After Haiti, Life in U.S. Has Been a Kick for Ladouceur : Soccer: This Socker midfielder saw some frightening things while growing up in Port-au-Prince. It was a tough start that helped him develop an appreciation for the American way of life.

Sometimes, in the middle of the night, the family next door would be taken away and never seen again.

A guy could get shot for stepping on the wrong person’s foot.

The military took what it wanted from the market. If a merchant protested, his life was threatened.

Jacques Ladouceur saw a lot of frightening things while growing up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Pardon him if he doesn’t get too worked up over losing a few indoor soccer games. It is nice that he is having the best season of his indoor career. Championships, trophies and champagne are nice, too. Freedom, security and peace of mind are nicer.

“You lose a few games and you can always come back and win,” says Ladouceur, who plays midfielder for the Sockers. “When you lose a few lives, you can never have them back.”

Life in Haiti was the ultimate character builder.

“Tough life,” Ladouceur says. “Very tough life for anybody, whether you’re a kid or an adult. Nothing comes easy. Every day was a basic struggle.

“Over there people die because someone said something that’s not true about them. People die for rumors. There’s not a day that goes by that you’re not afraid. Yeah, you can go out and play soccer, but the fear is still there. In those days freedom was light years away. You couldn’t see it, you couldn’t touch it, you couldn’t imagine it.”

Perhaps the toughest thing Ladouceur has to deal with here in the United States is people’s inability to recognize a good thing.

“People in this country are very fortunate,” he says. “I see people burning the flag and that brings out the worst in me because I know what this flag stands for and I know what other flags stand for. It’s just amazing that people take this system for granted.”

Ladouceur, 30, has always been grateful for the opportunities that come with U.S. citizenship. That isn’t to say life has been simple since he moved here. But perhaps because of his childhood in Haiti, he has always managed to swim instead of sink when plunged into strange surroundings.

He came to the United States at the age of 10 when, several years after his parents split up, his mother, Femina, accepted a job as a dress designer and moved Jacques, his brother and sister to New York City. Thrown into the melting pot where he was living in a neighborhood with Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and Americans, Ladouceur had to adapt quickly to a new language, a new school system and cold weather.

As for soccer, the sport he started playing in Haiti just after learning to walk, he was forced to be patient. Finding a pick-up basketball game in New York City is like finding McDonald’s. Finding a pick-up soccer game is like finding gold.

Ladouceur hung around Central Park, where players from foreign national teams would get together and play. He filled in when someone didn’t show up. Otherwise, he sat and watched.

“You learn a lot,” he says. “You could never say anything. You had no right being there in the first place so they told you what to do and you listened.”

In high school, Ladouceur was a dominant player on a mediocre team. He was also a darn good baseball player. You don’t run into too many purebred soccer players who take an interest in baseball. Yet Ladouceur, a speedy center fielder who could hit, enjoyed America’s game, though he still maintains it isn’t as exciting as soccer.

“Guys are hitting the ball in the gap--doubles and triples--and you run and can’t get it,” he says. “And the pitchers throw too many balls. You’re out in the field for 20 or 30 minutes.”

In college, Ladouceur focused his efforts on soccer and was a two-time junior college All-American at Montgomery-Fulton in New York and an All-American at Howard University. But his accomplishments apparently went unnoticed by the Major Indoor Soccer League and he wasn’t drafted.

His option was to leave the country. Panionios, a first Division Greek team, wanted him. Thing was, that meant uprooting again, learning a new lifestyle all over.

“Here I was going to be stuck in a country again where I didn’t speak the language,” he says. “And I didn’t know anybody. It was a tough decision.”

Sometimes you have to go where there is a job. In Greece, there was a job. So he went.

He spent three years there and things weren’t half bad. Certainly, he made a good deal more money than he makes here in the MISL. And soccer players are treated like royalty in Europe.

Ladouceur was chosen foreign player of the year in his second season, and everything was working out nicely until new management took over after his third season and made changes. Ladouceur didn’t like what was being done so he took off.

Soon after, he began playing for the U.S. National Team, and it was then that he ran into Socker Coach Ron Newman. Newman liked his skills and invited him for a tryout. In 1984, he made the team and began learning the indoor game. Another adjustment.

“You had guys who were established who weren’t doing many things wrong,” Ladouceur says. “When I first came out I was intimidated because I didn’t know any of these guys. It was very difficult to break in.”

He learned well enough to stick around for four seasons, playing 177 games and scoring 53 points.

Last season, when the Sockers didn’t have a place for him, Ladouceur struck out on his own and started a network-marketing business. He returned to make the team this season and, in his own low-profile way, has played an important role.

After a year away, Ladouceur says he feels less pressure. Having established security with his own business, he can relax and have a little fun. Soccer is still his passion, but it is no longer his meal ticket.

“He looks a little bit more composed,” Newman says. “I don’t think he’s so worried about the game. There were times (in the past) when I saw Jacques Ladouceur as being absolutely brilliant. Other times he couldn’t raise his game, maybe because of the pressures.”

With only soccer to rely on, there was a lot of pressure. Ladouceur, who was married six years ago and has a three-year old daughter, has more than himself to think about.

“He loves the game but he’s always going to be looking over his shoulder,” Newman says. “Jacques is a journeyman. He won’t make a fortune.”

What he does make, is a good teammate. He does a little bit of everything. He has scored 10 times, assisted 10 times and blocked 21 shots. He is also one of just three Sockers who have played in every game this season. His quickness and ability to win the ball and do something nice with it after he gets it has helped give the Sockers a small lift during a very forgettable season.

Quick as he is on the soccer field, he may be quicker with his mouth. Ladouceur can talk up a storm on most any subject. His nickname is “The Philosopher.” Maybe when you’ve seen as many things in as many parts of the world as he has, you tend to have a lot of opinions.

“If he was in Ireland,” Socker captain Brian Quinn says, “he’d be one of those guys in the bar every night looking for someone to argue with.”

Quinn has a solution.

“Sometimes you’ve got to put on the earphones and let him ramble,” he says. “A couple of pints of Guinness and he’d be fine.”