Kick-Starting A Love For Soccer Long-Lost Passion For The Game Has Been Rekindled For Briton

After not being able to do something you enjoy for years and then finally being able to do it, it’s not a surprise you may do it in abundance.

For Vic Sands, a Spokane resident, that something is playing soccer.

Sands, who grew up in England with soccer, has a passion for the game.

“The soccer ball is like the baseball and mitt in America,” he said. “Americans played baseball, and we played soccer.”

Although he was not a great star, Sands played organized soccer in high school.

When he immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1960s, Sands was disappointed to learn soccer was virtually non-existent in the States.

“When I came here, soccer was dead,” he said.

Sands did get a chance to play a little, but it was not because of the sport’s accessibility or popularity.

The U.S. Army drafted Sands during the Vietnam War and he played on a base team while carrying out his military duties.

“Since I was English, I guess they just assumed I played soccer,” he said.

After the war, Sands lost touch with the game he so loved as he tried to make a place for himself in the U.S.

It was not until he moved to the Spokane area in the late 1970s that Sands looked to find a match.

Since he found one, he hasn’t stopped playing.

“My flame for soccer was really rekindled after I moved to Spokane, and I have spent the last 15 years playing,” he said.

Sands, a planner for Hewlett-Packard, plays in four to five matches a week in a variety of leagues from outdoor coed to indoor men’s.

Although exercise and the team element draw Sands to soccer, he admits he enjoys the competition the most.

“At one point, I was on six teams in five different leagues,” he said.

Sands’ family shares his passion for the game. His wife and two daughters also play.

“My wife often teases me that I would miss my own wedding for a soccer match,” he said.

Sands, 51, who is a living example that soccer is not just for those in their 20s, has seen soccer grow in Spokane since the 1980s.

“There are now many levels in town from extremely competitive to those just fooling around,” he said. “It just used to be college players.

“Spokane is quite the soccer town,” he said. “It is not there yet, but it is close.”

Sands is getting ready for the beginning of the Pacific Northwest Soccer League’s fall season.

The league provides men’s and women’s outdoor soccer in recreational and competitive divisions in the fall, spring, and summer.

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MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Pacific NW Fall Soccer League Starts: Sunday at 8 a.m. at Franklin Park. Matches run until 2 p.m. Cost: $25 per person, $350 per team Last day to register: Saturday Registration forms: Just-A-Kick, The Soccer Specialist. Also on web at www.eznet.com/pnsl Divisions: Men’s and women’s recreational and competitive; ages 18 and up