You must have had the dream before. You know, the one where you’re standing at home plate in Fenway Park, your favorite number sewn on the back of your dirt-covered white uniform.
Your team’s down by one. There are three balls, two strikes, two outs. You know the drill. You stride up there against (fill-in name of N.L. Cy Young-winning closer) and tap the dirt off your cleats. You stare down the pitcher and dig in.
Crack!
And suddenly you wake up, sweating like you did Tae Bo during R.E.M. sleep, the Green Monster nowhere in sight.
For some of us, this is a weekly occurrence. It leaves us waking up the next day hoping and praying that the dream would instantly become reality.
For Andy Dorman, that dream actually is reality. On Tuesday April 13, 2004, the BU star midfielder signed a Developmental Player and Transitional International contract with Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution.
“Signing any professional contract was a dream of mine,” Dorman said. “And even though it was developmental, it still meant a lot.”
Imagine this chain of events for just a second. He goes home for Christmas break, trains like he’s 40 pounds overweight (he’s 5-foot-11, 150 pounds – more in need of McDonald’s than a treadmill), comes back just as motivated as he was during the season and blows people away at the MLS combine. Then he goes and works that into a deal with the Revs.
Take your normal life right now, trying to finish up your senior year’s worth of work and taking five classes to do it. At the same time, he’s been hitting up three Revolution training sessions a week on average, plus training with the team here as well.
Right now, I’d rather be kicked in the groin by Mia Hamm than follow that schedule.
“This semester has been tough, I have been really busy because [of all the] classes and getting to and from training takes so long,” he said. “But as soon as I am done with school, then I can start lifting as well in the afternoons so that I can be in the best possible shape.”
He sounds excited at the thought of school being out and soccer being his only focus.
What? Is he nuts?
This guy spent the last two months running himself into a post-marathon-esque stupor. And he wants more?
I guess that’s just it. The rest of us can only dream because we don’t have that drive – that extra effort it takes to achieve so much. He went home looking forward to the MLS player combine. He’s leaving school in May looking forward to a season of hard work at practice and sparse minutes on the field.
And you know what? He’s as excited as anyone I’ve talked to about leaving in May.
He’s excited because he can finally exit the college game. He gets to put his phenomenal skills on the table against some of the best this country has to offer. But he also understands that it’s also only going to get tougher as he continues to move up.
“The training is a lot faster, everyone has unbelievable first touches and their speed of play is a lot quicker [than in college],” he said. And this is coming from a two-time All-Conference First Team player. Impressive and scary all at once.
The interesting thing about Dorman, other than dribbling skills that could turn the average defender into a Windsor knot, is that he represents the only non-hockey playing BU athlete this year to be signed by an American professional franchise. Everybody has been talking about Ryan Whitney’s defection to the NHL for weeks. It’s been the most significant hockey story since the season ended.
But what about Dorman? He’s only the third soccer player in the history of this university to join the MLS. Over the past weekend, he managed to play about 90 seconds, making his pro debut as the Revs lost to the San Jose Earthquakes. Is anybody else amazed by this?
I know what you’re going to say. It’s just the MLS. He’s not in England or Spain or Italy.
True, but that’s still a few steps higher than you will ever get. Of course, as peeved as I am about the lack of interest in all things non-Jack Parker, Andy Dorman remains the coolest customer around.
“It isn’t really a factor for me being the only pro athlete,” the senior said. “But hopefully it encourages other people on the soccer team that they can do the same and have an opportunity to play pro after college.”
I’ve known Andy since my freshman year and he hasn’t changed a bit. He’s still the nicest guy in the athletic department. He’s still an amazing soccer player, the best this school has had since 1990.
He remains one of the fiercest competitors around. Of course, he’ll need that at the next level.
Sometimes dreams actually do come true.
Nikhil Bramhavar, a senior in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation
Sciences, is a weekly sports columnist for The Daily Free Press.