Goalkeeper Is Not Laughing Anymore : Soccer: After having some fun with the coach, Servite’s Eric Gunther has become a solid player in goal, seriously.

It started as a joke, really. Just a flippant line that Eric Gunther thought was funny.

’ ‘Hey coach, I’m coming out for soccer and I’m going to be your goalie.”

That was a commitment, as far as Servite High School Coach Rich Manning was concerned. He was a coach in need. The Friars returned no one in the goal and had nothing to draw on.

Then Gunther decided to be funny.

So what if he had never played soccer before? Desperate times called for desperate measures.

“I passed coach in the hall one day and told him I was his goalie,” said Gunther, who was a starting defensive tackle on the football team. “He turned to me and said, ‘I’ll see you after football season is over.’ ”

Ha, ha.

Thus began Gunther’s career as a goalkeeper. Now, with nearly a season under his belt, he’s sorry he started so late.

Gunther has been more than just a stop-gap measure. He’s legit.

“He’s been very, very good,” Manning said. “Much better than I expected. He’s picked up the game very fast. It’s been amazing.”

Gunther has six shutouts this season, including three in a row. Not a staggering number, but considering the Friars play in the tough Sunset League, it’s not too shabby.

It has been a season of learning for Gunther, in many ways. He has progressed as a goalkeeper and grown to love the game.

“I used to think soccer players were wimps,” Gunther said. “But after one day of practice, I was tired. I never knew they ran so much.”

Gunther, a senior, has been a football player--right down to his two tattoos--since he was a freshman. Oh, he fiddled around with baseball for a while, but quit after his sophomore season to lift weights.

He was a starting defensive tackle last season, helping the Friars to the Sunset League championship. He was quick and smart, but at 190 pounds, no college recruiters were interested.

With the season winding down, he had a lot of free time staring him in the face.

“At practice one day, my buddy Joe Vargas pointed to the soccer practice and said I should go out,” Gunther said. “But I wasn’t sure.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of that field, Manning was frantic, trying to find goalie.

Last year’s starter and his backup had graduated. The lower level teams were barren, one player had transferred and another quit to concentrate on baseball.

Manning was giving tryouts to anyone who could fog a mirror.

“I had a list of guys I thought might be good,” Manning said. “I went through a ton of guys. The funny thing was, Eric wasn’t on my list. One day, he said something about coming out for soccer and I jumped on it.”

Day 1 was an experience for Gunther and assistant coach Chris Koehler.

“I was really going by instincts at first,” Gunther said. “It seemed simple: Don’t let the ball in the net.”

Said Manning: “Chris came over after a while and said, ‘I can’t score on this Gunther. It’s kind of embarrassing.’ I knew we had something.”

It hasn’t been that easy. After all, there were rules to be learned.

In his first start, he held the ball too long, giving Brea-Olinda a free kick. It was an obscure rule. Gunther then made a diving save on the kick.

Against Mater Dei, he made a save, then stood up to throw the ball out, only to be told he was outside the goalie box. Another free kick and another save.

It was goalkeeping by the seat of his pants.

“It’s taken some learning, that’s for sure,” Manning said. “One game, we had the scoreboard clock keeping time, but the official time is always kept by the referee. Well, the clock hits zero and Eric comes jogging off the field with both hands raised and the game is still going on. He was 40 yards from the goal before we spotted him. Fortunately, the ball was on the other side at the time.”

Silly mistakes, but he never made the same one twice.

As the season progressed, so did Gunther. He has improved his kicking and has started to accept more leadership responsibilities, something most goalkeepers are expected to shoulder.

“The first few league games, I would see the other team warming up and think, ‘No way I’m getting in front of that ball. It’ll break my hand,” Gunther said. “I’d ask questions about everything. I was really in the dark. Now I’m yelling at the guys to pick up their intensity and positioning the defense.”

The biggest asset he has picked up is learning not to take each goal personally. They are inevitable.

“I felt like a jerk when the other team scored,” Gunther said. “It’s my job to prevent that. But now I know it’s not the end of the world if I give up a goal. I have to forget about it and go on.”

Which is exactly what he plans to do.

Gunther knows that no one is going to offer him a soccer scholarship. But he plans to try out next year at whatever college he attends.

“Give him a year or two and see how well he develops,” Manning said. “I think a coach would be crazy not to give him a chance.”

Said Gunther: “Who knows what can happen? I’m just kicking myself for not playing soccer before.”