GUESTWORK | Tom Bundy

I’m one of 2.5 billion (that’s with a “b”) people who will be watching an upcoming quadrennial event on TV with great anticipation.

The top 32 national teams of the world will meet in South Africa to compete in the “World Series” of soccer, futbol, futebol, calcio, voetbal, le foot, podosfero. Whatever the name for the game, the competition is the World Cup, from June 11 to July 11.

I had played baseball for a few years between the ages of 9 and 11. I could catch and field pretty well. My batting skills lacked luster though. When I was 13 years old, I tried out for basketball. I was also tall so I thought I’d be a shoo-in. Denied. No such luck.

At the time a friend of mine who lived in the neighborhood was attending a littleknown alternative school in Springfield called City Day School. They played soccer in their gym class. They would play after school as well and I was invited to join in. It was great fun! Lots of running. It seemed like you got to interact with the ball a lot. Creativity was a must to become deceptively better.

That fall of my 13th year, I started playing soccer and never looked back.

I remember my first official soccer coach through the YMCA. Mr. G(H)erman Roncancio. Kind, kind man. To this day when I see him it’s always an honor. Trying to explain to a bunch of young American kids Joga Bonito (the beautiful game) was probably a little frustrating for him. He was very encouraging, and people listened.

There wasn’t much soccer available on TV in those days. There was a station out of Jacksonville that carried a program on Saturdays called “Soccer Made In Germany.” A group of us would get together at the home of the one person who could get the station and watch great games. After the games, we would go outside and emulate the players of the match: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Deiter Müeller, Franz Beckenbauer (my favorite), Lothar Matthäus, Rudi Voeller.

Later, a few of us young American kids were gleaned away from the YMCA’s Youth League to be brought in the Y’s Men’s League (of one team). Some of those people are still active in soccer today: Joe Eck (retired coach of the UIS Men’s Soccer Team), Bob McGuire (almost single-handedly coordinating soccer development in Chatham), Tom Johnson (winning past soccer coach at Glenwood High School), and Jeff “The Sniper” Aldrich (first assistant coach at Sangamon State University and still an active

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