August 15, 2023 • 35 mins
He is literally the definition of a “Homegrown Player.” In the 2000’s, Major League Soccer started a Homegrown Player initiative which allowed clubs to develop their own youth players without exposing them to the MLS SuperDraft and thereby giving the club the opportunity to sign the player themselves. That’s exactly what the Colorado Rapids did with Davy Armstrong.
Davy was born in Aurora and started playing soccer at the age of 6. He excelled at the sport and turned heads when he played for Rangeview High School as well as his club team. Three years before he graduated from Rangeview, Davy entered the Rapids Youth System and the MLS’s initiative worked perfectly: Davy became the Rapids first homegrown player when they signed him to their pro team in 2010. Turns out there was a lot going on in 2010: Davy was just 18, graduated from Rangeview, gave up a scholarship at the University of Washington to sign with the Rapids and the Rapids won the MLS Cup.
Trying to figure out professional sports at the age of 18 isn’t easy. Davy got through it and played for the Rapids, Phoenix FC and the Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC. Eventually injuries got the best of his young body and it was time to retire from a sport that had been his identity for nearly two decades. These days, Davy is a firefighter, with a very heartfelt reason behind his passion for helping people.
Hosted by Susie Wargin
Davy was born in Aurora and started playing soccer at the age of 6. He excelled at the sport and turned heads when he played for Rangeview High School as well as his club team. Three years before he graduated from Rangeview, Davy entered the Rapids Youth System and the MLS’s initiative worked perfectly: Davy became the Rapids first homegrown player when they signed him to their pro team in 2010. Turns out there was a lot going on in 2010: Davy was just 18, graduated from Rangeview, gave up a scholarship at the University of Washington to sign with the Rapids and the Rapids won the MLS Cup.
Trying to figure out professional sports at the age of 18 isn’t easy. Davy got through it and played for the Rapids, Phoenix FC and the Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC. Eventually injuries got the best of his young body and it was time to retire from a sport that had been his identity for nearly two decades. These days, Davy is a firefighter, with a very heartfelt reason behind his passion for helping people.
Hosted by Susie Wargin
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Tearing my acl was kind of arelief. I was like, Oh my
gosh, I don't have to goget ripped in by this coach every single
day. That was my initial feeling, I don't have to play for this
guy anymore because I'm hating my liferight now. But then as training goes
on, you start to miss it. It wasn't just a sport for me.
It was my identity. It wasmy outlet. It was almost like
a part of you is slowly dying. Welcome to Cut, Traded, Fired,
(00:23):
Retired a weekly podcast featuring conversations withprofessional athletes and coaches who have experienced
being cut, traded, fired,and or they're retired. I'm your host,
Susie Wargen. If you've been listeningto the podcast for a while,
you know I really enjoy highlighting homegrowntalent. There have been some pretty incredible
athletes come out of Colorado, andthis episode's guest is no exception. Davy
(00:45):
Armstrong was born in Aurora and hisfamily had a paper route to help pay
for soccer, which he got intoat the age of six. Turns out,
Davy was pretty good on the pitchand a Range View High School.
He was three time All Colorado Denverpost Player of the Year and at a
school record for fifty three goals ina season. He was also part of
the Colorado Rapids youth system. Intwenty ten, Davy turned down a scholarship
(01:07):
with the University of Washington so hecould sign with the Rapids, and he
became the first player from their youthsystem to be signed as a pro.
So Davy was thrust into the businessof professional sports at the young age of
eighteen. He did well, butalso moved around a bit after making his
pro debut and was hit with someinjuries. These days, Davy is a
firefighter and has a pretty moving storyabout why he chose that profession to reinvent
(01:32):
himself. Ladies and gentlemen, let'sget into it with homegrown Davy Armstrong Cut
Traded Fired, Retired podcast with SusieWargin. Hello Davy Armstrong, Hi,
how are you? I'm good?How are you doing good? This is
fun? You know what you aremy very first soccer player. Great?
Love it. I love it andit's fun because there's so much of football
(01:57):
and basketball and everything else, andpeople forget how huge soccer is. Right,
It's really big and it's been ahuge part of your life for a
very long time. Yeah, sinceI was about six years old, which
is great for me. Oh absolutely. So you were born in Aurorra.
You're the youngest of four and anolder brother who also played soccer, right,
yes, Is that where the lovestarted or how did you get into
(02:17):
the sport? I honestly think itwas my parents that pushed us towards something.
They wanted us to just strive andbe successful at something, and I
think soccer at the time was probablythe cheapest sport, and we got good
at it, and they made usfeel like a cool person if we were
good at the sport. So theyjust kept with it and we turned out
to be all right at it.That's really cool. Now. Your dad
(02:37):
is from Cambodia and was an Olympicskier in the super G. Yes,
so he was a Giant Solomon superg. He was on the Paralympics,
so okay, yeah, he wasadopted whenever he was about eight years old
from Cambodia, ended up losing hisleg in a raid through the Vietcong attacked
his village. He was the onlysurvivor. Oh my god. So he
went through a whole different sort ofadversity that no one could even dream about
(03:00):
going through young child, as avery young child, came over not knowing
any of the language, not knowinganyone, not knowing any of the culture,
but made a way through and becamevery successful at what he wanted to
do. Oh, that's incredible.Does he talk about that? Does he
have much memory of it? No, he doesn't, and it's something that
I try not to bring up,just because I can't imagine going through all
(03:21):
that trauma. There is a bookwritten about him, It's called Ree,
and that's where I learned a lotabout who he was. You see the
characteristics, why he acts a certainway, why he is a certain way,
and it's a pretty phenomenal book.I mean for me at least,
it was absolutely aside of my dadthat I never knew of. I just
have so much respect for the guy. That's why I love doing podcast Davy
because I've had some kids of peopleI've had on the podcast that have said
(03:46):
I heard stories about my dad thatI didn't even know about, which to
me, I'm like, Wow,how cool to be able to preserve some
of those stories and know some thingsthat maybe you didn't want to ask about
or didn't know about, and thenyou're able to find out. Yeah.
Absolutely, it's it's a pretty coolthing. Yeah absolutely, all right,
So you grow up loving soccer?Did you love it right away? I
(04:06):
did? I think honestly, itwas an escape for me throughout my whole
life. We grew up in arowa. We didn't have much of anything
really, honestly, my parents startedout in Section eight housing. We eventually
got a house off of it waslike Colfax, an airport area, so
still not an awesome spot to be. It was just, honestly my escape
through some of the tough times thatwe were going through. So it was
(04:29):
my light at the end of thetunnel. So that's where my love of
it came from. And you gotvery good at it when you were at
Range View. You finished with aschool record of fifty three goals. You're
the Denver Post Player of the Yearin two thousand and eight, three time
All Colorado, and you also wereon your club team. How did that
work? I'm always fascinated with soccerand how it works with your school team
and your club team. Was thereconflict in there? Because sometimes those coaches
(04:51):
don't like that you play for twodifferent teams. Right at the time,
it was no problem at all becausethere was no soccer going on during the
fall season with our club teams andstuff, so we were expected to continue
to play, So that was noproblem at all. The biggest conflict where
a lot of my club teammates wereon like one of our bigger rivals,
So the more conflict was them justtalking back and forth with us, and
(05:13):
they were on Denverist. They endedup actually beating us in the quarterfinals and
they went on to win the championship, So that was the biggest conflict there.
But now they don't let if youplay at a certain level, you're
not allowed to play high school ball, right, so you just what do
you think about that for the developmentof soccer in the States of what we
need. I think it's a goodtrack of where we're going at mainly because
whenever I would go play high schoolsoccer, you could play against someone who's
(05:38):
never really played soccer before. Theyjust wanted to pick it up in school
and maybe they weren't released because theywere a senior and then so it was
very easy for me who's been playingat a very young age at a high
level to get past that, andit helped build my confidence in a way.
But I had a buddy who wasbeing recruited by different colleges and they
brought up his high school stats.Him and I were going back and forth
with the records in Colorado, andthen the college coach was like, don't
(06:01):
show me that. Like, he'slike, I don't care about any of
your high school stats for soccer.Interesting, yeah, because you can't judge
the level of competition that you're goingup against, right, yeah, Okay,
so yeah with club, the bestof the best are trying not to
be on that team. That makessense. For high school, you're just
kind of stuck at where you're at. So when do you get involved in
with the Rapids developmental teams? Myunder eighteen year, you eighteen is whenever
(06:25):
I switched over to academy. Academyhad just started, so Rapids had their
own academy. So I ended upswitching over to that from my final year,
and that's when I started getting alittle bit more notice from everyone else.
I bet you did. So youwere the very first home grown kid
to start with their team and thenalso be brought up to sign with the
(06:45):
Rapids, which all happened in twentyten. You graduate in twenty ten from
Range View, you signed a letterof intent to go to University of Washington,
yep, and then you also signa contract with the Rapids. Yeah,
how did that go all go down? It was? It was,
honestly a pretty surreal thing. Itwas something that I'd never thought was possible,
especially with being so young. Imean, playing professionally was always a
(07:09):
goal of mine. It's what Iwanted to do, but I didn't know
it would come that early. Sohonestly, it was two days before I
went to preseason four University of Washington. The Rapids offered me a contract.
