Soccer fan works so local kids can play

Oct. 15, 2006
By JOSEPH M. DELEON News-Post Staff
jdeleon@fredericknewspost.com

  FREDERICK — Jeff Sill tries not to think about much when he sits on a lawn mower about three times a week. The iPod he wears at his side keeps the droning engine to a dull murmur.
     The rhythmic twang of Lynyrd Skynyrd's guitars plays intermittently with the gruff vocal style and heavy bass of rapper Lil Jon. The intense vibrations — a mix of music and repetitive, almost ritualistic cutting — has a calming effect.
     “To me, it's therapeutic,” he said while sitting at his favorite coffee shop, The Mudd Puddle. “I just keep my mind open and watch for worn spots in the grass.”
     Mr. Sill traded an apron for a soccer net in 1992. The classically trained chef used to make fine American regional cuisine. Now he cuts grass.
     He volunteers as the director of facilities for Football Club Frederick, main- taining seven fields. Soccer is his passion.
     “If I was still in the restaurant business, I wouldn't be able to be around kids or have a family life,” Mr. Sill said. “But I love food, and I miss the rush of being on the line.”
     Mr. Sill's earliest soccer memories are of his sister, Julie, who went on to play Division I soccer for the University of Arkansas.
     “I really looked up to her,” he said. “She was really a big role model for me and showed me a lot of tricks.”
     One of his favorite soccer memories is from when he was a teen. He spent his 15th birthday playing soccer in Sweden against 19-year-olds as part of a trip with his soccer club.
     “Soccer over there is part of the culture — it's almost scary how cult-like it was,” he said. “Soccer is the vehicle that took me there, but it's the cultural experience that stays with you for life.”
     Now Mr. Sill helps keep the third-largest soccer club in Mary land running smoothly and continues to give kids the chance to experience that culture by sending 13- and 14-year-old boys and girls on similar trips.
     “I want to put back what it gave me,” he said. “A lot of people have impacted my life through soccer, and I want to see these kids enjoy themselves with soccer in Frederick.”
     One of his dreams is to build a 50-acre soccer complex for training, games and social events for club members. It would be the only one of its kind in Maryland.
     He calls it his 10-year plan. With the help of county and state money, Mr. Sill believes such a complex could help boost the economy.
     Teams from as far away as Chicago and Texas now play in Frederick. A larger, centralized complex would mean more travelers staying in hotels and eating in restaurants, he said.
     “I'll just keep mowing the grass,” he said after thinking about the idea. “There's 650 kids standing behind me — they're my bosses, I do it for them.”