Soccer has been a big part of my life. I have been playing the sport since I was around 8 or 9 years old, before I started at La Salle. During the years at La Salle, I was on the school team from C grade to A grade. I was never a strong player or a skillful one. I guess my performance was consistent enough that I was a starter every year.
When I left Hong Kong in 1963, I was so sure that my “soccer career” was over. The chance for me to play soccer in America would be slim or none, as soccer was a very obscure sport here at the time. However, to my surprise, soccer has provided me many, many memories, some good and some not so good. Luckily the good ones out-numbered the bad ones. I would like to share some of them with you.
Soccer caused my job
Believe it or not within two weeks after I landed in San Francisco, I got a job working as a waiter, without any prior experience. As you may expect, I had to struggle to serve the customers and I am pretty sure my boss was not very happy with my performance. One night I decided to play soccer after school instead of going to work because one of my schoolmates had asked me repeatedly to play on his team. You guess it right! I was fired the next night when I went to work. It was quite a blow to me, but that taught me a lesson: work and responsibility should always be ahead of play and pleasure. I will never forget it.
Soccer helped me to reconnect with the La Salle Old Boys
I had lost contact with most of my classmates after I left Hong Kong. All these years (over 40) living in the San Francisco Bay Area I never knew there was a local LSCOBA chapter. 
In fact I had not met a La Salle Old Boy other than a few former classmates until 2002 when I received an email from Louis Chan informing me that the SF chapter was going to host a soccer tournament for all the North America LSCOBA chapters. That was the first Global Reunion and Tournament. Since then the tournament became an annual event hosted by one of the LSCOBA chapters in USA and Canada. I had attended every one of them, meeting lots of Old Boys, making new friends and rekindling old ones. So far I had played in every tournament and was always the oldest player on the field.
When I went to Toronto for the 2004 Global Reunion, I was surprised to find so many 61ers living there. We filled up more than 2 tables for dinner. Since then, I have been to Toronto a couple of more times, attending weddings of Michael Yuen’s children. Some of the 61ers came to my daughter, Jenni’s wedding in 2006. We also had made a couple of trips together to Japan, and the West Coast.
In 2007, when the Global Reunion was held in Hong Kong, I played on the school field with three of the 1962 A grade teammates and wore the same jersey number (#2) when I was on the school team. That was the first time we saw each other since I left La Salle, almost 50 years later.
Soccer injuries
When playing contact sports long enough, injuries are hard to avoid. For all the years of playing I had dished out injuries to the opponents: a few broken noses and one broken leg. On the receiving side, I have been relatively lucky, mainly just sprained ankles and knees, except one major injury. At the time of the injury I didn’t think I would ever play again. About 5 years ago, my forehead was crushed in when I collided with another player. Now I have a metal plate on my forehead. It’s amazing that there are no obvious scars. The plastic surgeon did a fantastic job.
Soccer and World Cup
I have volunteered for the professional soccer league and international matches for over 20 years. It gave me the opportunity to meet some of the world class players up close and in person: Lionel Messi, David Beckham, Landon Donovan …I actually worked at the 1994 World Cup Tournament and was inside the locker rooms and on the sideline during those World Cup games. The Brazilian team stayed in Los Gatos which is less than 10 minutes from where I live. The Brazilians knew how to celebrate, samba dancing in the streets of Los Gatos every night. The most memorable game was US vs Brazil on July 4th (US National Day), in the packed Stanford Stadium with close to 100 thousand spectators. Many were cheering for the underdog, the host team. There were red, white and blue throughout the stadium. Brazil “narrowly” won by one goal and went on to win the World Cup. After the game I was told that I was on national (may even be international) TV for a few seconds when I walked the ejected (red card) Brazilian player off the field to the locker room.
I also volunteered for the 1999 Women’s Word Cup with my daughter and worked in both of the games that China played in San Jose. China won both and advanced to the final when they lost on penalty kicks.
Working in the World Cups and world class events is a once in a lifetime experience. The anticipation before the game and the excitement during the game is entirely different when you are on the field where the action is. It’s not the same when you are a spectator on the stands. Walking out of the tunnel onto the field with tens of thousands spectators cheering on makes your adrenaline flow. This kind of feeling money can’t buy. In fact I can honestly say I have the experience of running onto the field for a soccer game with thousands and thousands of spectators cheering on. (Of cause I wouldn’t mention whether I was a player or not!)
Soccer helps me make life-long friends from all over the globe
In the Bay Area, soccer is a favorite sport among many ethnic groups, especially Europe, Great Britain, Mexico and South America. Many of them I have played with/against for over 25 years. We became good friends including some of those whom we had physical fights with during some of our games.
Soccer enables me to meet interesting people
Currently I play with three Brits who had been to Hong Kong. In fact one of them was the assistant to the Royal Air Force Commander in Hong Kong in the late 50’s and early 60’s (when we were at La Salle). He knew the Governor and can name all the rich and important Chinese in Hong Kong. He even played for the Hong Kong Football Club. Another Brit currently is working in Shenzhen, and he comes back to San Francisco once every two to three months. Whenever he comes back he plays with us.
I had also played with an Irishman who was a priest before. He had visited Hong Kong in the 60’s and stayed with the La Salle Brothers at St. Joseph. He told me he stayed at Kennedy Road. It’s a small world.
Last year I also ran into one La Salle Old Boy, Albert Chan . He showed up in one of our pick up games. We did not talk much but somehow he gave me the impression that he might be a La Salle boy. I confirmed that later with him. He graduated in 67. I don’t know why I could pick him out but I just did.
Soccer brings me to many places
Amateur soccer is very popular in the US. There are many annual regional and national adult tournaments. Among my own tournaments and my daughters’ tournaments, soccer has brought me to places throughout the State of California, Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, Canada, Germany and Greece. We are planning a soccer trip to Costa Rica early next year. After that, I can claim to have played soccer in four continents!
Soccer and retirement
Before I retired in 2008, I always thought retirement would be a drag as I used to the Silicon Valley 12-hour workdays. However, I can say I have not been bored since I retired. So far I have not had a day that I had to look for things to do. In fact I am just as busy as when I was working. We have a group of over 60 soccer players in the SF Bay Area with a contact list of over 100 names. We play 4 times a week and we have beer and lunch after the games. These are not competitions but pick up games. We even use bags for goal posts when we do not have enough players to use the entire field, just like when we were kids. We have come a full circle.
As we age, keeping ourselves active both physically and mentally is a high priority. Soccer provides an excellent means for me to achieve both as I find going to the gym too boring.
I believe our physical activities should not be limited by our age. We should be as active as our health allows. Some may be able to do more; some may be less. I do understand health can limit our physical activities, as my back pain had stopped me from playing for over 6 months last year, but I worked my way back. In our over 60’s group, quite a few are over 70 and some of them actually are very fit and serious players. Every year over 10 thousand senior athletes participate in a statewide event called California State Senior Games (for 50 and over) which modeled after the Olympics. Some of athletes are well into their 70’s and 80’s and they are still competing.
I intend to keep my soccer hobby as long as I can.