I had been training with them allsummer, I've been playing with them.
I knew I was doing well andeverything. I just didn't think that was
a possibility. Sure, yeah,and then whenever a professional contract, something
you've been working for your whole lifehas thrown your way at such a young
(07:30):
age, of course you're going tojump at that opportunity. Absolutely, So
how did it happen? Honestly,it was the weirdest thing. I was
hanging out with some of my buddiesat my parents because I was still living
at home. I didn't move out, and then I got a call from
one of the guys who still worksfor the Rapids. His name was Brian
Krook. I mean, he waslike, hey, we've been talking with
the coach. We've been talking withthese guys, and at the end of
the day, we would like tooffer you a contract and keep you around
(07:54):
because we like your development, welike where you're going, and we want
to keep you with this team toplay profession I mean, from there on,
everything else was a blurry. It'sjust like your lightheaded. You're just
like it's I'm not an emotional person, but tears start falling out of your
eyes. You're just like, whatis going on? And it's a It's
a surreal feeling whenever you have beenworking so hard for something and your dream
is given to you at eighteen.At eighteen crazy, it was pretty awesome,
(08:18):
But then you don't realize how muchwork is going to come after.
Oh yeah, so you hang upthe phone. Your buddies are there.
What do you say? I toldthem. They thought I was joking.
They're like, shut up, andthen I was like, no, I'm
serious, and I think it wasYeah, it was just they were all
super happy for me. It wasjust such an incredible feeling. Then do
you call University of Washington? Yeah, it was. It was. It
(08:39):
was a silly, silly thing onmy part. I told them. I
sent them an email. I waslike, hey, the Rapids offered me
a contract, and I was like, I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna
take this offer. It's been mygoal. And then I went in to
sign the contract and as I wascoming out, I had like three or
four missed calls from the you dubcoach. He's like, hey, Davy,
don't sign anything. I'm booking itto get right now, to fly
(09:00):
out and come talk to you.Maybe we can work something out. And
I called them. I should havecalled them in the first place, looking
back on it, but I waseighteen. You broke up via email,
a little bit afraid of confrontation.You are. And I called them back.
I was like, hey, Iended up taking the contract, and
they were nothing but supportive. They'relike, that's awesome. We're so glad
we had the opportunity to meet you. We hope you have a successful career.
(09:24):
And they were nothing but great.That's nice because I could have gone
south. It could have yeah,of some sort, but they were very
supportive and they were very kind aboutit. That is really cool. Yeah.
Yeah, So then what was yourbiggest come to the Major league moment?
When then you step in and you'rewith the Rapids in twenty ten and
you come in at a time whenthey win it all. Yep, it
(09:46):
was kind of one of those weirdthings like how the Rockies did in OH
seven. Were now, there's noway they're going to go, oh,
wait, well we're in the WorldSeries. What Yeah, yeah, I
know. We always joke about it. We always think that the owners of
the MLS were it's just so madat that final because Beckham was still in
the league, Donovan was still inthe league. You had these big name
players and the two teams in thefinal were the only two who didn't have
designated players, so it didn't bringmuch attention. It didn't bring anything,
(10:09):
So we always make jokes about it. We were just kind of the blue
collar teams that just worked our hardestto get there, which is great to
see. Okay, so back tomy question, what was your come to
the Major league moment? I wasso used to being the big fish in
a small pond, just that sortof stuff, and I wish I had
been ready for the rude awakening thatwas coming my way. I missed a
pass. It was a tough pass. It was a half volley that I
(10:31):
was trying to play it through ballto one of the teammates, and man,
he cussed me out. He cussedeverything out that you could think of.
It almost ripped his shorts off forlike missing a pass. Because I
was so used to playing with mybest friends. You miss a pass,
you're like, oh whatever, Butman, he let me have it.
And I was just like, that'swhenever it hit me that this guy,
he's playing for his family. That'shere, He's playing for his kids,
that's here. If he's not scoringa goal in training, coach isn't going
(10:54):
to see that he's performing, he'sgoing to miss out on playtime. He's
eventually going to get cut. Andso it went from a real, real
life moment that people are here tosupport their families. It's not fun anymore
living. You're here, you betterbe engaged. You better be on your
game every single day, every singleminute, even when you go home,
like you better not do anything tomess up your training for the next day,
(11:16):
not just for yourself and performance,but for your teammates to help them
be successful in their way as well. So it went from a game to
a job. Did you still loveit? I did. I loved it.
I loved it for a couple moreyears, and then different things happened
where it started becoming more and moreof a job, which makes you do
some soul search. And I'll tellyou that, bet it does. I
(11:37):
bet it does. Okay, Soyou you sign on with them in twenty
ten, they win the championship thatyear, but you you don't play in
twenty ten. You have your debutin twenty eleven. Eleven, yes,
okay, yeah, yeah. Sowhen I was brought in, the two
players I was competing against. Iwas brought in as a center. Amid
the two players was Pablo Mastroianni,who was the US national team captain so
(11:58):
and then credible player, incredible person, nothing bad to say about that man.
And jeff Lorenowitz, who is alsoin the national team pool as well.
So two of the best players attheir job in our nation, you
know, and I'm eighteen years oldtrying to come in and take their spot.
So unfortunately that didn't happen. Sothey moved me to an outside back
position, so that's what they're gettingme ready for. That's what they're playing
(12:22):
me for outside outside mid area.And I was doing well, building confidence,
absolutely loving it. And that's whenin twenty eleven they let me get
my debut in El Salvador And howwas that? It was awesome? It
was a real It was such abeautiful moment, something you've been working for
so hard. Again, that's alittle win that you'll you'll take with you
for the rest of your life.Did any of your family get to see
(12:45):
it? Did you know it wascoming or was it just for the moment
you go in During the game,we had an idea that I would probably
get to play in that time.Everything was set against us for us not
to win it, but we endedup. I came in. I think
I got thirty five minutes or so. Wow, which was awesome, And
it was in such a home fieldadvantage for Old Salador. My parents and
family they got to watch it onTV, which is a pretty cool thing.
(13:07):
That is super cool. Then inAugust of twenty thirteen, you get
loaned to Phoenix FC. What doesthat mean? There's so much movement in
soccer it's crazy. We're used toAmerican football where there's some trades in this
and that, but you kind ofknow where people are going and there's not
a lot of tears. Yeah,and there's tears everywhere in soccer. Yeah,
yeah, absolutely, there really are. So after our twenty eleven season,
(13:30):
those were the coaches who brought mein, who drafted me in.
They absolutely loved me. They're buildingme, rostering me, giving me the
time that I needed. After thatyear, they got released, they were
fired, and they brought him anew coach that got rid of all of
us except for six from the championshipteam, and the six that he couldn't
get rid of. We were stillprotected by our contracts. Okay, we're
put at the back, down tothe bottom of the barrel. And I
(13:52):
was the most bottom of the barrelbecause I was I was the only player
who who just didn't have any exposureor much MLS experience, right, So
I was the bottom of the barrel, which is a tough place to be,
especially if you've been used to being. Like you said, you were
top of the game when you werein high school and everywhere else, you
were always the best player. Yeah. Absolutely, And at the professional level,
(14:13):
I would say the strength of speed, everything is pretty much equal.
It comes down to the confidence andthe ability to think. And if you
don't have the confidence, you can'tpass a ball from A to B,
even if it's ten yards. Youjust can't. If you don't believe in
yourself, no one else will believein you. So with that coach,
that was my mentality at the momentwhere it felt like a job. I
hated coming in, but it wasthat soul searching moment as to why I
(14:33):
was here. So one of thethird coaches, i'd say, our third
assistants. I really respect the guyO Steve Cook. He was like,
Davy, I've seen what you cando. I know what you can do,
you're just not performing it here.So I've worked with the coach to
get you put on loan. SoI was like perfect. So being on
loan is if you're not playing fora team, you can be sent to
a different team and they can kindof use you, borrow you. You're
(14:56):
still paid by the Rapids, you'restill under contract with them, You're just
being used by a different team andthey can bring in a different player to
fill your roster spot. Interesting,yep, so I was sent to the
second division to play for a teamover there in Phoenix. So did you
like that? Was it a differentsituation enough that you gained your confidence?
It was. It was nice tobe respected again as a player, respected
(15:18):
again as a person, and itwas a breath of fresh air for my
mentation. There's only one way toget good at games. It's by doing
your job is to actually play somegames. So you can train all you
want, but the pressure of thespeed of play, the fitness just isn't
there unless you're getting games in.So that's that part of it was pretty
awesome. Then, while you're inPhoenix, you tear your acel. Yep.
Unfortunately, I think as my thirdgame with them, chasing down a
(15:39):
ball, felt a pop in myknee. Try to run it off,
try to walk it off. Itwas a super sharp pain. Unfortunately,
it was the acl that was gone, and that takes about a year to
come back. Yeah, it wasa full tear at the acel and partial
tear in the meniscus. Okay,so what was that like coming back?
