Polar Bears Soccer Team Photo

Title: Polar Bears Soccer Club Team Picture
Date: mid-80's
Category: Pictures
Current status: Trying to get Applebee's to put it on their wall as decoration

When I was a kid, there were two levels of soccer... YMCA teams and "City" teams. I played for the Y for a year or so, but most of my friends played for city clubs. I wanted to play on a city team, but my parents wouldn't let me at first because they would play some games on Sunday mornings and my forced indoctrination into the Protestant sect of the Jesus Club was more vital (to my parents) than playing soccer.

Eventually, I don't remember how, the relented and I signed up to play on a club called The Polar Bears (later, just the Bears). In what has remained the standard for my soccer career, the team I joined was terrible. I mean, we sucked. We lost pretty much every game.

I'd like to know who the hell though "Polar Bears" would be a good name for a soccer team in Texas?

I remember a few of the other teams we played... there were the elite Panthers, the Celtics, and the StarBlazers. They always kicked our butts.

Ray Grabeel played on one of those other teams, but he swears he doesn't remember any team ever calling itself The Polar Bears and I think he thinks I made it up. Well, look at the picture... that's real. Would I Photoshop something as awful as that? Look at those socks! And the short shorts... no, nobody would willing fake a picture of themselves like this.

I played for 2 or 3 years before giving up on it. It probably didn't help that I was almost always a "Fullback". In kiddie soccer, the fullback (defender) position is tantamount to being an outfielder on a T-ball team... it's where the less talented players went. I got to play midfield once, and I remember it vividly because it was the only time I ever crossed the mid-field line. I remember thinking how weird everything looked that close to the other teams goal.

I actually wasn't a bad goalkeeper, the the coaches' kids pretty much always got to be goalkeeper. Damn nepotism.

Anyway, here are some bonus pictures. The back of the photo holder:and the business card of the guy who made his living taking pictures of crappy youth soccer teams.

Apparently, he also took pictures of pretty much anything that involved a paying client. You don't see "Banquets" mentioned very often anymore. And I doubt that many people who hold "Banquets" automatically think of a guy who calls himself "Captain Photo" as their first choice for official photography.