There are times when Eddie Soto — that’s 51-year-old Eddie Soto, for the record — decides that showing is better than telling. Times where he puts the whistle down, steps out on the Cal State Dominguez Hills practice field and turns back the clock.
And when Soto turns back the clock, it’s not only the hands of the clock turning.
“I still jump in with guys and show them what I know. I think that’s important,” said Soto, the head coach of the CSUDH men’s soccer team. “They read about me and see that I was an All-American and say, ‘You’re not bad.’ Yeah, I’m not bad. I’m double their age.”
Yes, some things never change. Middle-aged Eddie Soto can still turn heads on a soccer field. The boy who once came home from seeing Argentinian icon Diego Maradona’s transcendent 1986 World Cup performance in Mexico City, threw away his baseball glove and became a soccer player so good he made the U.S Junior National Team two years later still turns heads with a ball at his feet.
The young man who tore up the Cal State Fullerton record book, scoring a still-record 18 goals in 1994 and leading the Titans to the national semifinals the year before still turns heads. He turned enough heads to earn induction into the Cal State Fullerton Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2023. The former soccer forward will join soccer goalkeeper Karen Bardsley, wrestler T.J. Dillashaw, golfer Martha Wilkinson-Kirouac, former director of sports medicine Julie Max and the 1979 baseball team in this year’s class.
When Soto learned the news over the summer, for once, his head turned.
“I was shocked. We only have one soccer player in the Cal State Fullerton Hall of Fame and that’s Mike Fox. You look at the history of the program and the teams we’ve had and the players we’ve had and me being only the second player inducted is very humbling. I’m hoping it leads to more. I’m hoping it leads to some of our teams being inducted.”
Soto was quick to point out the…
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