I'm always interested to you're the athlete'sperspective, and I think the average person
(16:03):
can relate to being injured. Everybodyhas something happen, and as we all
get older, I say, weyou're still very young, but we've got
things happen to us, and youhave to get surgeries and things happen,
and being injured stinks, and especiallywhen that is your profession and you have
to go out and perform and youcan't put you in a really different spot
mentally. Yeah, it definitely tearsyou down. But I will say that
(16:25):
I was with the Rapids at thattime. I was in such a dark
spot that tearing my acl was kindof a relief. I was like,
oh my gosh, I don't haveto go get ripped in by this coach
every single day for no reason.So on that side of it, it
was a little bit of a relief. That was my initial feeling, I
don't have to play for this guyanymore because I'm hating my life right now.
(16:47):
But then as it went on,as training goes on, you start
to miss it because it's not justit wasn't just a sport for me.
It was my identity. It's whatI knew, it's what got me through
the hard times through my youth.It's what got me where I needed to
be. It was my outlet.It was almost like a part of you
is slowly dying on the inside.So it puts you in a depressive state.
But then do you do a lotof soul searching, So a lot
(17:08):
of books, a lot of reading, all that stuff. And I read
Drew Brees's book and he went throughlike almost a career ending injury. But
one thing he said is adversity isa gift. That's what it is.
If you're not failing, if you'renot making goals that make you fail,
your goals aren't set high enough.So that's what it was. And then
that's whenever you're like, you makethe switch in your mind and you're like,
Okay, I'm gonna do this.I'm not going to let an ACL
(17:30):
or a coach define who I amas a player. So honestly, at
the end of the day, itwas probably a blessing in disguise that I
did tear my ACL. Changed mywhole mentation, changed my whole mentality.
Also, you can't cut an injuredplayer. So at the end of the
twenty thirteen season, my contract wasup, but you can't cut an injured
player. So what happened was that'show long my injury went from twenty thirteen
(17:55):
into twenty fourteen. Right two fourteen, we got a new coach again,
Pablo Mastroianni. Guys happened, Yeah, absolutely, so now your teammate,
your former teammates, the coach.And he was like, Davy, I
know who you are as a player. I love you as a player,
I love you as a person.He's like, milk this injury and I'm
going to get you a contract,and I was like, you're the man.
And within that year of playing forunder Pablo in twenty fourteen, I
(18:15):
learned more about soccer than I everdid in my life. Really yea.
And what was that like? Canyou just an examples? It was just
the whole like the pressing side ofit, the dropping side of it,
the possession side of it, thejust the whole culture, the understanding that
it's just a giant, big gameof chess, and then you learn how
to play chess in a certain way. And I got a peek into his
(18:37):
brain. He was the best playerI ever. Pablo was fantastic and a
really great coach too. Absolutely,I truly believe it, and he had
a he had such a great wayof delivering it. To understand from that
person. Do you think that's becausehe was a player? Yeah, I
do, I truly do. Andthen just he had the mindset because he
can have incredibly gifted players, butthey just can't teach it exactly. Not
(19:00):
every great player as a coach,right, absolutely, And for me,
I thought he had both. Soit was this awesome person. So he
was the one who who helped meget back on my feet, helped me
regain my confidence, and resigned me. Okay, so then in twenty fifteen
you go to the Colorado Springs switchbacksFC. So what happens with that transition?
(19:22):
So you stay with the Rappids throughtwenty fourteen? Yes, and then
yeah, so I was Unfortunately Pabloand the GM at the time brought me
in. Pablo, he was like, hey man, I wanted to keep
you. I wanted to keep you. Unfortunately the GM was done with my
time. He's like, you haveto pick some battles. You have to
win something, you have to losesomething. Yeah, unfortunately you haven't been
getting enough minutes, enough time.It was understandable for the best of the
(19:47):
team. He's like, to winsome battles to maybe keep a different player
who would help more out in thefuture, we have to let you go,
and which is understandable. You know, I've had my time there for
four years, so I was releasedthen and then that's when the switch back
Scott in contact with me and theyasked me if i'd come down and it
was their first year as a teamto come out there and play for them,
(20:07):
which was great. Yeah. Sowhat was that like being on another
new team, right, another regime, different, better, same? It
was. It was interesting, ishow I'll say it. So you go
from a top tier team league team, a major league team to a second
division team, and soccer is notprofessionally seen as a huge sport here in
the States, so you can imaginewhat the second division team would kind of
(20:32):
be like. I went from beinga small player and a giant ocean to
a big player in a small pond. So a lot of the expectations weren't
the same, which was a hardadjustment for me because I also used to
this like you have to be hereat a certain time, certain time,
If not, you're fined, andthen like the standard of your past and
has to be perfect every single time. It was kind of a shell shock
to me where it was hard forme to grasp what was allowed to be
(20:53):
let go and what wasn't interesting.Did you almost feel like you were back
in a high school situation that sametype of mentality. Yeah, it felt
like it was brought back down frombeing with the best of the best to
people who I knew what it waslike to not be the best and the
best of the best. And Ithought that everyone would have that same mentality
of knowing that we weren't the bestbecause we're not in the top division,
(21:17):
but we should still have that hungerand that professionalism to want to get us
back to that top, and itwasn't there at that time, probably because
it was the first year for thatclub. It is interesting to think and
it comes from I mean, itcan come from the players, but it
can also come from the top asfar as the mentality of an organization.
I've had guys that have talked aboutNFL teams and how one NFL team is
(21:40):
a total circus and then the otherone is first class all the way.
Right. You would think you're inthe NFL and everybody should be at about
the same level, and they justaren't. And it doesn't matter where it
comes from. Somewhere, somehow,somebody's giving you the message that you can
just kind of come in and beokay, or you're expected to come in
and we are top notch all thetime. Yep. Absolutely, And as
(22:02):
a player, you can't change that. No, you can't, especially as
a brand new player, maybe theteam captain. But it's very frustrating.
It was a very hard thing toget past. And then you had another
injury. Was it in Color Springswhere you had your ankle injury? Yeah,
so it was. It was myfoot first. So I felt like
the first year with the switchbacks,I was still recovering from my AC.
I'll trying to figure it out becauseI went from playing on grass every day
(22:23):
where the ACL felt great with therapids, to our training field was turf
all the time, and it wasn'tgreat turf. So my knees stuff was
just it was still there, butit was just a whole new level of
like with the rapids. After atraining you could go into an ice bath.
After the ice bath, you couldgo into the hot tub. After
the hot tub, you could justhop straight into the shower, or you
could do contrast, you could dowhatever. Whenever you go to the switchbacks,
(22:47):
the facilities aren't the same. Iwasn't there. No, unfortunately not
so. And like with the rapids, you could get a massuse if you
needed to, you could get chiropractorif you needed to. That just wasn't
there with the switchback. So mymaintaining of my knee had a lot of
It was like, what do Ineed to do on my own to get
it better? Yeah, So thefirst year was that, and then the
(23:07):
second year in sixteen, halfway throughthe season, it was in Saint Louis.
I cut the ball across and asI was cutting and sprinting, the
other team stomped on my foot.I don't think he was meaning to.
I mean, it could have beena red card or whatever, but it
wasn't malicious in anyway. But somethinginside my foot just kind of snapped and
I couldn't sprint anymore. I don'tthink the Liz Frank was fully snapped at
(23:29):
that moment, but I just couldn'treally sprint for the rest of that season.
I finished out the season. Itook about three year four weeks off
just shedding it down, completely builtmy way back up, and that's when
like my season was pretty much done. In sixteen. From about half the
way on, I was playing,but I was playing pretty injured or I
couldn't like strike the ball with myright foot and that's my main foot,
(23:52):
so I had to find different waysof passing the ball. So it wasn't
until that off season where I wasdoing a lot of rehab every single day,
driving down the Springs trying to getthe thing right. The foot didn't
fully snap until my first or secondpreseason game in two thousand seventeen. Fully
snapped. Yep, just completely.The Liz Frank was gone. It was
actually against the Rapids Academy of allteams. Yeah, so, yeah,
(24:15):
so it snapps. And then youalso have an ankle injury. Yes,
so it snaps, and that's whereit was. I was non weight bearing
for eight weeks. So then you'reslowly learning how to walk again, slowly
learning how to do everything. Andat the same time, while this was
all going on, I was takingclasses here at Metro State, so I
was driving from the Springs down toMetro State and back up. And I
(24:37):
wouldn't be taking some pain killers atthe time because I was like, I
need a drive today, so I'mnot going to take painkiller and it's your
right foot, and it was myright foot, so you're driving with you.
And the worst part was because Iknew that, like after that injury,
I was like, okay, soccerobviously isn't gonna last forever. Injuries
happened. So that's whenever I startedtaking classes at Metro. So one of
my classes, it was like,my science class was on the far north
(25:00):
side of the campus. My Englishclass was on the far south side of
the campus, which is probably halfa mile away. And so the first
time I crutched that, I waslike, I'm done. I can't crutch
this far. So I got oneof those scooters for the need scooters and
would just scoot all the way across. But it was just like it was
a crutches from one side of Metroto the other. Yeah. I did
that for a few weeks until Icould get my scooter. Your armpits were
(25:25):
probably just blazing, yeah they were. But it helped with the tricep game.
