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Ivy@50 - 4/25
Created: 4/25/2007 6:57:58 AM
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Perhaps Leslie Fitzpatrick's Columbia soccer career was preordained to success because of how he learned of the place. "I had heard of Columbia through a friend of mine, Dexter Skeene," he remembers, saying he "hadn't heard much of Columbia" before speaking to Skeene.
Fitzpatrick was talking to one of the central figures in Columbia soccer history. Skeene, a first team All-Ivy forward in 1985, played in Columbia's 1983 NCAA championship game — a heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Indiana. With the score tied 0-0 "with seven minutes to go Solomon Gayle had a quick combination with Dexter Skeene," coach Dieter Ficken described to the Columbia Spectator last year. "Solomon powered the ball from the penalty spot at the empty goal, but one of our players had made a run and it hit him in the back of the head."
Not that he needed Skeene's recommendation. "I was being recruited by a few nationally ranked schools like University of Connecticut [and] James Madison," he says, "but never really considered them seriously when matched with Columbia. I knew that as long as I was going to attend college before trying to play professionally I should choose the option that gave me the best combination of academics and the ability to still develop myself in soccer. There was always going to be life after soccer, and Columbia's reputation in academia put it head and shoulders above the other options."
Columbia soccer was in something of a doldrums during Fitzpatrick's time there, but he was able to help lead them to a 4-2-1 Ivy mark with a first team All-Ivy performance in 2000 — its best record in six years, He especially remembers "my last collegiate game ever on senior day against Cornell University on my 22nd birthday, where I scored two goals and we won the game 2-1. I think I ran the full gamut of emotions that day from scoring the goals, to it being my birthday, to knowing that another chapter of my career was ending. It was one of the most emotionally charged days of my life."
For Stephen Eschenbach's full story, please visit ivy50.com. Note, there are Ivy postcards of Leslie Fitzpatrick and all of the other athletes who have been profiled available by clicking here.
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Related Schools: Columbia
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Related Sports: Soccer
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*This Article has been archived.*
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