UCLA Midfielder Has Got Mad Game

Ryan Futagaki makes it clear from the moment he steps onto the soccer field. The UCLA senior isn’t there to make friends.

“Coaches haven’t been too fond of me,” he said. “It was like that in high school too. Even my own coach told me if I wasn’t on his team he probably wouldn’t like me, either.”

Futagaki has battled through a college career that has had highs and lows. Even as the former starter at midfield adjusts to his reserve role, he is ecstatic about the Bruins reaching the NCAA College Cup in his final season.

UCLA (16-3-3) will play Maryland in the semifinals Friday in Dallas. Stanford plays Creighton in the night’s other match.

The Bruins are making their 11th appearance in the Final Four and are trying for their fourth national title.

“This was the reason why I came here,” said Futagaki, a two-time All-Southern Section player at Fountain Valley High. “One of my goals, even when I was younger, was I wanted to win a national championship. Now that we’re in the Final Four, I want that ring.”

On a team loaded with scoring threats, finding the net isn’t Futagaki’s main job. It never has been -- he has three goals and three assists this season and nine goals and 10 assists in four years.

The fifth-year senior and team co-captain is supposed to win the individual battles and set up attacks. More often than not, he is tangled up with an opponent trying to win those battles.

Because of that dogged persistence, Futagaki was chosen one of 15 finalists for the Hermann Trophy, given to the nation’s top collegiate player.

“He’s a hard-nosed little bugger,” UCLA Coach Tom Fitzgerald said. “He gets under people’s skin.”

The result is a number of yellow cards and the occasional red one. Futagaki has four yellow cards this season and had to sit out the Bruins’ 4-2 second-round victory over Loyola Marymount this season because of a red card drawn in last year’s NCAA playoff match against Southern Methodist.

Aggressive play is in his nature. In club soccer as a teenager, he had to win an appeal to be reinstated in the Orange County-based Coast Soccer League because of an excessive number of red cards.

“He’s actually calmed down since he got to college,” said forward Tim Pierce, a teammate since their days with the Mission Viejo Pateadores. “He was out of control then. But I think you need players to complement each other on the field and he gives us some edge out there.”

With age usually comes maturity. Futagaki said he has become a smarter player.

“Not to disrespect anyone but I’m not going to change the way I play,” he said. “There is a difference between playing smart, playing physical and playing dirty. I’ve become a smart and physical player.”

Whether he riles up opposing coaches or players is least among his worries. Futagaki has had his share of personal pain off the field.

His father, Arnie, died in June after an eight-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Arnie Futagaki always attended his son’s soccer matches even as the illness robbed him of the ability to speak and left him confined to a wheelchair. In his honor, Ryan wears his father’s wedding ring on his left finger.

“It’s hard,” Futagaki said. “I think about my dad a lot, especially around the holidays. But I feel he’s with somebody special now. He’s not suffering anymore.”

There has been more emotional pain -- his mother, Shirley, was diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago. And there has been plenty of physical pain.

Futagaki lost a year to a knee injury suffered two matches into the 2000 season. He played with a broken right wrist last season.

And there have been the usual array of bumps and bruises over the years, whether dealt out by his opponents or his older brothers, Brandon and Brent. At 5 feet 7 inches and 150 pounds, Futagaki has learned to combat his lack of size with speed and sheer determination.

“I remember one time back in club I didn’t go in hard on a tackle and this guy who was huge just killed my hamstring,” he said. “I learned then that I’ll always go in hard no matter who it is. I’m going to give 110% even if it hurts.”