I'm sure all right with me andthe gun show going. Yeah,
okay. So then the ankle thatwas all part of the Liz Frank was
that separate technically, Yeah, soit was kind of separate. So the
Liz Frank knocked me out for eightmonths. After eight months, I was
slowly building back, finally got backinto it, and then on my fourth
(25:45):
game back in California, another freakinjury. Just like I was tracking back,
I wasn't looking up. I shouldhave been looking back on it.
Now I feel like I should havebeen getting different rehab to strengthens different part
of the ankle that I didn't knowabout. Yeah, and just gave out
and blew everything out in my ankle. Took an MRI, they took X
(26:07):
rays. They were like, youcan't hurt it anymore. So I'd be
taping up the inside of my ankleand the outside of the boot as well
and be playing and I finished outthat season. But it was just a
holy cow, it was pretty narly. I tore my ATFL, my CFL,
my deltoid ligament, ripped the boneoff my leg, so it was
kind of a broken bone, andthen I had a dead bone in that
(26:29):
distal tibia that they had to doa microfracture surgery and to smoke it.
It was a gnarly surgery. Didyou get steroid shots? I mean,
did you have to do something forthe pain? Yeah, steroid shots,
did a bunch of ibuprofin, dida bunch of caffeine, and just like
tried to make it through. Itwas just injury after injury. In other
ways, it was doors closing forme so that a brighter door could open
(26:51):
at the end of the day.So once that happened, you retired.
Yep. Once that happened, samething. Understandably. The coach was like,
we love you as a player,we love you as a person,
but your injuries, we just can'ttake a chance with you. And I
was like, that's like you can't. That sucks, But okay, so
then you retire yep. So finishedup a degree. Yeah, so I
(27:15):
retired and that was the only thingthat felt like it could keep me going.
Because I didn't have a degree.I gave up on all my scholarship.
The only thing that I felt likeI had control of at the time
was just going to class and tryingto get some good grades with that.
That's where my focus was, AndI ended up getting the degree the day
before I got hired on with SouthMetro. Did you really what's your degree?
In the fire? An emergency response, Oh okay, so you actually
(27:37):
got your degree? In the Yeahokay, yeah, so and while I
was taking those classes, that's whereI met He was a captain at South
Metro at the time, but endedup becoming a chief. Hindsight is twenty
twenty, Like you go through thesehard times for a reason. And I
met him in that class and hehelped me throughout the whole hiring process,
mentored me. I have nothing butgreat things to say about him. He's
a chief for our department now andit was Mike Voss and he's an incredible,
(28:03):
incredible person. And even just talkingto him and him going above and
beyond to help me out while he'strying to be a captain, trying to
get his own degree and taking timeto help me, who he barely knows.
I was like, that's a departmentthat I want to be absolutely for
people I want to be around.So you've been with South Metro then since
when? For three years? Now? For three years? Since twenty twenty?
Yeah, okay, absolutely? Whatdo you like about and why did
(28:27):
you decide to be a firefighter.It's a full circle. Life is like
the more I'm just like look backon life, life is weird, isn't
it. So? Yeah, somy dad's village. As I said before,
when he was eight years old.It was during the Vietnam War.
His village was attacked by the Vietcong. He was the only survivor. The
only reason why he survived is becausehis sister asked if he could get her
(28:48):
a drink of water. So he'sgoing out to the well to get her
water and he either stepped on amine or shrapnel from a bomb hit him
and pretty much knocked him unconscious.But while he's away from the village,
that's when they got attacked. Everyonewas killed. Everyone was in his family
was pretty much yeah, yeah,they were completely gone. So when he
(29:10):
woke up, because he wasn't partof the military at all, he could
get treatment with the US. Somy uncle at the time, I guess
he's kind of my grandpa was aUS medic and was treating him and noticed
my dad didn't have anyone for him, no one was coming to visit him.
So he kind of took my dadunder his wing. He tried to
get him into different orphanages, butdifferent orphanages some of them were just there
(29:30):
for the money, didn't treat thekids as well. He's like, I'm
not leaving this kid who's had nothingwith these people. So he called up
my grandparents and he was like,Hey, can you guys adopt this kid?
And they were like, no,we don't have the money for this.
And he was like, all right, well, I'm staying in Cambodia's
living my life here. And theywere like, we want you back home.
We'll find the funds to adopt him. So they ended up adopting my
(29:51):
dad into the States because my unclewas too young and wasn't married and didn't
meet the criteria to adopt him.But that same uncle ended up retiring as
a battalion chief for the fire department. So seeing his track record and seeing
what he did for my daddy literallyis the reason why I'm here. That's
what gravitated me to look into thefire service, and then the whole team,
(30:11):
camaraderie, the whole brotherhood, thewhole family, just like and then
being able to train and do whatyou're training for in like high stressed situations.
I feel like that's what I wasdoing with soccer, just in a
different way. It's the perfect thingfor me. I don't know what else
i'd do if I if I didn'thave fire Yeah, well, you know.
And it's interesting because a lot ofathletes will say you can never find
(30:33):
again what you felt when you wereon the field, on the court,
wherever you happen to be. ButI could see how being a firefighter it
could give you that so to speak, rush, that adrenaline where you're just
like you have a team and you'reyou're doing something and you're helping people,
and it's it's kind of like justthat whole mentality a little bit, but
just in a completely different profession.Absolutely it one hundred percent. And it's
(30:56):
I always explained to people They're like, how do you like being a firefighter?
I was like, you get aworkout, you get to hang out
with your homies, you get toeat good food, and you get to
help people. Those are the thingsand if you keep it like that,
that's simple. On that basic it'sa pretty enjoyable job. Best job I've
ever had. That's great. Allright. So we were talking before we
went on the air about injuries andjust kind of where people go mentally,
(31:18):
and you had to work through alot when you look back and when you
were in those situations, and youbrought up reading Drew's book, what really
helped you through those moments. Yeah, it was. It was a dark
time. As I said that,it's not just a sport at that time,
it's your identity. If that's whatyou put all your mind towards,
if you put it all tours andthen all of a sudden, it's just
ripped away from you. Part ofyou is gone. It's gone, and
(31:41):
it's gone with that. But honestly, what got me through it is I'm
a faith based person. So myreligion is what I turned towards too,
just understanding that there's a plan foreverything and it is what it is and
it's going to be okay. Soa lot of my focus went towards that,
and a lot of focus went onbuilding my own identity and building who
I am. If I'm going tolet these injuries, these things that I
(32:01):
can't control affect me, that justwasn't an answer for me. And I
like to thank my dad and myparents for doing that. It didn't affect
my dad, so they pushed it. They just built that strong stability and
that strong foundation just to not letthose outer things affect you as a person
and just to not to lose Honestly, that family support systems a big deal.
(32:22):
Absolutely. Yeah. I read somewherethat your family volunteered at Rapids games
back when they played at Mile HighStadium. Is that true? Absolutely,
it's so true. Yeah. Wewould do the inserts for like handing out
the pamphlets for the beginning of thegames. We'd insert those, hand out
those or if we had those littlebangers where you blow them up and slap
(32:42):
them together, we'd be handing allthose out. It was great, and
we got to watch the soccer gamesfor free. And did everybody go?
All four kids and mom and dad. Yeah, everything we did was as
a family. We'd have newspaper routesjust so that we could pay for soccer,
So we'd all be waking up attwo three am deliver newspapers and then
we'd come back and then we'd havesoccer games later on that day. So
(33:05):
it's just everything we did was afamily, all right, Davey. Last
question, and you've talked about thisa little bit throughout the whole podcast,
but when you do talk to peopleand if you come across people as a
firefighter and people are struggling, especiallyif there's a mental aspect to it,
what do you tell people on howthey might be able to move forward and
get past a tough time. Yeah. I coach now at Real, which
(33:25):
is awesome. So there are somekids that are injured, they have injuries,
But I tell them adversities a gift. It's not if it comes your
way. It's when it comes yourway and you can choose to fight it.
You can choose to make yourself abetter person in that time. There's
a choice all the time. Youcan choose the letter run your life or
there's a choice to let you runthat injuries life. You can either win
it or you can lose it.So it's that's what I tell them,
(33:47):
is adversities a gift. It'll makeyou a better person. It'll make you
a better player. At the endof the day, when you look back
on it, you're happy you wentthrough those hard times. It sucks going
through it, yeah, but it'ssuch a great thing whenever you come out
on a positive side, because that'swhen you can be empathetic towards people who
are going through a hard time,because you can tell them through your experiences
(34:07):
and you can kind of get onthe same level and help others out.
I love it. You love coaching. I do it's pretty awesome. It's
pretty great. It's what has mademe fall back in love with the game
again. Yeah. I help outat Reale. My brother's the head coaching
director over there, and our teamjust won Nationals. Congratulations. Yeah,
which is pretty pretty surreal and prettygreat to see. That's cool, Davy.
