Thursday, November 20, 1997
By George, he does it!
SOCCER: As he follows the model set by his older brother, junior
forward Seth George keeps marching to ‘a much different beat’
By Vytas Mazeika
Daily Bruin Staff
"Don’t put that in (the article) because that was a terrible
thing that he did," Julie George said. "I said, ‘If you’re going to
be a role-model for younger kids, you better not be doing things
like that.’ That was terrible. That was very scary. I don’t think
you probably want to mention that. That wasn’t one of his most
brilliant things."
The incident to which his mother refers is when Seth George
picked up his skateboard, put his headphones on and skateboarded 13
hours down the boardwalk from UCLA to Mission Viejo.
What Seth wants, Seth does.
Seth George, a junior forward on the No. 2 UCLA men’s soccer
team, does things the way he wants to.
"It doesn’t surprise me," UCLA head coach Sigi Schmid said after
first hearing of George’s trek. "He just marches to a much
different beat sometimes. There are things where you scratch your
head and hear about something happening and sort of wonder, ‘Geez,
what was that?’ And then you hear ‘Well, it was Seth’ and you go
‘OK’ and you sort of move on.
"That’s just him. He has a reason for it and it makes sense to
him. And when you talk to him about it, you sort of sit there and
say, ‘Yeah, I guess it sort of makes sense in a strange sort of
way.’ But it’s not what you think the average person would do."
When he finally got home that day, it was four in the morning.
George walked into his home and the conversation he had with his
mother went something like this:
Seth: I’m home.
Julie: Oh, good. Who brought you?
Seth: I skateboarded.
Julie: No, you didn’t.
Seth: I did, Mom. I rode my skateboard home. I had to get
home.
Julie: No, you didn’t.
Seth: Oh, you’re right. Josh brought me home.
"I went to bed and then the next morning I heard him on the
phone with one of his brothers and I said, ‘You’ve got to be
kidding,’" Julie George explained. "He swore to me he wouldn’t do
anything like that again. That was terrible."
George, who also surfs and spends time at the beach, said that
skateboarding was the "hip" way to get around in Mission Viejo.
So when he picked up his board after a final to relax, it just
sounded like something to do to him.
"It was nice," George said. "It was an awesome trip; it was
nice."
Doug George, his father, understands that his son does things in
an unorthodox fashion.
"Seth has always done things that we can’t believe he does,"
Doug George said. "But he’s able to do it – most people don’t even
try. I don’t know whether that is smart, dumb or something else,
but it was just a challenge to him and he did it."
No matter how many reasons George gives for why he came to UCLA,
only one really stands out.
He was familiar with the environment and the people in charge of
the soccer program. He was a little scared as to how he would fit
in at a place like UCLA. Yet it was so soccer-oriented that he
couldn’t pass up the chance to become a Bruin.
But those weren’t his only reasons for deciding to come to
Westwood. Sam George, one of Seth George’s four brothers, played at
UCLA. Sam George now plays for the Tampa Bay Mutiny of Major League
Soccer.
"My brother, Sam, is the main influence in anything I do,"
George said. "He’s what keeps me going. Through the not scoring and
stuff, he’s the one that keeps my head up. In the Cal State
Sacramento game last year (in which George tied a UCLA record with
four goals), he was there. Usually two goals, I’m done. I’ll tell
the coach to take me out. He’s like ‘Keep going. Get more." Honest
to God, that’s the reason why I scored four goals."
George was disappointed when he couldn’t score a goal against
Duke in the UCLA Soccer Classic because his brother was there.
Julie George emphasizes how George is very family-oriented and
talks to at least one family member every day.
"He idolizes all of them, but Sam, having the UCLA connection
with him – he kind of looks to Sam as his mentor for college
soccer," Julie George said. "When he kind of gets off track, he
likes to talk to Sam … so Sam is real down-to-earth with him and
real tough.
"A real big praise is very hard to come by from Sam. So when you
go to Sam, you know you’re going to get it straight from the
horse’s mouth and I think he really appreciates that."
George believes that he will never be as good as his older
brother. George may have the talent level to surpass his older
brother, but there is a mental block that won’t allow him to, says
George.
