Ciaran OBrien
The Family
I come from probably one of the biggest soccer family’s you can imagine. My dad Fran, started out playing professionally in Ireland where he, my mom, brother and sister were all born. He then was on his way to Derby County in England, when all he needed to complete the transfer was a physical, and he failed it, they blamed it on his ankle which was a bit suspicious because just before his physical they hired a new coach, the old one who wanted to bring Fran in had gotten sacked a few days prior. This just shows you that even if you are good enough a coach has to believe in you for you to even get a chance, this has been my belief. When that transfer fell through he got a call from the Philadelphia Fury of North American Soccer league (NASL). He never went back to Europe to play, he ended his career in the states but not before he got his chance on the Irish National team. He only got a couple caps but he always told me about playing against England at Wembly, and he claims it is an experience that is unreal. After Philadelphia he went to Montreal and then ended his outdoor career with the Vancouver Whitecaps. He then turned to indoor where he played with the Dallas Sidekicks and then ended up with the Tacoma Stars which is how I ended up in Washington. My Mom also played and was actually very good, she had to give it up though when she moved to the US with my dad. My sister played in college at the D-2 level with Barry University. She played club with the Federal Way Reign and when she was older played with the Royals. Then my brother, he has been all over the place. He played club soccer in Federal Way for the Sting, then headed off to the University of San Diego for his college soccer. Leighton got drafted in the 3rd round to the New England Revolution, which was a bit of a bummer to get drafted in the 3rd round, he only lasted pre-season in New England and then was traded to San Jose. He was in San Jose for about 2 1/2 and then was released due to once again a new coach coming in. He went back to San Diego for a stint with the Flash in the a-league. From there he came back home to Seattle and played with the Sounders for 2 years. Since we all have Irish passports it is easier for us to play in Europe. In Europe you are only allowed so many non European players so it is tougher for an American to break into an European team. So Leighton headed over to Sweden to play with a team called Boden BBK it was a team in the north of Sweden. Even though Sweden was a great experience and he loved it there he was ready to come back to America. He ended up in the MLS with Salt Lake and is currently still playing there.
The Start
Club
I really don’t know when exactly I started playing soccer but it is said that my first steps were on a soccer field at halftime of my brother’s game, although it was a sand field I still think it counts. I started playing on a team when I was four years old, I played for Norpoint until I was 7 or 8, they wouldn’t let me play up a year anymore so I moved to Federal Way with some of my friends from school. I stayed on that team until I was able to switch to a more competitive team which was the Federal Way Fury. Still playing up a year the Fury was my first taste of what soccer is really like and I loved it.
Sparta
I stayed with the Fury for a few years until u-12 which was when I went down a year to play for Sparta where my dad had been coaching. When I went to Sparta my best friend Josh Norwood came over, we had played together when I first went to Federal Way but then he dropped down to his own age and I went to the Fury. It was great at Sparta and younger age groups like that there are so many good teams no one really stood out and we definitely contended. Our u-13 year Nik Besagno came to join our team for state from Maple Valley. Nik was obviously a big help. During the semi-finals. We were up 3-0 with 6 minutes to go and well they scored, they scored again and then again and then one more time and we lost 4-3. Somehow the referee added 6 minutes of extra time which really didn’t help our cause, but we wont go into that. I remember after the game I went to Taco Bell with my Mom and Dad, and my Mom asked me was I upset and I said no. It didn’t hit me until 2 weeks later when the pharoes were playing Cascade Avalanche instead of us. I remember that game the most because it shows you even though we were only u-12 that you never know what can happen in a game or with 6 minutes to go in the game. The next season wasn’t the best we didn’t do to well and we got knocked out of state pretty early. Nik was back with his Maple Valley team so it was a lot tougher for us to do well without him. When LPT’s came we really didn’t do to bad but we ended up in P-3 which was really a bummer because I thought we did well.