(34:28):
This has been great. It's beengood to hear your story, hear
more about you, and I mean, your roots are amazing, and you
appreciate your roots, and you've comea long ways and you're still so young.
Thank you so much to do.I appreciate it. We'll see,
we'll see where it goes. Absolutelyall right, Thank you, awesome,
Thank you, Thank you, Davy. New episodes of Cut, Traded,
Fired, Retired come out every Tuesday. Please follow, download, rate,
(34:52):
and review this podcast wherever you listento podcasts, and you can keep up
on new releases by following on Twitterand Instagram at ctf our podcast and also
on the website ctfr podcast dot com. Do you know someone who could use
some inspiration, share an episode ofCut, Traded, Fired, Retired with
them. I'd appreciate it. I'myour host, Susie Wargin. Thank you
for taking the time to listen,and until next time, please be careful,
(35:15):
be safe and be kind. Takecare,
Tearing my acl was kind of arelief. I was like, Oh my
gosh, I don't have to goget ripped in by this coach every single
day. That was my initial feeling, I don't have to play for this
guy anymore because I'm hating my liferight now. But then as training goes
on, you start to miss it. It wasn't just a sport for me.
It was my identity. It wasmy outlet. It was almost like
a part of you is slowly dying. Welcome to Cut, Traded, Fired,
(00:23):
Retired a weekly podcast featuring conversations withprofessional athletes and coaches who have experienced
being cut, traded, fired,and or they're retired. I'm your host,
Susie Wargen. If you've been listeningto the podcast for a while,
you know I really enjoy highlighting homegrowntalent. There have been some pretty incredible
athletes come out of Colorado, andthis episode's guest is no exception. Davy
(00:45):
Armstrong was born in Aurora and hisfamily had a paper route to help pay
for soccer, which he got intoat the age of six. Turns out,
Davy was pretty good on the pitchand a Range View High School.
He was three time All Colorado Denverpost Player of the Year and at a
school record for fifty three goals ina season. He was also part of
the Colorado Rapids youth system. Intwenty ten, Davy turned down a scholarship
(01:07):
with the University of Washington so hecould sign with the Rapids, and he
became the first player from their youthsystem to be signed as a pro.
So Davy was thrust into the businessof professional sports at the young age of
eighteen. He did well, butalso moved around a bit after making his
pro debut and was hit with someinjuries. These days, Davy is a
firefighter and has a pretty moving storyabout why he chose that profession to reinvent
(01:32):
himself. Ladies and gentlemen, let'sget into it with homegrown Davy Armstrong Cut
Traded Fired, Retired podcast with SusieWargin. Hello Davy Armstrong, Hi,
how are you? I'm good?How are you doing good? This is
fun? You know what you aremy very first soccer player. Great?
Love it. I love it andit's fun because there's so much of football
(01:57):
and basketball and everything else, andpeople forget how huge soccer is. Right,
It's really big and it's been ahuge part of your life for a
very long time. Yeah, sinceI was about six years old, which
is great for me. Oh absolutely. So you were born in Aurorra.
You're the youngest of four and anolder brother who also played soccer, right,
yes, Is that where the lovestarted or how did you get into
(02:17):
the sport? I honestly think itwas my parents that pushed us towards something.
They wanted us to just strive andbe successful at something, and I
think soccer at the time was probablythe cheapest sport, and we got good
at it, and they made usfeel like a cool person if we were
good at the sport. So theyjust kept with it and we turned out
to be all right at it.That's really cool. Now. Your dad
(02:37):
is from Cambodia and was an Olympicskier in the super G. Yes,
so he was a Giant Solomon superg. He was on the Paralympics,
so okay, yeah, he wasadopted whenever he was about eight years old
from Cambodia, ended up losing hisleg in a raid through the Vietcong attacked
his village. He was the onlysurvivor. Oh my god. So he
went through a whole different sort ofadversity that no one could even dream about
(03:00):
going through young child, as avery young child, came over not knowing
any of the language, not knowinganyone, not knowing any of the culture,
but made a way through and becamevery successful at what he wanted to
do. Oh, that's incredible.Does he talk about that? Does he
have much memory of it? No, he doesn't, and it's something that
I try not to bring up,just because I can't imagine going through all
(03:21):
that trauma. There is a bookwritten about him, It's called Ree,
and that's where I learned a lotabout who he was. You see the
characteristics, why he acts a certainway, why he is a certain way,
and it's a pretty phenomenal book.I mean for me at least,
it was absolutely aside of my dadthat I never knew of. I just
have so much respect for the guy. That's why I love doing podcast Davy
because I've had some kids of peopleI've had on the podcast that have said
(03:46):
I heard stories about my dad thatI didn't even know about, which to
me, I'm like, Wow,how cool to be able to preserve some
of those stories and know some thingsthat maybe you didn't want to ask about
or didn't know about, and thenyou're able to find out. Yeah.
Absolutely, it's it's a pretty coolthing. Yeah absolutely, all right,
So you grow up loving soccer?Did you love it right away? I
(04:06):
did? I think honestly, itwas an escape for me throughout my whole
life. We grew up in arowa. We didn't have much of anything
really, honestly, my parents startedout in Section eight housing. We eventually
got a house off of it waslike Colfax, an airport area, so
still not an awesome spot to be. It was just, honestly my escape
through some of the tough times thatwe were going through. So it was
(04:29):
my light at the end of thetunnel. So that's where my love of
it came from. And you gotvery good at it when you were at
Range View. You finished with aschool record of fifty three goals. You're
the Denver Post Player of the Yearin two thousand and eight, three time
All Colorado, and you also wereon your club team. How did that
work? I'm always fascinated with soccerand how it works with your school team
and your club team. Was thereconflict in there? Because sometimes those coaches
(04:51):
don't like that you play for twodifferent teams. Right at the time,
it was no problem at all becausethere was no soccer going on during the
fall season with our club teams andstuff, so we were expected to continue
to play, So that was noproblem at all. The biggest conflict where
a lot of my club teammates wereon like one of our bigger rivals,
So the more conflict was them justtalking back and forth with us, and
(05:13):
they were on Denverist. They endedup actually beating us in the quarterfinals and
they went on to win the championship, So that was the biggest conflict there.
But now they don't let if youplay at a certain level, you're
not allowed to play high school ball, right, so you just what do
you think about that for the developmentof soccer in the States of what we
need. I think it's a goodtrack of where we're going at mainly because
whenever I would go play high schoolsoccer, you could play against someone who's
(05:38):
never really played soccer before. Theyjust wanted to pick it up in school
and maybe they weren't released because theywere a senior and then so it was
very easy for me who's been playingat a very young age at a high
level to get past that, andit helped build my confidence in a way.
But I had a buddy who wasbeing recruited by different colleges and they
brought up his high school stats.Him and I were going back and forth
with the records in Colorado, andthen the college coach was like, don't
(06:01):
show me that. Like, he'slike, I don't care about any of
your high school stats for soccer.Interesting, yeah, because you can't judge
the level of competition that you're goingup against, right, yeah, Okay,
so yeah with club, the bestof the best are trying not to
be on that team. That makessense. For high school, you're just
kind of stuck at where you're at. So when do you get involved in
with the Rapids developmental teams? Myunder eighteen year, you eighteen is whenever
(06:25):
I switched over to academy. Academyhad just started, so Rapids had their
own academy. So I ended upswitching over to that from my final year,
and that's when I started getting alittle bit more notice from everyone else.
I bet you did. So youwere the very first home grown kid
to start with their team and thenalso be brought up to sign with the
(06:45):
Rapids, which all happened in twentyten. You graduate in twenty ten from
Range View, you signed a letterof intent to go to University of Washington,
yep, and then you also signa contract with the Rapids. Yeah,
how did that go all go down? It was? It was,
honestly a pretty surreal thing. Itwas something that I'd never thought was possible,
especially with being so young. Imean, playing professionally was always a
(07:09):
goal of mine. It's what Iwanted to do, but I didn't know
it would come that early. Sohonestly, it was two days before I
went to preseason four University of Washington. The Rapids offered me a contract.
I had been training with them allsummer, I've been playing with them.
I knew I was doing well andeverything. I just didn't think that was
a possibility. Sure, yeah,and then whenever a professional contract, something
you've been working for your whole lifehas thrown your way at such a young
(07:30):
age, of course you're going tojump at that opportunity. Absolutely, So
how did it happen? Honestly,it was the weirdest thing. I was
hanging out with some of my buddiesat my parents because I was still living
at home. I didn't move out, and then I got a call from
one of the guys who still worksfor the Rapids. His name was Brian
Krook. I mean, he waslike, hey, we've been talking with
the coach. We've been talking withthese guys, and at the end of
the day, we would like tooffer you a contract and keep you around
(07:54):
because we like your development, welike where you're going, and we want
to keep you with this team toplay profession I mean, from there on,
everything else was a blurry. It'sjust like your lightheaded. You're just
like it's I'm not an emotional person, but tears start falling out of your
eyes. You're just like, whatis going on? And it's a It's
a surreal feeling whenever you have beenworking so hard for something and your dream
is given to you at eighteen.At eighteen crazy, it was pretty awesome,
(08:18):
But then you don't realize how muchwork is going to come after.
