PULSE / Sports
written by: Ryan Ryles M
y columns in each issue of Pulse make it pretty clear that I’m a sports fanatic. I love my sports, and in particular, the big four in America: football, basketball, baseball and hockey. However,
there is another sport in existence – and it just happens to be the most popular sport in the world. Those who love this sport call it the real football, and the rest of us call it “soccer.” If you’re a transplant from up north like me, soccer was little more
than a footnote to the other sports we watched on television every week, but let me tell you, this game is really popular here in Southwest Florida. “For kids under the age of 13, soccer is the most widely played
sport in America,” said John Palichak, supervisor of the soccer complex at North Collier Regional Park off Livingston Road in Naples. Palichak has played soccer for nearly all of his 61 years; he coached high school and college soccer in his home state of Ohio, and was part owner of a semi-pro team there before relocating to SWFL. So why exactly does the favorite sport in the rest of the world
take such a backseat in the United States? Talking heads in the sports industry list dozens of reasons why this is so, but a recent conversation that Palichak had with colleagues brought a new perspective as to why it’s a tough sell in this country – our size. “We were talking about why the U.S. doesn’t have one of the better
teams in the World Cup every four years, and one reason is that although our country is huge, the same broad national organizations aren’t available for transitioning players to the pro-levels of soccer as there are with other major sports,” explained
Palichak.From an organizational standpoint, soccer only has about 50 years of national history, while
other sports like baseball and football have organizations that date back before World War I. This lack of a broad infrastructure cultivating MLS (Major League Soccer) teams has hurt the sport domestically. The result is the recruitment of many players from other nations in South and Central America where the U.S. is competing against long-standing organizations and fan bases already existing for their national teams. Look around any public park in SWFL on a weekend morning and
one thing is clear: soccer is very much alive and well.With nearly 2,500 participants in county-sponsored youth soccer programs in Collier County, and hundreds more participating in recreational leagues for adults, in addition to high school programs, soccer’s popularity is solidified locally. But how to get more American football fans enthusiastic about watching a little soccer? “It’s the most popular sport in the world,” says Palichak, “and the
only sport in the world that every country plays – shouldn’t (we) be a part of that?” Fair question. Not being much of a soccer fan myself, I went down to the fields to see just what caliber of athletes this sport attracts. I wasn’t there long before realizing why most of “footballers”, as they’re called everywhere but in the United States, are every bit as tough as many of our own NFL football players. Soccer players run on the field continuously for 90-100 minutes per game, physically taking the other team off the ball and occasionally getting taken out at the knees by an opposing defender. Not everyone considers them “athletes” or tough? That’s not me, or at least not anymore! To find more information about youth and adult soccer programs
at North Collier Regional Park, visit
www.colliergov.net/ parksandrecreation or check out
www.soccerpalaceflorida.com to learn more about Soccer Palace, an indoor soccer field in Bonita Springs.
28 | Pulse Magazine SWFL
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