Beyond the Boxscore
Divas don't play here: Coach Ching opens up on the Dynamo culture of caring &youth sports gone wild
Soccer — and sports in general — are fast becoming a race to see how early youcan start playing. Dynamo star Brian Ching didn't start playing until age 7though.
An hour of coaching from Brian Ching is being auctioned off in the Cruz'in forthe Cure event.
Ching insists that Danny Cruz is the one who deserves the praise though.
Brian Ching's hosted his own high profile charity events.Photo by Michelle Watson for LastNightPics.com
If your kid isn't flinging the football in 7-on-7 passing drills by age 4 in Texas, it's easy to feel like he's already fallen behind. And pity the fool who waits until age 5 to put his son into T-ball.
I know. I've received the disbelieving looks from the parents of my kids' friends. Everything's not only bigger in Texas, it's sport rushed. Start now, play more, join that travel team whenever you can.
So it's a little refreshing to hear soccer star Brian Ching's tale of easing into his sport. Ching — who'd go on to become a Houston Dynamo star and U.S. National Team regular — didn't start playing organized soccer until age 7. And yes, these days, plenty of people ask him if the late start affected his career.
"I never even thought about it the time," Ching shrugs. "It seemed like a good time to start playing. I definitely don't feel like I missed out. The soccer culture in Hawaii (where Ching grew up) was similar to what it was in the mainland at the time. There wasn't a lot of pressure on me.
"I just went out and played."
The 32-year-old Ching understands that many of today's kids face a completely different sports culture than the one he — and others in his generation — grew up with not that long ago. This is a professional athlete who's already thinking of his next step beyond the playing field. Ching wants to coach. Maybe he'll even coach an MLS team someday. (He'd be taking after mom, his first soccer coach).
This made Ching naturally gravitate toward offering his services in a one-hour coaching clinic when his teammate Danny Cruz asked him to participate in his Cruz'in for a Cure fundraiser drive for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). The coaching clinic with Ching is one of several items that will be up for bid in a silent auction during a Saturday night event at Drink Houston. Those items — which also include having Cruz coach your kid's soccer team for a game and a round of golf with midfielders Brad Davis and Colin Clark — are being naturally overshadowed by the bachelor auction of 11 Dynamo players that's the centerpiece of the night.
Which is fine with Ching.
"I'm just offering an hour of my time," he says in a minute away from one of the Dynamo's George R. Brown press conferences. "Danny's doing the hard work."
Ching's spearheaded a number of charity drives during his six years with the Dynamo, including a campaign with Habitat for Humanity that built a house for a Houston family in need. Cruz is leading his own campaign at age 21.
"I never really thought about the fact that Danny's doing this at such a young age, until you mentioned it," Ching says. "It is sort of crazy to think that a 21 year old is this involved. I don't know if I had it that all together at 21."
Those kids today. Ching is used to being surprised by the Dynamo youngsters. After a purging remake of the roster (one Ching didn't completely agree with) following a non-playoff season, the Dynamo have the fourth-youngest team in Major League Soccer and Ching is the only player over 30 on the roster who regularly plays.
You're looking at the old man in the locker room. Even if Ching's into that title about as much as Charlie Sheen is into abstinence.
"There are certain things that are said in the locker room, certain topics that remind me how young a lot of the guys are now," Ching says.
Still, the Dynamo aren't exactly Kids Gone Wild. The club's managed to maintain its charitable side while changing the names on many of the lockers. Dynamo president Chris Canetti and other team executives talk to new players about the club's commitment to getting out in the community and making a difference, but Canetti acknowledges that it's more than that.
"I know we've been lucky," Canetti says. "We've had players who want to get involved in where they live. Houston's embraced them and they've turned around and tried to give something back. I know that not all professional athletes are like this. We're fortunate to have the players we've had."
Almost every professional sports league in the United States these days tries to promote its charitable side (just try and watch an NBA playoff game without seeing one, or 10, of those NBA Cares commercials). But there's a big difference between dragging a player to a required token appearance and getting a group of players that want to be the face — and guts — of a campaign.
It helps that most MLS players take home paychecks that are anything but supersized — especially in oil-king Houston. Consider that Geoff Cameron, probably the most prominent player in the bachelor auction, earned a $34,650 salary for the first few years of his pro career.
The worldwide game of soccer produces plenty of divas, but there aren't many of them in MLS. Especially now that the David Beckham experiment has come and gone.
Ching doesn't think that an egomaniac would last long in the Dynamo locker room anyway.
"We've always had a pretty good group," he says. "We've had good leadership and guys who've wanted to get out in the community."
Now Ching finds himself one of those leaders, the guy that the kids look up to for guidance. Or at least kid about being a relic.
Coach Ching
Ching wants to make it clear he's not close to being ready to give up his cleats. Despite the injuries he's fought this season. Despite the left-off-the-team disappointment of last year's World Cup. Damned, if he's not going to get to play in that new Dynamo's stadium next year — which is in some ways, another house Ching and his old sent-packing teammates built.
"I feel like I've got a lot of good soccer left," he says.
But he'll play coach early for Cruz's cause.
He'll give the kids of the highest bidder of the clinic a good soccer schooling. Even as he indicates that slowing down a little might not be the worst thing in the world.
"The game needs to be fun when you're a kid," Ching says. "I'm not sure that I'd have ended up being a professional player if I hadn't done a bunch of other stuff growing up."
One man will not change Texas' hyperdrive youth sports culture. Just like one soccer team will not come close to curing a city's ills. But every voice, every volunteer, helps.