"He’s twice as good as I am," George said. "I’ll never deny it.
He’s like the one player in the world that I’ll never beat. Maybe
it’s because he’s my older brother and he’s in my head, but I can
never beat him. … I have so much respect for him as a player;
maybe that’s part of the reason why."
Schmid, who also coached Sam George from 1988 to 1991, believes
that the George family can only be compared in their competitive
spirit.
"They are completely different players," Schmid said. "Seth can
do things that Sammy never could do, in terms of striking the ball
and scoring goals and his vision of passing. And Sammy does things
that Seth doesn’t do, in terms of his tackling, his ability to win
50/50 challenges and his ability to lead a team through his
work-rate example.
"The common trait amongst the entire George family is they hate
losing. They just absolutely hate losing," Schmid said.
Not only does George hate losing, he also hates
underperforming.
George considers his freshman year as an adjustment period in
which he didn’t actually understand his role on the team.
While he started 12 of 21 games, George said Schmid would pull
him out of the game 20 minutes in.
Then last season he became known as "Super Sub" because of his
prolific goal-scoring success off the bench. George felt that he
began leaning toward a direction in his progress as a soccer player
during that sophomore season.
Finally, George was given the opportunity to start at forward on
a consistent basis in 1997. He has become a more complete
player.
It is considered "pathetic" when a goal-scorer like George is
shutout in a game. But George, for the most part, is content with a
team victory.
"When we play good teams I can score sometimes," George
explained. "But when we play really bad teams, they call them
stat-paupers, and when I don’t score on those kind of games it is
kind of frustrating. To keep up with guys that are scoring 30 goals
a season, you gotta score on little nothing games."
Doug George instilled in Seth the idea that one’s efforts are
not all about statistics, but rather "having something to show for
it."
So when George hit a slump this season and couldn’t find the
back of the net with any of his shots, he wasn’t very content.
Since one of George’s goals is to enjoy his time on the soccer
field, he sometimes becomes a little too self-conscious about his
game. But he and roommate Martin Bruno, also a forward, have the
perfect balance of fun and commitment to soccer.
"When we’re at the apartment there is always a soccer game on –
whether it is the English league or the MLS," George said. "Our
rooms are filled with soccer posters. But we don’t take it to an
extreme, you know. When it gets too intense, we like to back off a
little. We try to get relaxed before a game and eat a Snickers bar
and just kind of take it lightly, because deep down we take it so
seriously and it does you no good to go out on the field stressed
out – especially as a forward."
This summer George hopes to practice with the Tampa Bay Mutiny
and Sam George. The chance to train with older, more experienced
players greatly appeals to him because of how much he can
learn.
George has a four-year plan with which he aims to perfect his
game. According to both himself and Schmid, George has made leaps
and bounds both physically and mentally.
"There are people that come out here when it’s kind of too late,
but not really, and have to cram," George said. "You know, cramming
for tests as an example. Rather than cramming for the MLS, I’ve
spread it out to where I’ll be ready to go to the MLS when it’s
time. I want to be a complete player by the time I’m done here so I
can go to the next level."
For George, being the leading scorer is no longer enough. He
wants to be a key reason why the team wins.
This commitment to team success was best portrayed by his
back-to-back three-assist games – first against Duke and then in
the season finale against UC Santa Barbara.
George already matched his last-season goal-scoring total of 12.
He has also been the team’s points leader with 31 in 1996 and 34 so
far this season. George feels that where he is right now is
"perfect" and anything else he achieves is a bonus.
Schmid believes that George is ready to break out of his
second-half goal-scoring slump, and if George regains his ability
to predict how many goals he can score, Santa Clara could be in
trouble in Sunday’s NCAA first-round game.
"He said to me over the phone while I was in Kansas City
(visiting my parents) that he was going to score four goals," Julie
George said, of the time George scored four times against Cal State
Sacramento in last season’s final game.
"Then he kind of went on the idea that he could predict how many
he was going to score for a little while. So then he had to have
another reality check on that one."
What Seth wants, Seth does.