By Dennis Miller
When I first heard that my good friend and former teammate at both Ballistic United and Amador Valley High Kevin Crow was being inducted into the Cal-North Hall of Fame, my first reaction was, “What? He’s not already in there?”
Crow, the Executive Director for the Ballistic United Soccer Club, has been deservedly inducted into several Hall of Fame’s, so naturally assumed he was already in the Cal North HOF.
He is now.
Crow will be officially introduced at the Cal North 3rd Annual Hall of Fame Night September 20 at Pay Pal Park as part of the festivities surrounding the San Jose Earthquakes hosting St. Louis.
If there is ever a player worthy of the recognition he has been awarded for his playing career, it’s Crow.
While we were growing up, every summer we could always be hanging at one of our houses figuring out what we were going to do that day.
Once we arrived at our schedule – beach, movies, swimming, whatever – Crow would tell us he had to go for a 5-mile run before he could go. He always asked if we wanted to go but almost every time, the rest of us would lay around in the front room and wait for him.
After we graduated from high school from Amador Valley in 1979, we went to Hawaii with many from our graduating class.
We were roommates and he made me go running each morning. It was usually five miles along the beach. Bear in mind at the time the drinking age is 18 in Hawaii, so morning five mile runs were not fun.
You get the picture of his dedication and how deserving he was of all the success.
Following a huge youth and high school career, he starred at San Diego State where he was a two-time All-American.
After college he played for the San Diego Sockers in the North American Soccer League (outdoors) and the Major Indoor Soccer League. Indoors he played for 10 years with the Sockers and they won eight titles.
He was a five-time defender of the year and a seven-time first team all-league selection.
He also played in the Olympics in 1984 and 1988 for the United States and earned 13 caps with the U.S. National team.
As for the Hall of Fame honors, these include the Tri-Valley Hall of Fame, Ballistic United Hall of Fame, Amador Valley High Hall of Fame, San Diego State Hall of Fame, and the Indoor Soccer Hall of Fame. And now he has the Cal North Hall of Fame to his resume.
No too bad indeed.
I recently had the chance to talk with him about some topics relating to his career in soccer. Here is our visit.
What means the most to you about this honor?
It’s a wonderful honor and very unexpected. I loved the fact that I only played in Cal North in my youth, moving to Pleasanton and playing for Ballistic, then 15 years ago, came back to get involved with the club. I also played for only one college (San Diego State), and one professional team (San Diego Sockers). I guess I am sort of loyal!
Looking back, what are your favorite memories?
In the under-14 age group with the ODP program, it was the first time Cal North took a team abroad to England. These were those memories that gave me the idea to launch Ballistic abroad in 2012. We offer and player and their family in the under-14 age group (Rec, Comp, MLS) an opportunity to go on a 10-day trip during spring break to England! Recently, it would be helping Cal North navigate through the COVID time frame.
What advice do you give kids today on going forward?
To let the wonderful sport of soccer help teach them life lessons. I am a firm believer that hard work pays off! Work through adversity, learning how to work as a team pays off as you get older.
Shifting gears, the Pleasanton planning commission approved futsal center. Where are you with that?
There is a waiting period of 15 days after we got approval. So, around August 7, we should be able to begin putting the fields together. It will take about 45 days from start to finish.
