USL Feature
Thursday, January 26, 2012
By NICHOLAS MURRAY
BRADENTON, Fla. – Zac Lubin was only told 24 hours before the game began that he was going to be starting in the Kitsap Pumas’ biggest game of the season to that point; a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup first round contest on the road against the El Paso Patriots.
“It was exciting,” Lubin said. “I basically got told I was starting the day before we left, we left a 4 a.m. on the day of the game to get to Texas, so it was nice, I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it, coming in I knew I had to do my job.”
With regular starter Bryan Meredith sidelined with an ankle injury, Lubin did his job better than anyone with the Pumas could have hoped. After the two teams had played to a scoreless draw after 120 minutes, Lubin made four saves in a penalty shootout that went nine rounds, the Pumas emerging with a 6-5 victory.
For his first taste of action for the Pumas, it certainly gave the Lubin the confidence, and respect, from his more experienced teammates. And after having his side help him settle his nerves early, liminting the number of shots Lubin had to face in the first 45 minutes, he came through for them when it mattered most.
“I would say the beginning and end, and the difference,” Lubin said when asked what he remembered most about the game. “Coming in being so nervous, and then coming out having four PK saves in the shootout, you know, really gaining the respect of my team.”
At 6-foot-6, Lubin is certainly an imposing figure between the sticks. Now he’s hoping to follow Meredith into the professional ranks, with the Kitsap starter having been signed by Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders FC late last year. Meredith played an important role in helping Lubin develop last summer, as did other members of the Pumas’ squad who have also had the chance to move into the professional ranks since their championship victory.
“I learned a lot from those guys this summer who had either played in USL or had been in the PDL for a few years,” Lubin said, “so they kind of brought me up and taught me how to be a pro, even at just the PDL level, and that really helped us win a national title.”
Continuing the lessons Lubin learned under the tutelage of outstanding goalkeeping coaches Rob Walker and James Ritchie, who was recently named the Pumas new coach, the 22-year-old said watching the way Meredith carried himself in practice and in games left a lasting impression.
“He’s a great guy off the field, but the moment he gets on the field there’s this switch that goes on where you can see the spark in his eyes that says ‘no ball is going to get by me’,” Lubin said. “He helped me along, coming from just a college player into the professional ranks.”
And Lubin certainly thinks he has a lot to offer a team should it decide it likes what it sees this week.
“My size is obviously something you can’t really teach. I’ve had some great goalkeeping coaches in the past,” Lubin said. “They’ve brought me a long way and playing behind Bryan Meredith has taught me a ton thanks to the levels that he’s played at. I think my biggest asset is I learn very fast and I’m very coachable, so I always exceed expectations and hold a high standard.”
All of which he hopes he can display this weekend at the USL PRO Combine presented by Umbro. After what he went through in his first start for Kitsap, though, you get the feeling that there are big things ahead in Lubin’s future.
“I just want to show what I’m capable of,” he said of the Combine. “Especially being a kid from Montana, you don’t get a lot of looks, you don’t get great coaches, but I had a great college career and now I want to be a great teammate and help any team and do what I can.”