La Canada’s Haupert Plays Like La Machine

With his flowing brown hair, matching goatee and unblinking gaze, Gaston Haupert could pass for 25. The look fits him, and when the 17-year-old steps onto a soccer field for La Canada High, he often performs like a man among boys.

A year and a half ago, Haupert moved West from Texas to play for Coach Milan Dovedan and the California Flyers soccer club. Haupert spent last winter on the La Canada junior varsity because of transfer rules, then helped the Flyers win the Under-16 title at the Dallas Cup tournament last spring. He began varsity competition in the fall.

Aided by Haupert’s maturity and tremendous physical skills, the Spartans are 24-0 and face Cathedral City for the Southern Section Division IV championship today at Gahr High School.

Throughout the season and into the playoffs, Haupert has improved his game as the stakes have risen. In the last month he has become the standout performer on a team overflowing with talent.

“There’s nobody playing better than Gaston,” said La Canada Coach Lou Bilowitz, who calls Haupert the team’s most valuable player and says he has bettered his play by improving his vision of the field. “The last week and a half he’s been brilliant and he was beyond belief (Tuesday at San Marino). He was an animal.”

Though he exhibits ferocity and determination on the field, Haupert is a jack-of-all-trades. The 5-foot-11, 165-pound junior earns straight A’s in school, attends church regularly, tutors other students in German and likes to cook.

But Haupert is most passionate about soccer, which he considers unique.

“It’s a lot more challenging than most sports because it’s the only one where you use your feet and you have to be really coordinated to do that,” Haupert said. “I think it’s almost like a ballet. It moves so quickly and you have to have strength and finesse together to score a goal.”

Haupert dreams of having a professional career in the German first division and he has been compared to former Westlake and U.S. World Cup player Eric Wynalda, who plays in the top German league with a team called Bochum.

Buena High boys’ soccer Coach Sean Roche, who evaluated Haupert last summer at a tryout camp for the Under-16 western U.S. regional team, came away impressed.

“Eric Wynalda is the same type of player,” Roche said. “(Wynalda has) proven he can handle international play and I think Gaston can also play at that level. There’s nobody to compare with him at his age level.”

Haupert might not catch the eye of a casual soccer spectator because as a stopper, he is the defender positioned closest to the midfield. Haupert is given more freedom in the Spartans’ system however, and alternates up-field runs with defensive midfielder Chris Sproule. He also roams from sideline to sideline, gobbling up loose balls like Pac-Man.

“Whether the ball is in the air or on the ground, Gaston is dominant; he wins them all,” said Bilowitz, who is in his eighth year at La Canada and won a Southern Section title with the Spartans in 1988-89. “He’s the most skilled player on the team. He’s very strong, very fast and he can shoot rockets with either foot.”

On a team that is four goals away from the Southern Section season record of 129, Haupert’s offensive contributions tend to be overshadowed. But his rock-solid defense and his refusal to be run off the ball when dribbling spark much of the Spartans’ firepower, including many of striker Josh Henderson’s 39 goals.

Despite his prowess, Haupert is decidedly unselfish and soft-spoken, qualities that endear him to his peers.

“He’s willing to give the ball up for anyone if they have a better shot,” said Derrick Dyslin, La Canada’s right fullback. “Gaston’s probably the most well-rounded guy on our team. He’s so good at soccer that the players give him respect, and he’s smart so all the academia nuts like him, too.”

Haupert has younger fans as well. Once or twice a week, he helps the 44-year old Dovedan put on clinics for teams in the Flyers’ organization.

“He’s a good role model for the other kids in our club,” said Dovedan, a former pro player and native of Yugoslavia. He says his protege is particularly popular with the 9- and 10-year olds. “He doesn’t drink or go to big parties and he’s got a girlfriend. All the older boys don’t have time for the little boys but Gaston takes them to the park and plays soccer with them.”

Haupert first played soccer at age 3 in his family’s wide-open front yard in New Braunfels, Tex., 30 miles north of San Antonio. His father, Gaston Sr., emigrated to the U.S. from Luxembourg and started a youth soccer program, eventually building a soccer field on his family’s lot so the teams he coached would have a place to practice.

At four, Haupert played in a league of five and six year-olds. At 10 he was involved in club soccer and by 13 he attracted the attention of Dovedan, who convinced Haupert to play for him on the Austin (Tex.) Flyers club team.

The Flyers’ national schedule gave Haupert a taste of top-notch competition and he thrived under Dovedan’s demanding philosophy.

“He expects everything of you,” Haupert said.

“But he was the only coach who told me he could do something for me and not that I could do something for his team.”

In August 1993, Dovedan decided to move to Southern California to run the California Flyers organization in La Canada and coach its Under-17 team. He offered Haupert a chance to go along and two weeks later the 15-year old was COLUMN 5 ENDS HERE. FILM DEPTH AT THIS POINT IS 5.978 inches enrolled in La Canada High and living with Spartan forward Nick Andrus.

Andrus’ father, Brian, became Haupert’s legal guardian.

“It was scary at first but I had to move on,” said Haupert, who battled bouts of homesickness with country music and weekly phone calls home.

“But I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere in soccer if I hadn’t. I figured I had to be tough and stick it out.”

One of Haupert’s problems was that he had to spend his first full soccer season in La Canada playing with junior varsity players, many of whom couldn’t keep up.

“I couldn’t stand it at first, but then I took it as a challenge,” Haupert said. “Instead of saying ‘They can’t play with me’ I tried to find ways for me to work with them.”

This season has been more productive for Haupert. He and the Spartans have been so dominant that they have had few close matches, but Haupert continues to refine his soccer skills.

Long after practice is over, he can be found running sprints on the field, working by himself with a ball or leaping up the bleachers with his feet pressed together.

“Soccer is the biggest part of my life right now,” Haupert said. “If I didn’t continue playing (at a higher level) I’d feel like something was gone from it.”