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HIGHER EDUCATION

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Only two weeks removed from a retirement party marking the end of an improbable and often brilliant professional soccer career, Thomas Dooley is beginning the next phase of his life in Orange County.

“I’ve had great success playing soccer, but everything I’ve done before is history,” said Dooley, a former U.S. national team captain who played professionally for 16 years in his native Germany and four years in Major League Soccer with Columbus and New York/New Jersey. “I’m starting from zero.”

Dooley, 39, has been there before. He was a self-made player who rose from the 10th division of German soccer to the highest level, the Bundesliga, with the best team, Kaiserslautern.

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Now, he is putting his patented red spikes in the closet and setting his sights on the youth of Orange County. Dooley, who is building a house in Laguna Niguel, is planning to open a soccer university in the county sometime in the next five months. His goal is to make below-average players good and ordinary players great.

He wants to work with players from AYSO, club, Olympic Development Program and college.

“I want to get the same success in coaching that I had as a player,” said Dooley, who is living with his wife and one of his two sons in a San Clemente hotel until the house is completed next month. “If I believe in that, it will be.”

Dooley admits he wasn’t a firm believer in his soccer ability as an 18-year-old in his hometown of Bechhofen, Germany. Like many teenagers in Germany, he spent his weekends in the pubs drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. But when he began reading motivational books such as “The Power of the Subconscious Mind,” he began dedicating himself to the game he loved. And when he was diagnosed with a cortisone deficiency at 19, he began paying more attention to fitness because it helped his condition.

Within six months, Dooley went from the 10th division to the third division. Toward the end of his successful pro career in Germany, Dooley realized in 1991 that he could play for the U.S. national team because he is the son of a U.S. serviceman.

“I never even knew the United States had a national team,” Dooley said.

In 1993, he won the U.S. player of the year award after leading the national team to upset victories over Colombia and Germany. He started all four games in the 1994 World Cup. In 1998, he was the captain for the winless World Cup squad. This year, Dooley helped take the New York/New Jersey MetroStars from worst to first in MLS’ Eastern Division.

As he neared the end of his career, Dooley considered returning to Germany to coach professionally. He also toyed with the idea of becoming a player agent. But after living in Aliso Viejo in 1993 and 1994 while playing for the national team, Dooley realized he wanted to settle in Orange County.

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“The kids here have found out that soccer is a beautiful game,” Dooley said. “They like to play it as much as they can and we have great potential here. I want to be part of that.”

Dooley hopes to open his university in Mission Viejo or Laguna Niguel for boys and girls, ages 5 through 20. Currently, the grand plan is little more than a concept. He has three coaches in place, including his brother, Steven, but he is still without a site and a major sponsor.

The concept of a soccer university began in Germany with Thomas and Steven Dooley, a youth-23 coach in Germany, and Christian Tietz, a German second division coach. Tietz, who has four successful soccer colleges in Germany, will come to Southern California to help Dooley get the project off the ground.

“We’d like to be something here in America that everybody looks up to,” Dooley said. “We’d like people to say, ‘Something is going on over there. These players are leaving that school as better players.’

“In Europe, teams go to soccer universities because that’s where they know they can find the good players.”

These days, the best youth players in the United States compete for clubs. Dooley strongly emphasized that he does not want to see that system change.

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“I don’t want to draw kids away from other clubs,” he said. “It’s not good for the area. Players should stay in the area where they know everything, where they have friends. My college would be additional training for the kids.”

Upon hearing Dooley’s plan, club coaches in the county were excited about the idea of a local soccer university.

“With his background, he’ll bring an awful lot of high-level expertise,” said Laguna Beach High boys’ Coach Andy Thomas, who coaches at two South County clubs and grew up playing in England. “The more the kids here are exposed to better players, the better they will be. The kids here don’t watch enough of the game and they don’t see enough quality players.”

Said El Dorado High boys’ Coach Marc Smith, who coaches a club team in Placentia: “What better guy to learn from than Thomas Dooley? I think it’s great for the kids. It might be competition for the clubs, but it will be good competition.”

Dooley said his academy will focus more on individual training and less on game-playing. His coaches will concentrate more on a player’s weaknesses than strengths.

“We want to give them training they can’t get with their club teams, work on things that the coach in club doesn’t have the time for,” he said. “We would like to give kids a chance to look more specifically at what kind of player they are, a chance to work on their mistakes.”

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Building a foundation takes time, Dooley says. Classes will be broken into two sessions a week for four-week periods. The cost will be $150 per month. Players will typically receive instruction in groups of 10 to 15, but there will also be some individual training. The coaching staff is not complete, but it will also include Joachim Muller, a former member of East Germany’s national and Olympic teams. Muller will be the goalkeeper coach.

Eventually, Dooley would love to have up to 10 full-time coaches with a blend of European, Latin American and American playing experience.

“I’m looking at national team players and MLS players,” he said. “They must have a coaching license and a background as a pro player. That makes it easier to pass on what you really need to develop a player.”

Dooley, who was a rugged defender with a knack for scoring the big goal, says he will not be one of the school’s main coaches.

“I will oversee the operation and I’ll work individually with players occasionally,” he said. “Players shouldn’t sign up because it’s Thomas Dooley. They should sign up because of the system, the concept, the coaches and the connections I have to MLS teams, the U.S. national team and European teams.”

Ultimately, Dooley wants to bring German teams to Orange County to compete against players from his university and he also hopes to take his own players to Europe. He realizes none of his dreams will come true unless he finds land and a few sponsors.

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“It’s going to be very tough,” said Mission Viejo Pateadores director of coaching Ricardo Minaya. “The field situation is just tight in South Orange County. Clubs and AYSO are fighting for fields. He might have to rent a private facility. It’s a tough journey.”

But one Dooley is willing to take.

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