Still Getting His Kicks Soccer Nut Still Plays Year-Round At 53

At 53, most men have traded in their baseball gloves, basketballs and football helmets for golf clubs.

Mike Kvamme has resisted the temptation to take up a less-active sport and stuck by the one he has played for more than 35 years - soccer.

“I never thought I’d be playing this late in life,” says Kvamme. “I feel the same as I did in college. I still look forward to it.”

Kvamme is the oldest player on his competitive indoor league and Pacific Northwest Soccer League teams, and one of the oldest in the over-40 league. He also coaches a Skyhawks premier youth soccer team.

He has been with the sport so long that several players Kvamme coached when they were 6 to 12 years old are now his teammates.

“I know exactly how they play and I’m playing with them, so I enjoy it,” he says. “It’s those things that make it fun.”

Darin Branting, 24, is one of those teammates. Branting now coaches the team on which Kvamme coached him more than 10 years ago - the Brakers.

“Some of the same things he taught me about marking off and defense are the same things that I teach now,” says Branting. Neither imagined they would someday be teammates.

“There are areas where he has slowed down physically, but he has made up for them mentally,” says Branting.

However, a fluke may sometimes be mistaken for wisdom. Kvamme laughs as he remembers a time when an opponent went to make a move on him. While his instincts were lagging, Kvamme stood still and ended up stuffing the opponent. Everyone thought Kvamme knew what he was doing, but it was just a slow reflex that paid off, he said with a smile.

Kvamme stumbled upon soccer after breaking his leg in junior varsity football. After the leg healed, he knew he could return to football, but says he found a safer and more exciting game in soccer.

In 1971, he moved from Minnesota to Fairchild Air Force Base, where he was stationed as a pilot. At the time, there were few organized soccer teams around. But Kvamme played where he could and coached the only youth team in the area.

When organized soccer began to grow, Kvamme started to coach more. He coached developmental and select teams. He doesn’t coach because he likes to win, but because he likes to help the kids.

“I get a good feeling watching them do as well as they can,” he says. “You can never forget what you’re dealing with. It’s a learning time in their life. They are developing as individual players and as individuals. A lot of people lose sight of that.”

Some may think Kvamme’s crazy for still playing in the competitive leagues. After all, most players are in their mid-20s to early 30s. He says he does sometimes gets strange looks from his competitors, yet receives a “grudging amount of respect.”

“It surprises younger people that (older players) play as well as they do,” he says.

Kvamme says he is not a superb soccer player and never was, he just enjoys the sport.

“I don’t go out to win. I go out to play well,” he says.

His son, Dan, 25, was coached by his dad for many years and played with him in competitive leagues for seven years. Dan remembers his dad would “go home happy after every game, regardless of whether he’d won or lost.”

Kvamme may not be as fast as other players, but at times he can stay on his opponents like leather on a ball. He plays with the enthusiasm of a grade-schooler, cheering on his teammates and keeping his eyes open, warning them when necessary.

Kvamme knows someday he will have to give up the competitive levels. But for now, his teammates let him come back and play, he says.

“When they ask me not to come back, that will tell me something,” he said.

If his youngest son, Erik, 12, has anything to do with it, Kvamme’s retirement will wait at least six years. Kvamme says Erik, who plays with the Skyhawks, wants to compete with his dad when he’s 18.

Although others might disagree, Kvamme maintains he has a life aside from soccer. He works out three times a week, is an associate vice president for Prudential Securities and a den dad for his youngest son’s Cub Scout pack.

With no major injuries in 35 years, Kvamme knocks on wood as he gives thanks that his knees have held up.

“I’ve had a lifetime of fun playing this sport,” he says.

As for those who question how old is too old, he says, “Your definition of old is what you make of it.”

LEAGUES MERGING The Pacific Northwest Soccer League and the Inland Empire Soccer Association are combining to become the Inland Northwest Soccer Association. Beginning June 30, the combined leagues will start summer men and women’s open division play. All players must have a player card. For more information, contact Chris Sande at 747-2836 or check out the PNSL web site at: www.eznet.compnsl.