Still in the game
Aging soccer players take advantage of Over The Hill league
There was never any doubt that Andy Erickson would one day play in the New England Over The Hill Soccer League.
Erickson and his brother Danny, the athletic director at Canton High School, grew up watching their father, Jeff, play in the league.
Now the brothers are teammates on the Duxbury-based Braintree Celtic team in Division I South of the Over-30 League, while Jeff is still going strong for the Canton entry in the Senior (50 and over) League.
"I'm always asking [my father] to play golf and he says nope, he's going to wait until he gets old to play," said Andy Ericson, 34, who manages the Braintree Celtic entry.
The New England Over The Hill Soccer League is a four-star tribute to baby boomers' desire to extend their athletic careers.
There are four age brackets: 30-and-over, 40-and-over, 50-and-over, and 58-and-over (added in 2004), and several levels of play in each age group.
Playoffs determine division champs, and the regular season winners in each division are promoted; losers are relegated to a lower division.
It is believed to be the largest amateur sports league in the country. And it continues to grow: 10 teams were added this year. But when you have 204 teams and 4,896 registered players who play in both spring and fall, you have to take the fields when they are available. And that means getting up near dawn.
So at 8 a.m. on a brilliant Sunday morning in late September, members of Braintree Celtic and the Lexington S.C. took advantage of Lexington's state of the art complex of athletic fields.
The hour is enough to get several members of both teams grumbling.
"It pretty much divides into two camps," said John Clough, 39, coach of Lexington S.C. "You have the guys with kids; they're up anyway and they'd just as soon play early and get it done. Then you have the single guys - they're not as happy."
Braintree Celtic is an interesting and eclectic collection of mostly South Shore residents. Division I is the highest level of play for over-30 players, and on this Sunday it may be early, but the teams have come to play.
Goalie Eric Eisenhut, 34, of Marshfield, who played on the Brandeis team, has only one eye, but asks no quarter and gives none, flinging himself energetically into the scrums in front of his net.
There are several products of the Duxbury High School program, including striker Mark Manganello of Weymouth, 34, who starred at Clark University in Worcester, earning All-New England honors in 1994.
In a game a year ago against the same Lexington side, Braintree Celtic played with nine men to Lexington's 11, and still managed a 3-3 tie, thanks to three goals from Manganello.
On this Sunday, Manganello is doing it to Lexington again. Lexington defender Cliff Browning marks Manganello closely, and Lexington goalie Jeff Mackay stones him on a penalty kick, then denies him on a rebound in the first half, but Manganello seems to weave endless magic with the ball.
About five minutes into the second half, he loses two Lexington defenders with some fancy footwork down low and then finishes off the play for a 1-0 lead. About midway through the second half, he dekes left, then right to lose a defender, and then buries another shot to make it 2-0, the final score.
Players and coaches laud the organization of the league, but its logistics are daunting. A recent note on the league website said that all but three games in the past week had had an assigned referee, apparently an improvement from the week before.
In many communities, a certain percentage of the roster must be residents to receive scheduling priority for fields. In Lexington, which has a complex of artificial turf fields, the number is 70 percent.
Many teams play wherever and whenever they can.
"There's enough work here for a full-time person," said league president Julian Dunlop, 59, who lives in Kensington, N.H., and plays for the Seacoast team in Division 1 North of the Senior League.
The work of the many volunteers means that costs are held down. Teams pay $400 to register for a 10-game season and two playoff games.
Dunlop, a native of Scotland who played soccer in school in Britain, notes the irony of the Over The Hill league existing in this country, instead of the soccer hotbed that is his homeland.
"If I were still there, there would be nothing for me," he said. "There are no organized amateur leagues past the age of 30."
In 2004, the league expanded to include a 58-and-over division for the first time and now it is considering a 70-and-older division, according to John Nourse, a league director and coach of the Andover Gold team in the Senior Division.
Which is very good news for Marton Toth, 71, of Tewksbury, who left his native Hungary after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He played for club teams in Hungary - the winner got a keg of beer - and on a team in the US Army, and he still plays in the Veterans (58 and over) League.
He first joined in 1979 when it was just getting organized - "we didn't even keep score back then" - and has been a member since organized play began in 1981.
Toth said he plays with his brain more than his body these days, and a knee bothers him, but "I feel better if I play than if I don't play."
And even though they've won, the needles are out as Braintree Celtic teammates Derek Foster and Noel Fadden aren't about to let Manganello forget about the penalty kick that hit the goalie square in the stomach, or several other chances he missed.
When asked by a reporter what happened in those instances, Fadden raises his fingers to his lips. "Shhh! You're not supposed to talk about that."
Rich Fahey can be reached at Faheywrite@yahoo.com. 