forth and into a goal.

So that was my first introduction to the game, and I distinctly remember Jeff telling me that you had to kick the ball, but that you were also allowed to punch it with a closed fist. So I didn’t get the purest of introductions, but the seed was planted.

Fast forward a few years to the 5th grade and little Robby Ziegler is now living in Columbus, Ohio, and attending Wilson Hill Elementary School in nearby Worthington. The gym teacher there was Mrs. Feucht and she spent much of one year teaching us soccer and even organizing an intramural soccer league with players from 5th and 6th grade classes competing. As someone whose parents didn’t have him in any organized sports, this league was really the cat’s meow for me. I was about the smallest kid out there and would derive much glory from just having the opportunity to kick the ball once or twice during a game.  We had star school athletes like Paul Laws, Freddie McClellan and Chris Bash on the girls side, but somehow our team did not win the championship.

Somehow from those experiences I was considered qualified to coach youth teams as a 9th grader at Ottawa-Glandorf High School in northwestern Ohio, the next and final stop on my family’s domestic odyssey. Games were played in the outfield of the high school baseball field and later at the county fairgrounds. It was all very roughshod, but I was enjoying it. This paled in comparison to the news that the town priest, Father Rick Nieberding, was starting the first soccer club in the community.

Father Rick had played in college and was the real deal. He took a group of kids, most of whom were not involved in any high school sports, and spent most of a summer running us through training camp. We did fitness, worked on ball skills (starting from the bottom, trust me) and even learned a little about the game. Our “practice ground” was a patch of grass between the Catholic elementary school and a Convent. Yes indeed, your managing editor first trained as a player under the watchful eye of a bunch of nuns.

Most of the kids on that team weren’t involved in other sports. Rich Fischbach, Andy Verhoff, Jeff and Doug Herman (Pokey I and Pokey II), Dean Dickman, Denny Quinn and Chuck Honigfort were some that I remember. We had obligatory exchange students Sami Telama from Finland and Jean-Jacques something or the other from Switzerland. In our small-town world, having football player Jeff Compton and basketball player Denny Maas was our small token of credibility, but ultimately we just cared about getting together, practicing and playing. It was very low level compared to what I cover today, and we lost our first game 9-2 to a club team from Dayton, but what a blast we had.

Fast forward about 15 years and soccer had become an official school sport. Ottawa-Glandorf High even had a nice little stadium on the edge of town.

Well, so much has happened since then, but those three things are what I’d truly call my seminal moments in soccer. Everything has to start somewhere and for me, it was there. I look at my kids now and can’t imagine calling any time before they were on earth as the happiest days of my life, but those were some pretty good moments, for sure.

Rob begins his two-week soccer journey - read about it here.