I’ve been lucky throughout my life. More times than I can count, I’ve ended up in the right place at the right time. If I have one real skill, it’s spotting an opportunity and grabbing it before it passes by.
As a teenager, I banged up my knees pretty badly, which knocked me out of the sports I’d been playing and pushed me toward other interests. It closed off a lot of options, but it also opened a few doors I never expected. The first one led me toward athletic training as a possible career, and it eventually got me a shot working with the Broncos. You can read that story here.
Through that Broncos connection, I got introduced to Larry Franca. Larry was a PE teacher at North Arvada Middle School at the time, and he went on to a long career as a teacher and athletic trainer at Dakota Ridge High School. Back then, though, he was the trainer for the Denver Dynamos, and he was generous enough to let me be his assistant for the last two-thirds of the season. I learned a ton and was thrilled just to feel like part of a real team. Larry also worked as the trainer for the Denver Avalanche of the Major Indoor Soccer League.
While I was with the Dynamos, the North American Soccer League pulled off a huge event that we got to be part of. The league was deep in negotiations with the greatest soccer player who ever lived: Pelé. Watching him play was an event in itself. The NASL had this brilliant idea of sending him on tour to every team for a public tryout, just to drum up interest and fans. Everyone already knew he’d end up signing with the New York Cosmos, since they had the money and the spotlight the league needed. Over the years, the Cosmos stacked their roster with world-renowned players, but Pelé was always the biggest name of all.
Our tryout landed on a beautiful Colorado summer day, and a few thousand fans showed up for it. I was lucky enough to be in the locker room with him and the whole entourage that traveled with him. It was surreal just being there, let alone talking to the best soccer player of all time. I even got to help tape his ankles and get him ready for the dog-and-pony show that followed. He took it all in stride, completely aware of the role he was playing. He was an international ambassador for the sport, and that day the show had rolled into Lakewood, Colorado, with me standing backstage for the biggest show in soccer.