FC UNITED
After the third weekend and only qualifying for P-3 Josh and I decided it was time to look for a different team. FC United and Crossfire were top on both of our lists but United only had one spot open and Crossfire is an hour drive for the both of us. We played in a tournament with Crossfire and I was very close to signing with them I thought that’s where I was going to be, because Josh and I could play together but if I went to United there would be no room for him. In the end I felt the 20 minute drive to United made more sense and after training with the team I was excited to play with them. Gerry Gray was the coach and I knew a few of the players so it was a good situation. The first game I played with United was at Pacific Coast Challenge, I cant remember who it was against but I came on as a sub and got a red card, which probably wasn’t the best thing to do in my first game with the club. United wasn’t to mad they just told me to make sure it didn’t happen again which I think I lasted a couple of years. We didn’t end up doing to well in the tournament but it was good to play with them before the season started. We struggled in league finishing 6th I believe we had to win 5 out of our last 6 games to stay up and not have to go to LPTs and we did it. State Cup was a different story, we were playing much better and took one game at a time. We ended up playing Crossfire Josh’s team in the semis and snuck out a 1-0 win. Overall I think they were the more talented team but for us we were good because we played together as a team and that’s how we got so far in state, and that is still our claim as to why we have had such success out of state. We played Emerald City in the state final on a rainy day up north on a poor old Astroturf field. We were definitely the underdogs as ECFC had done well in league and were playing well in state. Knowing we were the underdogs we had to sneak one out and with them scoring first it was going to be very tough to come back and win this one, we had a couple of chances to get the equalizer, I had the best one but I took to long to get my shot off and it was blocked. If I am correct the game ended up 1-0 we lost and weren’t going to Utah for regionals, It is u-15s now and I still don’t have a state championship. Gerry Gray stepped aside as head coach and dropped down a year with his son Daniel to the u-14’s again and my dad came in as the new coach. With my dad coming in came Josh Norwood and Nik Besagno along with a couple others our team grew tremendously over night. We won the first tournament we played in, the Pacific Coast Challenge (PCC) which put us in great shape as it was right before the league started. That is what you would think anyways, we started off with a tie at Bainbridge. But then finished at the top of the league losing twice I believe. We headed into state cup the favorites and with tons of confidence. We knew we needed to win it from the start but in the final we came up with a bit of trouble. It was Emerald City again in the final and again they went up 1-0. We were all over them putting the pressure on trying to get that equalizer the same as the previous year, but this time it would be different. ECFC was two minutes away from there second championship in 2 years until we scored the goal that would tie the game. A ball from Derek Woodworth gave Nik Besagno a chance to score a brilliant header from 12 yards out. The game then went into overtime and we had the momentum. Josh Norwood scored a goal five minutes into the first overtime which we thought should have killed the game. ECFC wouldn’t give up as they scored a scrappy goal to tie the game and send it into penaltys. We were the better team and deserved to win the game but that doesn’t necessarily mean you will win. We took our penaltys very well winning 5-4 and headed to Hawaii for regionals. Hawaii regionals was the best tournament I had ever been to. The location was perfect, the fields couldn’t be better and the competition was tough. We did well for it being our first time, finishing second in our group and losing in the quarter finals. We didn’t deserve to lose that game but once again if you cant score you cant win, simple as that, but if the ball doesn’t bounce your way and your very short on luck you cant win either. We lost to Utah 2-0 on two penaltys. So we headed back to the hotel and tried to enjoy the rest of our time in Hawaii, which wasn’t too bad.
