Kirk Takes Helm for CSUN’s Mission in Division II Soccer

Stardate 11-20-87. This is another playoff voyage of the Starship Matador . Its yearly--though heretofore unsuccessful--mission is to win the NCAA Division II soccer championship.

Meet Capt. Joey W. Kirk. A single-minded leader capable of energizing any game in which he plays.

Tonight at 7:30 at North Campus Stadium, Kirk plans to boldly take Cal State Northridge where no Matador soccer team has gone before--past Seattle Pacific in a playoff game.

“There’s no way we’re going to lose,” Kirk said. “I’ll bet the farm on it.”

If history is any indication, it’s a good thing Kirk’s parents don’t own acreage around their home in Granada Hills. In each of the past two years, in the second round of the playoffs, CSUN has bought the farm against Seattle Pacific, the two-time defending national champion.

Kirk, however, is an optimist. At 22, he already has proven he’s one of the best forwards in college soccer. The 5-10, 160-pound senior played for a U. S. National team in South Korea last summer, is a candidate for the 1988 Olympics team and probably will have the opportunity to pursue a professional career in Europe or the Major Indoor Soccer League.

But for now, beating Seattle Pacific in the Western regional final and advancing to the Final Four is Kirk’s objective. And when he needs a reminder of the task at hand, he looks at his own left palm that is covered with an inscription in bold, black letters:

BEAT SPU.

“Last year when we lost, it hurt. It hurt a lot,” Kirk said. “I know that feeling still and I’m going to make sure we don’t lose. This is just a reminder.”

It will be difficult for any coach or player in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. to forget Kirk, who was named conference player of the year two years in a row. This season, Kirk led CSUN (17-1-1) to its fourth consecutive conference title. He set school records for goals (30) and points (76) in a season and goals (59) and points (161) in a career.

Moreover, Kirk elevates the play of the Matadors with his increased ability to read the field with his back to the goal and pass on one touch to teammates streaking toward the net.

“Joey is the best center-forward in the nation at laying the ball off to people among a crowd of defenders,” said CSUN Coach Marwan Ass’ad, whose team is ranked No. 1 in Division II. “This is a quality that great forwards are made of.

“He has developed his game mentally as well as physically. He is a great, great player and is still capable of taking his game to a higher level. He is the most complete player I’ve ever had at Northridge.”

Kirk is the boy wonder of Valley-area soccer, a link to the genesis of the youth soccer boom. He began playing locally at age 5 and later led Alemany High to the Southern Section 3-A title in 1983. Crowds at CSUN games, among the largest in college soccer, are full of preteen fans who yell Kirk’s name when the Matadors take the field at the beginning of a game and request his autograph when it ends.

“I’ve had so much fun, it’s going to be tough to leave,” Kirk said. “On the national team, I’ve played with a lot of guys from Division I schools and I’ve seen all the prestige and recognition they get. But I wouldn’t trade Northridge for anything.”

That’s easy to say now. Four years ago, Kirk almost traded life at CSUN for a haircut.

The incident occurred after an unspectacular freshman season during which Kirk scored three goals and had six assists. Unprepared for a year-round commitment to a soccer program, Kirk made excuses for missing some of Ass’ad’s five-day-a-week spring practice sessions.

One day, Kirk called Ass’ad’s office and left a message that he would miss practice because he was getting his hair cut. A member of the CSUN staff called Kirk at home and told him he was off the team if he didn’t show up for practice. Kirk decided long hair was in style.

“I was stubborn,” he said. “I went all the time after that and I found out the coaches were right. I began to develop as a player that spring.”

In his sophomore season, Kirk raised his goal total to 12 and also had nine assists. In the last game of the season, against Missouri-St. Louis, Kirk was kicked in the right leg. He thought nothing of the incident because, as his mother, Barbara, said: “He’s the bull’s-eye whenever he plays.”

A few weeks later, Kirk noticed a sharp pain behind his right knee. When the pain was still there at the beginning of spring practice, Ass’ad ordered Kirk to have the leg X-rayed. The diagnosis: a hairline fracture on one side of the knee and a tumor the size of an orange on the other.

“I just thought, ‘I have cancer,’ ” Kirk said.

A biopsy, however, revealed that the tumor was benign. In May, 1985, doctors removed the growth, replaced it with a cement mixture and told Kirk to hang up his Lottos because he’d never play soccer again.

Doctors’ advice notwithstanding, Kirk began kicking a ball around his backyard with his left foot. “My mom was screaming at me, ‘You’re going to be crippled!’ ” he said.

The 1985 season, which Kirk missed while recuperating from the surgery, was perhaps the most important of his career. He missed the demands of structured practices, but he strengthened his right leg playing for club teams and embraced the game with new fervor.

“When he came back and first played he looked like an animal they just let out of a cage,” said Mike McAndrew, an all-conference midfielder who graduated from CSUN last year. “He just had so much energy. He finally got to release it. That year, as tough as it was for him, was a turnaround.”

Kirk scored 14 goals last season and showed his developing passing skills by contributing 12 assists. “When players come to CSUN, we teach them a lot about techniques and tactics, but you never know when that light is going to go on inside their head and they come together as a player,” Ass’ad said. “Sitting out that year made Joey appreciate being healthy. He showed a lot of character and persistence. The light turned on for him.”

Tonight against fifth-ranked Seattle Pacific (18-1-1), Kirk is hoping to light up the scoreboard. To do it, he’ll have to shed the Falcons’ Chris McDonald, a 6-5, 205-pound junior defender whom teammates call McDoom.

Kirk says that Seattle Pacific was lucky to beat the Matadors, 2-1, last season. He and his teammates have been waiting an entire year for a chance to avenge the defeat. They want a shot at their final frontier: The Final Four.