New Game, Same Goal

His Notre Dame High football team never lost to an opponent from the Valley. He once passed for 367 yards and three touchdowns, and as the Valley’s leading punter in 1984, he had one kick of 79 yards. He also quarterbacked the last team to beat Canyon, now the owner of a 34-game winning streak.

Monday afternoon, as fading sunlight cast shadows across a soccer field in Woodland Hills, Tom Schaefer, soccer goalie, was fielding shots from his Mission College teammates. Silhouetted on a hill several hundred yards away stood the Pierce College Stadium where Schaefer could have continued his football career.

Schaefer is casting the same promising shadow in a different game.

“It was tough deciding between football and soccer,” said Schaefer, who was all-league at Notre Dame. “But I love soccer . . . I really love soccer.

“Pierce and Glendale wanted me to kick,” he said. “I don’t think I would have played quarterback . . . “

So Schaefer is guarding goal for the No. 10-ranked soccer team in the state as it prepares for the playoffs.

“He’s definitely a prospect for junior college All-American,” said Mission Coach Frank Parodi.

Schaefer plans to play at Mission next season and then try for what should be a vacant goalie job at UC Santa Barbara, a Division I team.

“He’s the most talented keeper I have seen at this level in California,” said Parodi.

And Schaefer is still throwing the ball.

Said Parodi: “He’ll throw the ball halfway down the field and guys will say, ‘Oh my God, he threw it right to my feet.’ ”