ODP (Olympic Development Program)
I have yet to talk about ODP, which really I didn’t have much success at when I was younger. My first two years at regional camp i didn’t make it, but the worst thing about it is that I thought I should have. Of course I could be biased because I am talking about myself but I think I am being fair. You see when I was younger I wasn’t big actually I was small and slow. Which may have held me back, but what I did have was a brain I was one of the smartest soccer players and I used it to my advantage. Sometimes that still doesn’t matter, sometimes the bigger players or faster players will make it because at a younger age those players will be most dominating. I was very disappointed at the time that I didn’t make it those two years but I can tell you this, I look back at it know as a good thing. Not making even the regional team made me work harder and train more so that I could get on that team someday, that was the goal. When you do well when you are young relying on your speed and your strength or height it could come back to hurt you in the end. When you are older Speed and strength don’t matter as much, I believe that to play at a high level you have to be able to think and concentrate on the little things that might get you that edge. I have seen many players that made the team those first two years that aren’t even playing now or if they are, they aren’t playing at even close to the level they were at, just because they thought they had it made and thought It would always be that easy. So what I am saying is never think you have it made because you don’t. I am sitting here right now in my dorm room at Blackburn Academy thinking how am I going to be better in training than the others so that in the game I get a good chance to prove they should sign me. There will almost always be a higher level that what you are playing, from youth to college, college to a lower professional league to an European league to the Spanish League to international games and then the World Cup we all have a long way to go. I have gone way off of the ODP track but before we get back on just know that to the younger players who read this don’t stop working or training because you made the state regional or national team because there will always be another challenge out there that you will have to accomplish and if you stop and think that you have it made because you can say you made the regional team you still have more to go. Again don’t get me wrong I think that it is great the accomplishments that I have had and I am grateful that I have done so well. But I come to Blackburn and they don’t care if I have been with the u-18 national team, they care how I play when they are watching not how I played when I was with the regional team in November. So live up your accomplishments congratulate yourself but don’t stop there keep going and get better and better. Oh man back to ODP sorry I can get going. So my first two years there had been the same coach but going into my 3rd year we had new coaches which for me gave me an even better chance to get on the team. I played well but I thought I had played better the 2 previous years. When my name was called I knew I deserved it and was relieved that I had finally gotten in the pool. For those of you who don’t know there is a regional team and a regional pool, the pool is about 35 players and the team is 18. So now there was a new goal and that was to get on the team and travel. I didn’t have the most confidence when I was playing with a group of guys that all new each other and I was the new guy on the team. For the player that I am a play-making center midfielder confidence is huge, without confidence you wont play that penetrating ball that you would always try in club but now you don’t know if you should because you don’t want to give the ball away. It is also an adjustment because I was always the go to guy so to speak but now there is already someone that is the go to guy so I have to win my position and show them what I can do and to do that I need confidence. Long story short I went on all 3 trips that year and with each one it got better and better. My first trip to San Diego was a tough one, I didn’t play much and when I went on I didn’t do anything I was slow and was hiding from the play. What I mean by that is that I didn’t want the ball and when I got it I didn’t know what to do with it. I didn’t play well and the reason I made the 2nd trip to Orlando was because one of the players got injured. In Orlando I played better not great but better and it got my confidence up. Then I got a call to go to Germany and play a few games over there. Our first game over there I didn’t start but I came on and played well. I started every game after that and was happy with my performance although I knew I could play a lot better. My fourth and final year of ODP brought me another new set of coaches and a new role for me. I had more confidence going into camp and more coming out. When we went to Texas for a tournament I played good and was named captain which, was a huge confidence booster and also I was more of the playmaker which I hadn’t really been in the past. After the tournament about 2 weeks later I got a call to go to the LA and then Mexico with the U-18 National team. When I was in Mexico it was just like my first year on the regional team but I was with the national team now. I played alright not even close to my best but more than anything it was a good experience it was another eye opener telling me that I need to keep going if I want to get to the top and I still haven’t been called back to the National team but I feel I have to get better because the competition is so much tougher when you are playing against countries like Holland, Italy, England, Ireland, Mexico to name a few. So that was the end of my ODP so far and for those of you who haven’t tried it I think you should just because it shows you where you are at as a player, sure it might not be spot on but it is pretty close to being accurate. Before I go back to my club days I wanted to share with you an opinion I have. Someone once told me “always be a student of the game” and I feel that not many of us do are students very often. What being a student of the game means is to learn from your mistakes learn from others on TV, don’t just watch the game watch what is going on in the game, watch the player that plays your position and do what he does in your club games. A lot of people that I know don’t go to Seattle Sounders games or don’t take their kids to the games because they say its not good soccer. In my opinion it is good soccer they just don’t see it. I go to every home game I can and that is not just because my brother played there or that I train with them but it is because I love it. I love watching the games to see what I can do or should be doing to get better. When we watch games on TV, which don’t get wrong is good as well, but all we see is where the ball is, you don’t see what is going on off the ball. You don’t see what position Roy Keane is in when Rooney is going at a defender, or what Rooney is doing to get open to find the pass from Roy Keane. But if you went to a game instead of watching it on TV and even if it is a college game or a higher level game you can still learn a lot from just watching the player in your position and taking what he does in his or her game into your game, it will make you a better player. So if you can take the time to get to a game or take your son or daughter to a game it will be well worth it even if you don’t think the level is high which I disagree with but you can still get something out of it.
