There Is a Will and There Is a Way

Will Ferrell, lead of the upcoming soccer movie “Kicking and Screaming,” recalled in a recent interview with Premiere magazine that he wrote in a fourth-grade essay that he wanted to be pro soccer player and during the off-season a comedian.

Ferrell must have had a crystal ball. Well, sort of.

“So, I got one out of two,” Ferrell told the magazine. “My biggest sports career mistake ever was not to play soccer in high school.

“I really could’ve made something out of myself being a soccer player.”

Ferrell, in the movie, plays a youth soccer coach, competing against a rival team. The rivals happen to be coached by his father (played by Robert Duvall).

The cast has some unusual members, namely that famous former coach Mike Ditka. That’s football coach, not futbol.

Add soccer: Duvall seems to have an affinity for soccer movies.

Duvall also played another soccer coach, a convincing turn as a Scottish manager in “A Shot at Glory.”

Trivia time: Who holds the New York Yankee record for hits in a game?

Sun rising: There is already another Chinese basketball player bigger than Yao Ming.

Make that taller than Yao Ming.

Sun Ming Ming is said to be about two inches taller than his countryman and NBA standout Yao Ming. Call him a work in progress.

“With his size, that intrigues everybody,” former NBA player Keith Gatlin told the Greensboro News & Record. “He can really shoot the ball to be that size. The challenge for him now is to get mobile, to get up and down the court.”

Enough already: Alan Massengale of Channel 9 voiced what many have been thinking in his Point After on Tuesday night, saying: “What’s this rush to pre-announce retirement?” he asked. “First, Jay Leno says he’s done, but not for five years. Now Lance Armstrong says he’s done, but he’s still racing. In the spirit of Yogi Berra, I say, tell us when you’re done when you’re done.”

Grill-meister speaks: Former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman’s 30-second sermon in May’s Esquire magazine, condensed to 15 seconds for our purposes: “Patience influences every area of your life. When you’re young, you see the Cadillac in the dealership window and you’ve got to have it now. But patience teaches you that 20 years from now, a Cadillac will still be in the window. You can get what you want eventually. And if you’re patient, you won’t miss anything along the way.”

A-save: Comedian Argus Hamilton, on last week’s dramatic rescue on the street in Boston: “New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez tackled a boy who was about to run in front of a speeding delivery van at a busy intersection Friday. He saved the kid’s life. That night, the Boston newspapers accused Alex Rodriguez of interfering with a truck.”

Trivia answer: Two players had six hits in one game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Myril Hoag had six singles in a game against the Red Sox in 1934, and Gerald Williams had one home run and five singles against Baltimore in 1996.

And finally: ESPN’s Dick Vitale, on himself, in an interview with FHM magazine: “I’d like to be as articulate and smooth as Bob Costas. I know I’m ugly and bald and loud and I talk a lot. But I’ll match anybody in the three E’s: excitement, enthusiasm and energy.”