Building Champions, Pursuing Championships
12/7/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Former Terp Omar Gonzalez was named to the Best XI team following a stellar defensive season with the LA Galaxy, while alum Rodney Wallace earned Comeback Player of the Year accolades after notching five goals in 17 appearances for the Portland Timbers upon his return from a torn ACL.
Off the field, Gonzalez's teammate, A.J. DeLaGarza, was named the MLS W.O.R.K.S Humanitarian of the Year, making him the third Terrapin in five years to win the award while another Galaxy standout, Robbie Rogers, had his book about coming out as gay hit the shelves last month. Both players helped lead the Terps to a national championship in 2005.
Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovski said the program, in his hands for the last 22 seasons, has taken special pride in developing people, not just players, with the above-mentioned athletes as the perfect testament. The mission can be summed up in a four-word slogan: Building Champions, Pursuing Championships.
“Character, quality and a championship-fiber mentality are so important to us in the recruiting process,” said Cirovski. “But once they get here, we spend a lot of time trying to nurture that character and help overcome adversity and understand that the number one goal here at Maryland is to help them be the best they can possibly be.”
Cirovski has had his fair share of impact on the lives of his players, recalling Gonzalez's awful eating habits while attending Maryland. During his freshman year, the coach got a hold of his dining plan record, showing the young defender the harmful things he was eating. The Galaxy star has since changed, and even displayed his cooking skills aside Ludo Lefebvre, one of the top chefs in Los Angeles.
Wallace returned to his stomping grounds after his devastating injury last year, rehabbing at Maryland for about a week and even getting some help from the university trainers.
“All these guys are always welcome back and we help them through their difficult times,” said Cirovski. “This is a big, big, proud Maryland soccer family.”
Beyond Soccer
Champions come in different forms, whether it is playing at the highest level in America's premier soccer league, taking a special interest in the community, or in DeLaGarza's case, both.
The defensive presence said he set his sights on being involved in the Los Angeles community more than he had in the past. Sparking his activity was finding out his unborn son, Luca, had a congenital heart defect (CHD) earlier this year.
“Luca helped me want to get involved more with families who were going through similar things,” said DeLaGarza, “and I'm glad I was able to bring recognition to CHD in general.”
“I think having three of the last five Humanitarian of the Year Awards go to Terps shows our character as people,” he added.
Seth Stammler, who played for Maryland from 2000 to 2003, received the nod in 2010 as a member of the Red Bulls. FC Dallas goalkeeper Chris Seitz, another member of the Terrapins' 2005 championship team, won the award in 2012 after donating bone marrow to a complete stranger.
It started in 2008 while playing for Real Salt Lake, when the wife of Seitz's teammate, Andy Williams, was fighting a rare form of leukemia. Clubs across the league began registering to donate bone marrow. Four years later, the Terp alum received an email saying he may be the best possible match for an anonymous patient and after further testing, he was.
Putting his soccer career at risk, Seitz went through with the invasive surgery in hopes of saving the life of a person he had never met. He left the team in mid-September of that year, not playing another match until March 2013. The patient gave Seitz a call and they are in the process of arranging a meeting.
Cirovski said the stories of DeLaGarza and Seitz are certainly book-worthy, and is happy that Rogers could officially publish his tale in “Coming Out to Play.” The forward became the first openly gay man to compete in a top North American sports league last year.
“Myself included, everybody connected with Maryland soccer reached out with immense support for the courage that Robbie showed in coming out,” said Cirovski. “We love Robbie for Robbie and I couldn't be more proud of what he means to so many people right now.”
Seitz, who was Rogers' college roommate, echoed the sentiment of his former coach.
“More so than anything, I was happy for him,” said Seitz. “You've got to be happy for someone that can get something off his chest like that…obviously a big relief for him.”
The success, goodwill and bravery of these men, who blossomed under Cirovski's watchful eye, makes the coach feel his lifetime pursuit to develop “championship people” is working.
“These were all great soccer players and all great people when we recruited them and hopefully we helped them grow,” he said. “And now to see these awards and these great achievements that they're accomplishing, it's just an incredible source of pride. It's right up there with winning championships.”
Ben Strack, a senior journalism major at the University of Maryland, is a contributing writer to umterps.com.