Back to Club FC United
At the start of our u-16 year we had 4 great pickups and our team looked great. This was the year that our out of state success started but it didn’t really happen until regionals and that was in Spokane so does that count? We went to Nomads with a few of our players missing and didn’t do to well. We were all back for state cup and were ready to win our second title in two years. I don’t remember much of this state cup besides the semis and finals. The semis we played the Pharoes who were going to be a tough opponent. We won the game 2-1 and I actually just watched the tape of the game yesterday so it helped me remember what happened. There must have been 11 cards in this game and only about 2 deserved yellows if that. I was on the risk of being suspended and of course I got a yellow that was to send me out of the final. Also Nik Besagno got a red card for a tackle that didn’t even look like a foul. We were to play Norpoint wolves in the final and im sure they weren’t disappointed when our two starting center midfielders, captains and leading goal scorers were out of the final. We had to protest the cards because they were outrageous. Long story short they dismissed the cards and we got to play in the final. Norpoint played us to a 0-0 First half which was well deserved because I thought they played very well. But in the second half we weren’t going to let a chance for us to show what we can do in Spokane slip away. We came out flying scoring in the first 10 seconds of the half. We were off to Spokane winning the game 4-0. On the way to nationals We knew we could win regionals but I don’t think that anyone else did. We were a surprise and I believe that gave us the edge. Teams would come into the game thinking its only Washington this shouldn’t be tough, and that is what we wanted them to think. We played good in every game besides the quarter-finals where we played a quality New Mexico team. We were lucky to sneak a victory but sometimes you need a bit of luck and we got it. In the semis and the finals we were brilliant winning both games by scoring great goals. We won it but we knew we still had nationals. At nationals we knew our first game against the reigning champions would be tough and it got even tougher when we heard 2 of our national team players Taylor Hoss and Nik Besagno wouldn’t be able to be there because of a tournament in Minnesota. With those two gone we knew everyone had to pick their game up to an even higher level. And we did, scoring first to go up1-0 we let one slip and at halftime it was 1-1 but two late goals from substitute Corey Kelmel gave us the 3-1 victory and a great start to the tournament. From then on we had our full team back and we tied our next two games to win our group and we were in the final playing the champions once again. The game was at 7:30 in the morning which for us was even earlier considering the three hour time difference. In any way we were terrible, we played our worst game throughout the state, regional and national tournament and in the final isn’t the best time to do it. After beating them 3-1 we lost to Casa Mia in the final 3-0 and to top it off I got a red card with 5 minutes to go. We did the hard part in getting to the final but then when we got there we threw it all away. It was a great run we had but when you cant top it off at the end it was a bit of a waste. I remember looking back at the game when we received our 2nd place awards and thinking how could we not have put in the effort, how could we not have done everything we could to win that game that was the national final?
Thanks for the Story Ciaran, I found the entire story to be full of great info not only about you, but about soccer and life. I apologize for the format of how it layed out on here, I had bigtime issue with the file. The message you have within the story however is NOT lost. Thanks again...WPS Soccer