Oh yeah, so you hang upthe phone. Your buddies are there.
What do you say? I toldthem. They thought I was joking.
They're like, shut up, andthen I was like, no, I'm
serious, and I think it wasYeah, it was just they were all
super happy for me. It wasjust such an incredible feeling. Then do
you call University of Washington? Yeah, it was. It was. It
(08:39):
was a silly, silly thing onmy part. I told them. I
sent them an email. I waslike, hey, the Rapids offered me
a contract, and I was like, I'm gonna take it. I'm gonna
take this offer. It's been mygoal. And then I went in to
sign the contract and as I wascoming out, I had like three or
four missed calls from the you dubcoach. He's like, hey, Davy,
don't sign anything. I'm booking itto get right now, to fly
(09:00):
out and come talk to you.Maybe we can work something out. And
I called them. I should havecalled them in the first place, looking
back on it, but I waseighteen. You broke up via email,
a little bit afraid of confrontation.You are. And I called them back.
I was like, hey, Iended up taking the contract, and
they were nothing but supportive. They'relike, that's awesome. We're so glad
we had the opportunity to meet you. We hope you have a successful career.
(09:24):
And they were nothing but great.That's nice because I could have gone
south. It could have yeah,of some sort, but they were very
supportive and they were very kind aboutit. That is really cool. Yeah.
Yeah, So then what was yourbiggest come to the Major league moment?
When then you step in and you'rewith the Rapids in twenty ten and
you come in at a time whenthey win it all. Yep, it
(09:46):
was kind of one of those weirdthings like how the Rockies did in OH
seven. Were now, there's noway they're going to go, oh,
wait, well we're in the WorldSeries. What Yeah, yeah, I
know. We always joke about it. We always think that the owners of
the MLS were it's just so madat that final because Beckham was still in
the league, Donovan was still inthe league. You had these big name
players and the two teams in thefinal were the only two who didn't have
designated players, so it didn't bringmuch attention. It didn't bring anything,
(10:09):
So we always make jokes about it. We were just kind of the blue
collar teams that just worked our hardestto get there, which is great to
see. Okay, so back tomy question, what was your come to
the Major league moment? I wasso used to being the big fish in
a small pond, just that sortof stuff, and I wish I had
been ready for the rude awakening thatwas coming my way. I missed a
pass. It was a tough pass. It was a half volley that I
(10:31):
was trying to play it through ballto one of the teammates, and man,
he cussed me out. He cussedeverything out that you could think of.
It almost ripped his shorts off forlike missing a pass. Because I
was so used to playing with mybest friends. You miss a pass,
you're like, oh whatever, Butman, he let me have it.
And I was just like, that'swhenever it hit me that this guy,
he's playing for his family. That'shere, He's playing for his kids,
that's here. If he's not scoringa goal in training, coach isn't going
(10:54):
to see that he's performing, he'sgoing to miss out on playtime. He's
eventually going to get cut. Andso it went from a real, real
life moment that people are here tosupport their families. It's not fun anymore
living. You're here, you betterbe engaged. You better be on your
game every single day, every singleminute, even when you go home,
like you better not do anything tomess up your training for the next day,
(11:16):
not just for yourself and performance,but for your teammates to help them
be successful in their way as well. So it went from a game to
a job. Did you still loveit? I did. I loved it.
I loved it for a couple moreyears, and then different things happened
where it started becoming more and moreof a job, which makes you do
some soul search. And I'll tellyou that, bet it does. I
(11:37):
bet it does. Okay, Soyou you sign on with them in twenty
ten, they win the championship thatyear, but you you don't play in
twenty ten. You have your debutin twenty eleven. Eleven, yes,
okay, yeah, yeah. Sowhen I was brought in, the two
players I was competing against. Iwas brought in as a center. Amid
the two players was Pablo Mastroianni,who was the US national team captain so
(11:58):
and then credible player, incredible person, nothing bad to say about that man.
And jeff Lorenowitz, who is alsoin the national team pool as well.
So two of the best players attheir job in our nation, you
know, and I'm eighteen years oldtrying to come in and take their spot.
So unfortunately that didn't happen. Sothey moved me to an outside back
position, so that's what they're gettingme ready for. That's what they're playing
(12:22):
me for outside outside mid area.And I was doing well, building confidence,
absolutely loving it. And that's whenin twenty eleven they let me get
my debut in El Salvador And howwas that? It was awesome? It
was a real It was such abeautiful moment, something you've been working for
so hard. Again, that's alittle win that you'll you'll take with you
for the rest of your life.Did any of your family get to see
(12:45):
it? Did you know it wascoming or was it just for the moment
you go in During the game,we had an idea that I would probably
get to play in that time.Everything was set against us for us not
to win it, but we endedup. I came in. I think
I got thirty five minutes or so. Wow, which was awesome, And
it was in such a home fieldadvantage for Old Salador. My parents and
family they got to watch it onTV, which is a pretty cool thing.
(13:07):
That is super cool. Then inAugust of twenty thirteen, you get
loaned to Phoenix FC. What doesthat mean? There's so much movement in
soccer it's crazy. We're used toAmerican football where there's some trades in this
and that, but you kind ofknow where people are going and there's not
a lot of tears. Yeah,and there's tears everywhere in soccer. Yeah,
yeah, absolutely, there really are. So after our twenty eleven season,
(13:30):
those were the coaches who brought mein, who drafted me in.
They absolutely loved me. They're buildingme, rostering me, giving me the
time that I needed. After thatyear, they got released, they were
fired, and they brought him anew coach that got rid of all of
us except for six from the championshipteam, and the six that he couldn't
get rid of. We were stillprotected by our contracts. Okay, we're
put at the back, down tothe bottom of the barrel. And I
(13:52):
was the most bottom of the barrelbecause I was I was the only player
who who just didn't have any exposureor much MLS experience, right, So
I was the bottom of the barrel, which is a tough place to be,
especially if you've been used to being. Like you said, you were
top of the game when you werein high school and everywhere else, you
were always the best player. Yeah. Absolutely, And at the professional level,
(14:13):
I would say the strength of speed, everything is pretty much equal.
It comes down to the confidence andthe ability to think. And if you
don't have the confidence, you can'tpass a ball from A to B,
even if it's ten yards. Youjust can't. If you don't believe in
yourself, no one else will believein you. So with that coach,
that was my mentality at the momentwhere it felt like a job. I
hated coming in, but it wasthat soul searching moment as to why I
(14:33):
was here. So one of thethird coaches, i'd say, our third
assistants. I really respect the guyO Steve Cook. He was like,
Davy, I've seen what you cando. I know what you can do,
you're just not performing it here.So I've worked with the coach to
get you put on loan. SoI was like perfect. So being on
loan is if you're not playing fora team, you can be sent to
a different team and they can kindof use you, borrow you. You're
(14:56):
still paid by the Rapids, you'restill under contract with them, You're just
being used by a different team andthey can bring in a different player to
fill your roster spot. Interesting,yep, so I was sent to the
second division to play for a teamover there in Phoenix. So did you
like that? Was it a differentsituation enough that you gained your confidence?
It was. It was nice tobe respected again as a player, respected
(15:18):
again as a person, and itwas a breath of fresh air for my
mentation. There's only one way toget good at games. It's by doing
your job is to actually play somegames. So you can train all you
want, but the pressure of thespeed of play, the fitness just isn't
there unless you're getting games in.So that's that part of it was pretty
awesome. Then, while you're inPhoenix, you tear your acel. Yep.
Unfortunately, I think as my thirdgame with them, chasing down a
(15:39):
ball, felt a pop in myknee. Try to run it off,
try to walk it off. Itwas a super sharp pain. Unfortunately,
it was the acl that was gone, and that takes about a year to
come back. Yeah, it wasa full tear at the acel and partial
tear in the meniscus. Okay,so what was that like coming back?
I'm always interested to you're the athlete'sperspective, and I think the average person
(16:03):
can relate to being injured. Everybodyhas something happen, and as we all
get older, I say, weyou're still very young, but we've got
things happen to us, and youhave to get surgeries and things happen,
and being injured stinks, and especiallywhen that is your profession and you have
to go out and perform and youcan't put you in a really different spot
mentally. Yeah, it definitely tearsyou down. But I will say that
(16:25):
I was with the Rapids at thattime. I was in such a dark
spot that tearing my acl was kindof a relief. I was like,
oh my gosh, I don't haveto go get ripped in by this coach
every single day for no reason.So on that side of it, it
was a little bit of a relief. That was my initial feeling, I
don't have to play for this guyanymore because I'm hating my life right now.
(16:47):
But then as it went on,as training goes on, you start
to miss it because it's not justit wasn't just a sport for me.
It was my identity. It's whatI knew, it's what got me through
the hard times through my youth.It's what got me where I needed to
be. It was my outlet.It was almost like a part of you
is slowly dying on the inside.So it puts you in a depressive state.
