Sault man’s soccer passion birthed as a child
BY: Greg Layson
Sault Star (Sault Saint Marie Ontario) Canada
July 11, 2006 Tuesday
Michael Ter-Mikaelian sat high atop the grandstand at Tom Tipton
Field. Unseasonably chilly winds blew his bristly, greying hair in
the on-again, off-again sunshine while he leaned forward hard on his
left knee. His left hand kept his head propped up, pointed toward
the action.
Below, the Sault Civics and London City under-17 girls soccer teams
traded scoring opportunities in the dying moments of a recent scoreless
South Region Soccer League match.
"I need a cigarette, I’m nervous," Ter-Mikaelian said in his still
distinguishable Russian accent. He poked around his shirt pocket and
retrieved his smokes.
He lit up, took a drag and checked his digital watch.
"Come on," Ter-Mikaelian pleaded to the official. "Four minutes of
injury time?"
Ter-Mikaelian leaned back against the bleacher’s iron railing and
watched the match play to a nil-nil draw.
"Even after 90 minutes and with the score 0-0, I still find
it a wonderful game," Ter-Mikaelian said. He loves the game so
unconditionally, so faithfully, that even at 49 and with no children
of his own registered in Sault Youth Soccer Association or Sault
Civics programs, Ter-Mikaelian holds down six official titles.
"I do it because I like it and I like seeing the results," he
explained.
"Most of it is the joy I get when the season starts and I see the
parents and grandparents cheering along the sidelines. I really enjoy
seeing that."
To understand why a married man with a daughter studying at New
York University and a son heading off to the University of Western
Ontario this fall would stay so deeply rooted in the game, you have
to understand the time and place in which Ter-Mikaelian was born
and raised.
Born in 1957 in Armenia, then a republic of the Soviet Union bordering
Turkey and Iran, Ter-Mikaelian only ever knew the game of soccer as
an extracurricular activity.
"It’s hard to explain," he said of his love affair with soccer,
"But the honest answer is I grew up with it. There was basketball,
and boxing was quite big, too, but soccer was far and beyond the
No. 1 sport – that and chess."
Today, Ter-Mikaelian is back in Russia, this time as a visitor to
attend his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. He’s due back in the
Sault next week.
For a short while, Ter-Mikaelian chummed around with two-time world
chess champion Tigran Petrosian, the player who halted legendary
Bobby Fischer’s win streak at 19 games in 1970.
Ter-Mikaelian recalled "celebrations in the streets," when, in 1966,
Petrosian captured his second world title.
At age 16, Ter-Mikaelian moved to Moscow to attend university, where
the six-foot-two Armenian was a goalkeeper, until he tore his ACL
when he slipped on wet grass in 1978.
"When you’re young, you think you’re immortal," Ter-Mikaelian said. "It
hurt, but I never checked it out, mainly because in the Soviet Union
it wasn’t that easy (to see a doctor)."
Or to make ends meet for that matter.
Ter-Mikaelian graduated from university as a research scientist. Almost
immediately, he landed a government job at which he "made a miserable
wage."
Economic hardships that saw inflation soar to 1,200 per cent, coupled
with his job being viewed by many – including his state employer –
as second-rate, forced Ter-Mikaelian to Canada for good in 1992.
"You can tell when people don’t care about what you do, and that
makes it hard to motivate yourself," he said. "You have to have some
satisfaction at your job. People cared most about primary needs,
like where they were going to get food and water. I had to do what
was best for my family."
GRAPHIC: Michael Ter-Mikaelian’s love affair with soccer began in
his native Armenia. Story on Page B1.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
