Despite His Size, Sockers’ Dougherty Is Coming Up Big

At 5-foot-2, there is perhaps no one who stands taller among the Sockers than Paul Dougherty.

Figuratively speaking, of course.

He doesn’t mind running opponents, most of whom are nearly a foot taller, off the ball. He doesn’t hesitate to mix it up along the boards.

And he’s not afraid to speak his mind.

Before he signed a contract last fall, Dougherty ripped the team’s ownership for not listening to the guy they hired to coach the team.

“Ron Newman has won eight championships. For someone not to listen to him is kind of ridiculous,” Dougherty said in October when he learned the Sockers weren’t going to offer him a contract.

He took a stand, and two days later he got his contract.

It is this kind of attitude that Dougherty takes with him onto the carpet. And defenders in the Major Soccer League know it. Dougherty might be pint-sized but he packs a quick punch.

“On the field I feel like no one is going to knock me down just because I’m smaller,” Dougherty said. “No one is going to get the best of me.”

In the Sockers’ game Thursday against the Tacoma Stars at the Sports Arena, Tacoma midfielder Nikola Ristic did knock down Dougherty. But Dougherty got the best of the situation.

Dougherty had beaten Ristic to a loose ball. Ristic made up for his lack of speed by shoving Dougherty, who went sliding across the carpet.

The whistle blew, stopping action, but Dougherty sprang to his feet and before he could even stand straight, restarted action by sending a quick pass to Rod Castro. With the Tacoma defenders still not reacting to Dougherty’s quick thinking, Castro put a shot behind goalie Cris Vaccaro and put the Sockers up, 1-0. The Sockers never trailed en route to a 10-7 victory.

This time Dougherty decided to play the ball rather than retaliate. However he isn’t afraid to go jaw-to-jaw or trade elbows with the league’s goons. He’ll challenge Wichita’s Dale Ervine, or kick the shins of Cleveland’s Bernie James and get away with it.

“I think most of that is inherited,” Dougherty said. “I come from a line of fighters. When we played soccer, we were determined, we were aggressive.

“My mother (Jean) is the same way. She doesn’t let anyone get the best of her and she’s even smaller than me (4-10).”

Dougherty uses the word “determined” to describe his playing style and the attitude that propelled him to a career in soccer.

“If you’re really determined, then you’re pushing yourself all the time and that’s the only reason I’ve been able to play professionally for all these years--because of my determination.”

It could also be said that Dougherty’s determination is somewhat synonymous with fear, which was instilled by his father who used to tell his son about growing up in coal mines.

Dennis Dougherty, who died of cancer several years ago, started working in the coal mines of northern England at age 14.

“He used to tell us stories about how bad it was,” Dougherty said. “He saw one of his best friends die in the mines when the roof caved in on him. He was only 10 yards away. He used to go to work in the morning when it was still dark. He would see nothing but darkness all day in the mines and when he left, the sky would be dark already. He wouldn’t see sunlight for weeks at a time.”

These stories, Dougherty said, gave him his sense of determination that helped him overcome his size at the age of 17, when he began playing professionally in the English first division with Wolverhampton.

“There are few people who have the skills to do that at the age Paul Dougherty did,” Newman said.

But Wolverhampton fell on hard times, going from Division 1 to Division 4 in three years. Dougherty decided he wanted out.

Although many foreign players come here because they lack the skills to play outdoors in Europe, that does not appear to be the case with Dougherty.

He simply wanted to play indoors, where short, quick passes are indigenous to the small playing field and where headers (and height) rarely come into play.

“He likes the ball at his feet,” teammate Brian Quinn said. “Where he has got a really nice touch with the ball.”

Now that Dougherty has found a brand of soccer that seems to accent his skills, it has been suggested that maybe his size helped develop those skills.

“Maybe because his legs aren’t that long,” Newman said, “he has an easier time with foot-eye coordination.

“When he hits those balls,” Newman continued, “there’s no one else I’d rather see take a shot than Paul Dougherty because he always puts them on target.”

Dougherty, however, doesn’t think his shots are any more true than anyone else’s. It’s just that he usually gets them off from right in front of the net.

“A lot of my shots,” Dougherty said, “are from close in. And the closer you are to the goal, the better chance you’ve got of scoring . . . “

Dougherty then paused and considered his coach’s theory.

“It might have something to do with my being small,” he continued. “Maybe my legs do the things I want them to do a lot quicker than if I were taller.”

Dougherty is known for a quick burst of speed, which he often employs in the penalty area when a loose ball is near. His goal Thursday against Tacoma was typical in that sense. After teammate Paul Wright’s shot banked off the glass above the goal, Dougherty reacted to the rebound an instant before Vaccaro did, took two steps toward the ball and slipped a shot between the posts.

“He was there like Johnny on the spot,” Quinn said.

Dougherty reportedly has one of the cleanest shots in the league. He now is second on the Sockers with 24 goals in 22 games. Not bad for a guy who has yet to start a game.

And not bad for a guy who showed up midway through training camp without a contract; a guy whom the team didn’t even want to sign despite Newman’s pleas.

Dougherty was set to go to Tacoma, where he was being enticed with a contract, only days before the season opener. Then the local media began reporting it.

Two days after the initial report, the club announced that it had signed Dougherty.

“It didn’t really bother me one way or another,” Dougherty said about his uncertainty at the beginning of the season. “I figured I’d sign somewhere else if I didn’t sign here.”

Dougherty hung around hoping things would work out because he began his indoor career here under Newman in 1986-87. He knew the style of play and he knew he would fit in.

At least he thought he would.

Dougherty left the Sockers at the end of the 1988-89 season. It was a sub-par season for Dougherty--18 goals in 42 games. That’s compared to 40 goals in 56 games the previous season.

Dougherty said he didn’t know what caused the drop off, but Newman said it had to do with Dougherty’s contract. After Dougherty’s 40-goal season, the club filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. When the Sockers re-emerged with the same principal owner, most players who re-signed did so at a reduction.

“He had a great year and wanted to be rewarded for it,” Newman said. “And I think he was a bit upset that he wasn’t rewarded. He spent the season sulking a little bit and wasn’t at the top of his game.”

Nothing changed last season after Dougherty left the Sockers and signed as a free agent with Baltimore. He ended up getting lost in Coach Kenny Cooper’s system, scoring only 13 goals.

The day after the Sockers beat Dougherty and the Blast for the league championship, the World Cup began in Italy. Dougherty started to ponder things.

“I got hungry for the outdoor game again,” he said.

If he was good enough to play Division 1 soccer at 17, surely he was good enough at 24 to play outdoors again.

So he went back to England and received an offer from Walsall of Division 4. But it was a low offer and Dougherty didn’t accept it.

A day later, Dougherty’s old coach from Wolverhampton, Graham Turner, called and proposed a one-month contract.

Wolverhampton had jumped from Division 4 when Dougherty last played there to Division 2. It boasted two international-quality players, Northern Ireland’s Robbie Dennison and England’s Steve Bull. Dougherty saw his chance to play the kind of soccer he enjoys.

Only one problem. Dougherty spent the month playing with the reserve team. When his trial period was over, he had failed to make the regular squad.

“All of it made me realize that things weren’t so bad here,” Dougherty said.

Newman could have told him that before he left.

“A lot of players who come here get homesick for the (outdoor) game,” Newman said. “The game is so much bigger in England. Every day you pick up the paper and there’s a big headline about your team. But they go back, and all of a sudden it’s not what they remembered.”

It’s a lesson Newman is glad Dougherty learned on his own.

“Paul got it out of his system,” Newman said. “Which makes him more of a settled player.”