Youth and College
Wynalda, of Dutch ancestry, grew up in Westlake Village, California. As a child his team (the Westlake Wolverines, with Eric's father Dave as the head coach) won the state championship in AYSO soccer as Wynalda scored more goals than the entire division his team played in, combined (56 goals in 16 games). He later attended Westlake High School and was a three time All State selection with the school's boys soccer team and a youth club team mate of fellow national team player Cobi Jones.
He attended San Diego State University from 1987 to 1989 where he played for the Aztecs men's soccer team, scoring 34 goals and assisting on 25 others during his three seasons. His freshman year, SDSU went to the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship game where it lost to the Bruce Murray led Clemson Tigers. While at SDSU, he also played two seasons with the local semi-pro San Diego Nomads of the Western Soccer Alliance. In 1988, he played a single game and in 1989, he played 5 games with the Nomads.
Read more about this topic: Eric Wynalda
Famous quotes containing the words youth and/or college:
“Do they merit vitriol, even a drop of it? Yes, because they corrupt the young, persuading them that the mature world, which produced Beethoven and Schweitzer, sets an even higher value on the transient anodynes of youth than does youth itself.... They are the Hollow Men. They are electronic lice.”
—Anthony Burgess (b. 1917)
“If any proof were needed of the progress of the cause for which I have worked, it is here tonight. The presence on the stage of these college women, and in the audience of all those college girls who will some day be the nation’s greatest strength, will tell their own story to the world.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)