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Greenbrae's Kardzair to be inducted into USF Hall of Fame

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  • Greenbrae's Kardzair to be inducted into USF Hall of Fame

    Greenbrae's Kardzair to be inducted into USF Hall of Fame
    by Geoff Lepper, IJ reporter

    Marin Independent Journal (Marin, CA)
    February 24, 2005 Thursday

    Aram Kardzair was twice named All-Conference while starring in goal
    for the University of San Francisco men's soccer team in the early
    1980s. He backstopped the Dons to an NCAA national championship
    before going on to play for nearly two decades with a wide variety of
    club and pro sides, and will be honored for those efforts by being
    inducted into the USF Athletic Hall of Fame tomorrow evening.

    Around Mill Valley, however, the 43-year-old Greenbrae resident might
    still be more renowned as being the son of Karekin Kardzair, longtime
    owner and proprietor of the Mill Valley Shoe Service on Miller
    Avenue. In the days before the proliferation of sporting-goods stores
    and Internet shopping, Southern Marin kids searching for the proper
    footwear to join in the soccer boom of the 1970s and '80s wound
    inevitably end up in Kardzair's shop.

    "A lot of guys I'm friends with now, they knew my dad before they
    knew me," Aram Kardzair said. "I get that all the time. I'll be
    talking with people who will say, 'I got my first pair of soccer
    shoes there.'"

    Aram Kardzair was no different. Though he grew up in the Sunset
    District of San Francisco and played for Riordan High in the City,
    Kardzair's first organized league play came with the Mill Valley
    76ers when he was 10 or 11 years old. He was quickly recruited to the
    all-star Corte Madera Lions side, and played for both squads until he
    started high school.

    "A lot of those guys, I'm still pretty close with now," Kardzair
    said. "We still play a game every Thanksgiving. We're 25 or 26 years
    into it now."

    After all that time, the impression Kardzair made on his young
    teammates hasn't faded. Witness Jon Swain, who first played with
    Kardzair after moving to Marin from his native Sweden.

    "He was always the best kid on the field," said Swain, who now lives
    in San Rafael. "Not only that - Aram was always a nice guy. It was
    good to have him as a friend when you were moving over here from
    another country. He was a good role model to have."

    Matt MacPhee, who first played with Kardzair in the seventh grade,
    remembers him as "a short, stocky Armenian lad.

    "He was quite fast, which is one reason he became a great goalkeeper,
    and he was incredibly strong for his size," said MacPhee, who lives
    "about three blocks" from Kardzair in Greenbrae.

    Kardzair spent some time in goal as a youth player, but his true love
    was playing in the field. During his first year at Riordan, Kardzair
    tried out for the varsity soccer team as a field player.

    "I didn't make it, so I went and played with the freshmen," Kardzair
    said. "One day we had a scrimmage, and they needed a goalkeeper to
    play. The varsity was training at the same time, and I stopped two
    penalty kicks. The varsity coach came up and said. 'What's going on
    here?'"

    It turned out to be the birth of a career. Kardzair wound up being a
    high school All-American with the Crusaders, then went on to USF,
    where he took over the starting job as a sophomore. That season, the
    Dons won the last of their four national championships.

    "I would have to say that was probably the best team I've ever played
    on," Kardzair said of the 1980 squad, which will be honored at
    tomorrow night's induction banquet. "There's no high greater in the
    world than winning a national championship. From start to finish, we
    just dominated that whole season."

    Kardzair would leave USF with 44 victories, 210 saves and 19
    shutouts.

    "He wasn't a tall goalkeeper, like the goalkeepers you see nowadays,"
    MacPhee said. "Never in my life have I seen anybody cover so much
    ground in the air as he did. He's the quickest guy I've ever known,
    as far as reactions go."

    Said Swain: "I've seen him do the most amazing things, going one way
    and then almost turning in the air to make the saves."

    Currently, Kardzair still keeps his hand in the game by coaching the
    Club Marin men's team, which just moved into the premier division of
    the San Francisco Soccer Football League [he's also treasurer of the
    league], and serving on the board of the Viking Youth Soccer Club in
    the City.

    "He's so giving," Swain said. "He's one of the most selfless people I
    know. He thinks more about other people than himself, so it's nice to
    see him getting some recognition."

    USF HALL OF FAME

    The Hall of Fame dinner will be held tomorrow at USF's McLaren
    Complex. Cocktails begin at 6 p.m., with dinner starting at 7.
    Tickets cost $40. For more information, call 422-6431.
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