It was his senior year at Plant City High School and his team was on its way to the State Cup, but Brian Fekete was done playing soccer. He was burnt out from a childhood of pee wee leagues, hour long game commutes and weekends drowned in nothing but soccer. He was ready to move on.
Fekete was a recruited player coming out of high school but he wanted to go to the University of Florida and become a doctor or a lawyer.
“I see this alot,“ University of Tampa men’s soccer coach Adrian Bush said. “It’s tough to hear a kid say he wants to be a doctor and try to convince him to play soccer.”
After Fekete’s team made it to the final four he and coach Bush had a long talk. “I told him he had a place UT,” Coach Bush said. “He said he’d think about it. Said if he was gonna play soccer it’d be at UT. He talked to his dad and a week later called me up and said he’d play for us.”
That decision ended up being somewhat life changing for Fekete as he was drafted in the third round of the supplemental draft of Major League Soccer last month to Sporting Kansas City. Fekete decided to forgo his final semester at UT in pursuit of an MLS career.
In a phone interview from his training facility in Tucson, Arizona, Fekete pointed to the UT coaching staff and soccer program as a reason for his success. “UT is one of the best schools at soccer in the nation,” Fekete explained. “The coaching, all the knowledge on the game is second to none.”
But for Fekete to get drafted as a Division II athlete, he needed some help getting noticed. That’s where Coach Bush and his contacts inside the soccer world came into play and got Feteke in as one of the last invites to the MLS combine.
One of the only DII players at the combine, Feteke reminisced how he was looked past by nearly every other player there. “They hear you’re from a DII school and they think you can’t play or something,” Fekete said. “I was fighting a battle for being a DII kid.”
Coach Bush stressed that he could only do so much to help Fekete get drafted; the remaining responsibility lay with him. “We got him into the combine but he had to go in there and produce,” Coach Bush said. “And that’s exactly what he did.”
Fekete’s performance at the combine landed him interviews with four different teams before eventually being drafted by Sporting KC.
Coaches and players agree that Fekete has always had that little something extra about him that made them believe he could play at the next level.
Goalkeeper Zach Niederhauser played with Fekete for a year and a half and remembers being amazed by his play. “We always knew he was something special. One time we were in a 1-1 tie game with about three minutes left. We had a corner kick and we had been putting pressure on them forever,” Niederhauser explained. “The ball came in and bounced around the box a couple times. Feteke started to head back on D when he thought the opportunity was over. Ball came to him and he hit it with the back of his heel on a whim. Ball rolled in and we won the game.”
The sentiment rings true for coach Bush as well. “Never been a question of if he could play professionally,” Coach Bush clarified. “He’s always had a little something about him, getting him right mentally was always the thing.”
Fekete starting off his training for Sporting KC a little sick but has since been able to overcome it and hopes to be able to secure a spot on the team. “The training here is 200 times harder,” Fekete said with a laugh. “The coach demands perfection in everything. But it has been positive so far, I don’t want to jinx it though.”
Another UT graduate hoping to make it in professional sports is left handed pitcher Sean Bierman. Drafted in the 10th round of the 2012 Major League Baseball draft to the Tampa Bay Rays, Bierman remains in the minors hoping to work his way to the big leagues. “It’s always been a goal of mine,” said Bierman. “Got to stick with the process.”
Bierman, a transfer to UT from Vanderbilt University, was dealt a bad hand in 2010 when he was informed he needed Tommy John surgery. After two full years of rehab, Bierman made it back to the mound in February 2012 and showed he had enough to be selected in the June draft.
As Bierman continues through his grind in the minors he notes that the bus rides are the worst parts. “The bus rides, gosh,” Bierman grumbled. “40 days in a row with no day off. You have to stay really mentally tough.”
Right now it’s major leagues or bust for Bierman but in the future, he explains, he might not feel the same way. “Right now I’m moving in one direction. If I don’t get there I might see it as a failure,“ Bierman professed. “But down the line I might look back on it and say what I’ve done is a success.”
Bierman had a 2.75 ERA in 11 games for the Hudson Valley Renegades in the New York-Penn League.
As Bierman looks to move to the next level, he looks back and attributes his success to two things: coaching and family. “Coach Urso and the coaching staff are the best around,” said Bierman. “But my parents helped me through everything since I was six. They’ve been extremely supportive. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Unfortunately for Bierman there is no secret recipe for getting to the show, no step-by-step checklist he can follow. For him, staying healthy and remaining consistent are the keys to actualizing his dream.
But no matter how his career turns out he wants to be known for more than a good player. “I want to be remembered as a good teammate,” Bierman said, “and a good person.”
As Bierman and Fekete fight to make a career in professional sports for themselves, they both understand the difficulty that lies ahead and the sacrifice required to make it a reality.
“You’ve got to keep that fire, can’t be satisfied where you’re at,” Fekete said with a serious tone. “Can’t stay in neutral, others with that fire will surpass you and you’ll find yourself out of the league.”
You may want to find and replace: it is Fekete, not Feteke.