Making a Steady Splash : Neely Gets Results, Not Fame, With His Consistent Play on Defense

Doug Neely threw back his head and laughed at the thought. The subject was his anonymity in a sport rife with it.

The sport? Indoor soccer.

Doug Neely? A defender, a three-time all-star for the Splash.

“I’m not into it for the recognition or the fame,” said Neely, who knows his life would be pretty frustrating if those were his motives. “I just love playing the game. I have a good time when I put on the uniform, when I get on the field. The whole atmosphere--I love it all.”

Never in his wildest fantasies at Canyon High did Neely think he could make a living playing soccer. Nor when he played two years at San Diego State. Nor during his two years at Chapman. Not until a year later, after his first season with the Los Angeles Lazers and he was on one of his now annual surfing trips with friends, did it hit him.

It was then, he realized, “what a pretty good job I have.”

Neely has fashioned a pretty good career for himself in the indoor game since he graduated from Canyon in 1983 and was The Times Orange County player of the year.

He was nicknamed “Twitchel” back then for his unorthodox dribbling. Even today, coaches and players say the unpredictable way he handles the ball is an asset.

“If I don’t know what he’s going to do,” Coach George Fernandez says, “the opponents don’t know what he’s going to do.”

“You should watch him dance,” said teammate Rod Castro. “You could write volumes.”

OK, so Neely gets in his own zone on the dance floor. But on the field, he gets in his own zone, too. He has been one of the Splash’s most consistent performers. In seven games to date, Neely leads the league in power-play goals with seven and the team in blocked shots (12).

“Doug is the type of player you really don’t notice,” Fernandez said. “He’s so consistent; he’s not flashy. He does his job day in and day out, and you consider that a true professional. He has fun on and off the field. He’s a happy person who loves life, and it shows on the field.

“He’s one of the most consistent players we’ve had this season.”

Neely, 29, bounces to his own beat. His hair--recently cut short--once crept eight inches down his back, but he said it wasn’t symbolic of his carefree attitude or beach lifestyle that takes him on summer trips to Indonesia, Baja or Costa Rica with some of his oldest, closest friends.

“I just decided to let it go,” he said. “There’s no story with the hair. People try to read into that too much and it has nothing to do with personality. That’s just how I liked wearing my hair. People are so shallow when they think that way.”

Said Fernandez, who played against the wild-maned Neely before coaching him this season: “He cut it and now he looks like a little kid.”

But those who know Neely say there is a lot of little kid in him. He is upbeat, optimistic, fun.

“He’s so nice,” is a common perception by those who meet him at the Splash’s postgame gatherings at a local restaurant.

“I hope people like me when they’re around me, that they feel comfortable,” Neely said. “I hope people are glad that I’m there and that I bring a good feeling to people.”

Mr. Nice Guy can be pretty tough when he needs to, though.

Castro has seen Neely on and off the field, and played alongside and against him.

“He’s very aggressive and never quits on the ball,” Castro said. “He’s extremely intense. When he’s on the field, you know he’s giving 100%. There’s that double personality. It’s a very different type of intensity--a subdued intensity.

“I enjoyed playing against him because I knew we would have a good battle together. And I knew he wasn’t a dirty player. I didn’t have to worry about that. It was a clean game and a fair game against him.”

Neely calls it a controlled aggression, and it helped him become an all-star in Baltimore with the Blast of the Major Soccer League and the last two years with the Spirit of the National Professional Soccer League. He played last year for the L.A. United.

Fernandez said Neely has come into his own the last two years, and that has helped him dictate the flow of a game instead of simply reacting to an opposing offense.

He has dictated an all-star type year this season, too.

The subject? Fame and fortune.

“I wish the arena was filled every night, but I know that’s not going to happen,” said Neely, who was born in Garden Grove and lives in Newport Beach. “But we’re the building blocks for the future. If you listen to the fans that we get, they’re into it. And you feed off that. But once the game’s over, I don’t take it home with me. I just go on with my life and enjoy it. I love the game for what it is--just a game.

“It’s not like I’m making any big money, but I’m happy.”