But then do you do a lotof soul searching, So a lot
(17:08):
of books, a lot of reading, all that stuff. And I read
Drew Brees's book and he went throughlike almost a career ending injury. But
one thing he said is adversity isa gift. That's what it is.
If you're not failing, if you'renot making goals that make you fail,
your goals aren't set high enough.So that's what it was. And then
that's whenever you're like, you makethe switch in your mind and you're like,
Okay, I'm gonna do this.I'm not going to let an ACL
(17:30):
or a coach define who I amas a player. So honestly, at
the end of the day, itwas probably a blessing in disguise that I
did tear my ACL. Changed mywhole mentation, changed my whole mentality.
Also, you can't cut an injuredplayer. So at the end of the
twenty thirteen season, my contract wasup, but you can't cut an injured
player. So what happened was that'show long my injury went from twenty thirteen
(17:55):
into twenty fourteen. Right two fourteen, we got a new coach again,
Pablo Mastroianni. Guys happened, Yeah, absolutely, so now your teammate,
your former teammates, the coach.And he was like, Davy, I
know who you are as a player. I love you as a player,
I love you as a person.He's like, milk this injury and I'm
going to get you a contract,and I was like, you're the man.
And within that year of playing forunder Pablo in twenty fourteen, I
(18:15):
learned more about soccer than I everdid in my life. Really yea.
And what was that like? Canyou just an examples? It was just
the whole like the pressing side ofit, the dropping side of it,
the possession side of it, thejust the whole culture, the understanding that
it's just a giant, big gameof chess, and then you learn how
to play chess in a certain way. And I got a peek into his
(18:37):
brain. He was the best playerI ever. Pablo was fantastic and a
really great coach too. Absolutely,I truly believe it, and he had
a he had such a great wayof delivering it. To understand from that
person. Do you think that's becausehe was a player? Yeah, I
do, I truly do. Andthen just he had the mindset because he
can have incredibly gifted players, butthey just can't teach it exactly. Not
(19:00):
every great player as a coach,right, absolutely, And for me,
I thought he had both. Soit was this awesome person. So he
was the one who who helped meget back on my feet, helped me
regain my confidence, and resigned me. Okay, so then in twenty fifteen
you go to the Colorado Springs switchbacksFC. So what happens with that transition?
(19:22):
So you stay with the Rappids throughtwenty fourteen? Yes, and then
yeah, so I was Unfortunately Pabloand the GM at the time brought me
in. Pablo, he was like, hey man, I wanted to keep
you. I wanted to keep you. Unfortunately the GM was done with my
time. He's like, you haveto pick some battles. You have to
win something, you have to losesomething. Yeah, unfortunately you haven't been
getting enough minutes, enough time.It was understandable for the best of the
(19:47):
team. He's like, to winsome battles to maybe keep a different player
who would help more out in thefuture, we have to let you go,
and which is understandable. You know, I've had my time there for
four years, so I was releasedthen and then that's when the switch back
Scott in contact with me and theyasked me if i'd come down and it
was their first year as a teamto come out there and play for them,
(20:07):
which was great. Yeah. Sowhat was that like being on another
new team, right, another regime, different, better, same? It
was. It was interesting, ishow I'll say it. So you go
from a top tier team league team, a major league team to a second
division team, and soccer is notprofessionally seen as a huge sport here in
the States, so you can imaginewhat the second division team would kind of
(20:32):
be like. I went from beinga small player and a giant ocean to
a big player in a small pond. So a lot of the expectations weren't
the same, which was a hardadjustment for me because I also used to
this like you have to be hereat a certain time, certain time,
If not, you're fined, andthen like the standard of your past and
has to be perfect every single time. It was kind of a shell shock
to me where it was hard forme to grasp what was allowed to be
(20:53):
let go and what wasn't interesting.Did you almost feel like you were back
in a high school situation that sametype of mentality. Yeah, it felt
like it was brought back down frombeing with the best of the best to
people who I knew what it waslike to not be the best and the
best of the best. And Ithought that everyone would have that same mentality
of knowing that we weren't the bestbecause we're not in the top division,
(21:17):
but we should still have that hungerand that professionalism to want to get us
back to that top, and itwasn't there at that time, probably because
it was the first year for thatclub. It is interesting to think and
it comes from I mean, itcan come from the players, but it
can also come from the top asfar as the mentality of an organization.
I've had guys that have talked aboutNFL teams and how one NFL team is
(21:40):
a total circus and then the otherone is first class all the way.
Right. You would think you're inthe NFL and everybody should be at about
the same level, and they justaren't. And it doesn't matter where it
comes from. Somewhere, somehow,somebody's giving you the message that you can
just kind of come in and beokay, or you're expected to come in
and we are top notch all thetime. Yep. Absolutely, And as
(22:02):
a player, you can't change that. No, you can't, especially as
a brand new player, maybe theteam captain. But it's very frustrating.
It was a very hard thing toget past. And then you had another
injury. Was it in Color Springswhere you had your ankle injury? Yeah,
so it was. It was myfoot first. So I felt like
the first year with the switchbacks,I was still recovering from my AC.
I'll trying to figure it out becauseI went from playing on grass every day
(22:23):
where the ACL felt great with therapids, to our training field was turf
all the time, and it wasn'tgreat turf. So my knees stuff was
just it was still there, butit was just a whole new level of
like with the rapids. After atraining you could go into an ice bath.
After the ice bath, you couldgo into the hot tub. After
the hot tub, you could justhop straight into the shower, or you
could do contrast, you could dowhatever. Whenever you go to the switchbacks,
(22:47):
the facilities aren't the same. Iwasn't there. No, unfortunately not
so. And like with the rapids, you could get a massuse if you
needed to, you could get chiropractorif you needed to. That just wasn't
there with the switchback. So mymaintaining of my knee had a lot of
It was like, what do Ineed to do on my own to get
it better? Yeah, So thefirst year was that, and then the
(23:07):
second year in sixteen, halfway throughthe season, it was in Saint Louis.
I cut the ball across and asI was cutting and sprinting, the
other team stomped on my foot.I don't think he was meaning to.
I mean, it could have beena red card or whatever, but it
wasn't malicious in anyway. But somethinginside my foot just kind of snapped and
I couldn't sprint anymore. I don'tthink the Liz Frank was fully snapped at
(23:29):
that moment, but I just couldn'treally sprint for the rest of that season.
I finished out the season. Itook about three year four weeks off
just shedding it down, completely builtmy way back up, and that's when
like my season was pretty much done. In sixteen. From about half the
way on, I was playing,but I was playing pretty injured or I
couldn't like strike the ball with myright foot and that's my main foot,
(23:52):
so I had to find different waysof passing the ball. So it wasn't
until that off season where I wasdoing a lot of rehab every single day,
driving down the Springs trying to getthe thing right. The foot didn't
fully snap until my first or secondpreseason game in two thousand seventeen. Fully
snapped. Yep, just completely.The Liz Frank was gone. It was
actually against the Rapids Academy of allteams. Yeah, so, yeah,
(24:15):
so it snapps. And then youalso have an ankle injury. Yes,
so it snaps, and that's whereit was. I was non weight bearing
for eight weeks. So then you'reslowly learning how to walk again, slowly
learning how to do everything. Andat the same time, while this was
all going on, I was takingclasses here at Metro State, so I
was driving from the Springs down toMetro State and back up. And I
(24:37):
wouldn't be taking some pain killers atthe time because I was like, I
need a drive today, so I'mnot going to take painkiller and it's your
right foot, and it was myright foot, so you're driving with you.
And the worst part was because Iknew that, like after that injury,
I was like, okay, soccerobviously isn't gonna last forever. Injuries
happened. So that's whenever I startedtaking classes at Metro. So one of
my classes, it was like,my science class was on the far north
(25:00):
side of the campus. My Englishclass was on the far south side of
the campus, which is probably halfa mile away. And so the first
time I crutched that, I waslike, I'm done. I can't crutch
this far. So I got oneof those scooters for the need scooters and
would just scoot all the way across. But it was just like it was
a crutches from one side of Metroto the other. Yeah. I did
that for a few weeks until Icould get my scooter. Your armpits were
(25:25):
probably just blazing, yeah they were. But it helped with the tricep game.
I'm sure all right with me andthe gun show going. Yeah,
okay. So then the ankle thatwas all part of the Liz Frank was
that separate technically, Yeah, soit was kind of separate. So the
Liz Frank knocked me out for eightmonths. After eight months, I was
slowly building back, finally got backinto it, and then on my fourth
(25:45):
game back in California, another freakinjury. Just like I was tracking back,
I wasn't looking up. I shouldhave been looking back on it.
Now I feel like I should havebeen getting different rehab to strengthens different part
of the ankle that I didn't knowabout. Yeah, and just gave out
and blew everything out in my ankle. Took an MRI, they took X
(26:07):
rays. They were like, youcan't hurt it anymore. So I'd be
taping up the inside of my ankleand the outside of the boot as well
and be playing and I finished outthat season. But it was just a
holy cow, it was pretty narly. I tore my ATFL, my CFL,
my deltoid ligament, ripped the boneoff my leg, so it was
kind of a broken bone, andthen I had a dead bone in that
(26:29):
distal tibia that they had to doa microfracture surgery and to smoke it.
