The Federal Way Storm 99 boy’s soccer team recently had the amazing opportunity to spend an afternoon with Sounder’s defender James Riley.
Riley, the Sounder’s starting right back for their first two seasons in Major League Soccer, accepted an invitation from Storm player Edward Yu to meet the team at the Tobang Korean Restaurant in Federal Way.
Riley began the afternoon with a 25 minute question and answer session with the excited parents and players. Many of the questions were about the experiences that led the Right sided defender to a successful professional career, first with the New England Revolution and now with the Sounders. The underlying theme to all his answers: hard work and preparation. Riley attended Wake Forest University, and says his education there, both on the field and in the class room, have prepared him for both a professional soccer career and for a life beyond soccer after he retires. In fact, Wake Forest coach Jay Vidovich had put Riley and his team mates on a fast track to graduate a semester early, so that when the New England Revolution drafted him with the 21st overall pick of the 2005 Super Draft, Riley was free to go straight to the Revolution’s training camp instead of worrying about finishing his senior year.
After the Q & A session, Riley graciously and patiently signed each and every item, picture, and piece of paper that was put in front of him, and smiled and posed for every photo request.
Autographs finally finished, James relaxed and simply hung out with the Storm players, who bombarded him with a variety of new questions, from “what do you like to eat on game day?” (Lots of fruit), to “Which Sounders player is best at Call of Duty: Black Ops?” (James rates Kasey Keller as the best in the squad). After about forty minutes of hanging out with the team, it was time to call it a day. It’s fair to say that none of these boys will easily forget their encounter with James Riley, who despite being a star soccer player for the hottest professional sports team in town, also happens to be a very likeable, generous, and down to earth guy.
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