It was a gnarly surgery. Didyou get steroid shots? I mean,
did you have to do something forthe pain? Yeah, steroid shots,
did a bunch of ibuprofin, dida bunch of caffeine, and just like
tried to make it through. Itwas just injury after injury. In other
ways, it was doors closing forme so that a brighter door could open
(26:51):
at the end of the day.So once that happened, you retired.
Yep. Once that happened, samething. Understandably. The coach was like,
we love you as a player,we love you as a person,
but your injuries, we just can'ttake a chance with you. And I
was like, that's like you can't. That sucks, But okay, so
then you retire yep. So finishedup a degree. Yeah, so I
(27:15):
retired and that was the only thingthat felt like it could keep me going.
Because I didn't have a degree.I gave up on all my scholarship.
The only thing that I felt likeI had control of at the time
was just going to class and tryingto get some good grades with that.
That's where my focus was, AndI ended up getting the degree the day
before I got hired on with SouthMetro. Did you really what's your degree?
In the fire? An emergency response, Oh okay, so you actually
(27:37):
got your degree? In the Yeahokay, yeah, so and while I
was taking those classes, that's whereI met He was a captain at South
Metro at the time, but endedup becoming a chief. Hindsight is twenty
twenty, Like you go through thesehard times for a reason. And I
met him in that class and hehelped me throughout the whole hiring process,
mentored me. I have nothing butgreat things to say about him. He's
a chief for our department now andit was Mike Voss and he's an incredible,
(28:03):
incredible person. And even just talkingto him and him going above and
beyond to help me out while he'strying to be a captain, trying to
get his own degree and taking timeto help me, who he barely knows.
I was like, that's a departmentthat I want to be absolutely for
people I want to be around.So you've been with South Metro then since
when? For three years? Now? For three years? Since twenty twenty?
Yeah, okay, absolutely? Whatdo you like about and why did
(28:27):
you decide to be a firefighter.It's a full circle. Life is like
the more I'm just like look backon life, life is weird, isn't
it. So? Yeah, somy dad's village. As I said before,
when he was eight years old.It was during the Vietnam War.
His village was attacked by the Vietcong. He was the only survivor. The
only reason why he survived is becausehis sister asked if he could get her
(28:48):
a drink of water. So he'sgoing out to the well to get her
water and he either stepped on amine or shrapnel from a bomb hit him
and pretty much knocked him unconscious.But while he's away from the village,
that's when they got attacked. Everyonewas killed. Everyone was in his family
was pretty much yeah, yeah,they were completely gone. So when he
(29:10):
woke up, because he wasn't partof the military at all, he could
get treatment with the US. Somy uncle at the time, I guess
he's kind of my grandpa was aUS medic and was treating him and noticed
my dad didn't have anyone for him, no one was coming to visit him.
So he kind of took my dadunder his wing. He tried to
get him into different orphanages, butdifferent orphanages some of them were just there
(29:30):
for the money, didn't treat thekids as well. He's like, I'm
not leaving this kid who's had nothingwith these people. So he called up
my grandparents and he was like,Hey, can you guys adopt this kid?
And they were like, no,we don't have the money for this.
And he was like, all right, well, I'm staying in Cambodia's
living my life here. And theywere like, we want you back home.
We'll find the funds to adopt him. So they ended up adopting my
(29:51):
dad into the States because my unclewas too young and wasn't married and didn't
meet the criteria to adopt him.But that same uncle ended up retiring as
a battalion chief for the fire department. So seeing his track record and seeing
what he did for my daddy literallyis the reason why I'm here. That's
what gravitated me to look into thefire service, and then the whole team,
(30:11):
camaraderie, the whole brotherhood, thewhole family, just like and then
being able to train and do whatyou're training for in like high stressed situations.
I feel like that's what I wasdoing with soccer, just in a
different way. It's the perfect thingfor me. I don't know what else
i'd do if I if I didn'thave fire Yeah, well, you know.
And it's interesting because a lot ofathletes will say you can never find
(30:33):
again what you felt when you wereon the field, on the court,
wherever you happen to be. ButI could see how being a firefighter it
could give you that so to speak, rush, that adrenaline where you're just
like you have a team and you'reyou're doing something and you're helping people,
and it's it's kind of like justthat whole mentality a little bit, but
just in a completely different profession.Absolutely it one hundred percent. And it's
(30:56):
I always explained to people They're like, how do you like being a firefighter?
I was like, you get aworkout, you get to hang out
with your homies, you get toeat good food, and you get to
help people. Those are the thingsand if you keep it like that,
that's simple. On that basic it'sa pretty enjoyable job. Best job I've
ever had. That's great. Allright. So we were talking before we
went on the air about injuries andjust kind of where people go mentally,
(31:18):
and you had to work through alot when you look back and when you
were in those situations, and youbrought up reading Drew's book, what really
helped you through those moments. Yeah, it was. It was a dark
time. As I said that,it's not just a sport at that time,
it's your identity. If that's whatyou put all your mind towards,
if you put it all tours andthen all of a sudden, it's just
ripped away from you. Part ofyou is gone. It's gone, and
(31:41):
it's gone with that. But honestly, what got me through it is I'm
a faith based person. So myreligion is what I turned towards too,
just understanding that there's a plan foreverything and it is what it is and
it's going to be okay. Soa lot of my focus went towards that,
and a lot of focus went onbuilding my own identity and building who
I am. If I'm going tolet these injuries, these things that I
(32:01):
can't control affect me, that justwasn't an answer for me. And I
like to thank my dad and myparents for doing that. It didn't affect
my dad, so they pushed it. They just built that strong stability and
that strong foundation just to not letthose outer things affect you as a person
and just to not to lose Honestly, that family support systems a big deal.
(32:22):
Absolutely. Yeah. I read somewherethat your family volunteered at Rapids games
back when they played at Mile HighStadium. Is that true? Absolutely,
it's so true. Yeah. Wewould do the inserts for like handing out
the pamphlets for the beginning of thegames. We'd insert those, hand out
those or if we had those littlebangers where you blow them up and slap
(32:42):
them together, we'd be handing allthose out. It was great, and
we got to watch the soccer gamesfor free. And did everybody go?
All four kids and mom and dad. Yeah, everything we did was as
a family. We'd have newspaper routesjust so that we could pay for soccer,
So we'd all be waking up attwo three am deliver newspapers and then
we'd come back and then we'd havesoccer games later on that day. So
(33:05):
it's just everything we did was afamily, all right, Davey. Last
question, and you've talked about thisa little bit throughout the whole podcast,
but when you do talk to peopleand if you come across people as a
firefighter and people are struggling, especiallyif there's a mental aspect to it,
what do you tell people on howthey might be able to move forward and
get past a tough time. Yeah. I coach now at Real, which
(33:25):
is awesome. So there are somekids that are injured, they have injuries,
But I tell them adversities a gift. It's not if it comes your
way. It's when it comes yourway and you can choose to fight it.
You can choose to make yourself abetter person in that time. There's
a choice all the time. Youcan choose the letter run your life or
there's a choice to let you runthat injuries life. You can either win
it or you can lose it.So it's that's what I tell them,
(33:47):
is adversities a gift. It'll makeyou a better person. It'll make you
a better player. At the endof the day, when you look back
on it, you're happy you wentthrough those hard times. It sucks going
through it, yeah, but it'ssuch a great thing whenever you come out
on a positive side, because that'swhen you can be empathetic towards people who
are going through a hard time,because you can tell them through your experiences
(34:07):
and you can kind of get onthe same level and help others out.
I love it. You love coaching. I do it's pretty awesome. It's
pretty great. It's what has mademe fall back in love with the game
again. Yeah. I help outat Reale. My brother's the head coaching
director over there, and our teamjust won Nationals. Congratulations. Yeah,
which is pretty pretty surreal and prettygreat to see. That's cool, Davy.
(34:28):
This has been great. It's beengood to hear your story, hear
more about you, and I mean, your roots are amazing, and you
appreciate your roots, and you've comea long ways and you're still so young.
Thank you so much to do.I appreciate it. We'll see,
we'll see where it goes. Absolutelyall right, Thank you, awesome,
Thank you, Thank you, Davy. New episodes of Cut, Traded,
Fired, Retired come out every Tuesday. Please follow, download, rate,
(34:52):
and review this podcast wherever you listento podcasts, and you can keep up
on new releases by following on Twitterand Instagram at ctf our podcast and also
on the website ctfr podcast dot com. Do you know someone who could use
some inspiration, share an episode ofCut, Traded, Fired, Retired with
them. I'd appreciate it. I'myour host, Susie Wargin. Thank you
for taking the time to listen,and until next time, please be careful,
(35:15):
be safe and be kind. Takecare,
Popular Podcasts
1. Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
3. Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.