The Soccer Life - Kevin Johnston

Unlike many of the Indy Eleven grassroots media who have chosen to write about the team as part of their fandom and have a relatively minor reach (or no reach in my case), today's interviewee started a site that has quickly reached a national audience. Like the rest of us though, at this point he still has to have a day job and Kevin Johnston's day job is being an accountant for a hotel company accounting department. However, Kevin is equally qualified to run a soccer related website since he studied Sports Communication from Indiana University in Bloomington, as well as New Media at IUPUI. Kevin has translated that education into being a Freelance Correspondent for the Indy Star, covering the Indy Eleven and boxing (those are the ones I know about, but there could be more), resulting in a much better, and much appreciated, coverage of the Indy Eleven compared to their initial seasons. Additionally, as mentioned above, Kevin has to put up with fellow friends of the site Nipun and Aaron, since Kevin is the Founder and Managing Editor (and rumored $hill) for the soccer news outlet SocTakes.com, of which all three are a part.

Kevin recently sat down to provide his own answers to my standard Soccer Life questions, but before we get into those responses, I wanted to talk about a subject much more important than my survey. Earlier this year, Kevin posted the below tweet about his wife kicking cancers ass. If you're so inclined, I thought I would provide a link to the Young Survival Coalition so that you can make a donation in Chrissy's name. I've never met her, but if she kicked cancers ass, she has my respect and I this post is a way to ask other people to celebrate her life. Way to go Chrissy!

Dear cancer,

Eff you. We outchea.

Sincerely,
The Johnstons

Just months after our marriage, my wife @crlevere was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 30. After thoroughly kicking its ass, we're honored to attend @YSCBuzz's #YSCSummit18 this weekend with fellow young survivors. pic.twitter.com/1g3Knutn7z

— Kevin Johnston (@KJboxing) February 23, 2018

Kevin also requested that I mention Indiana Futsal as SocTakes' official nonprofit partner.

One last piece of bookkeeping (see what I did there in my intro for an accountant), I found some of the above in Kevin's day job bio, but I liked the closing lines of that bio so I'm including it here: 

Born and raised in the Circle City, the Indy lifer has never met a breaded tenderloin he didn’t like. He often wakes up in cold sweats from recurring nightmares of debits and credits, but satisfies his massive OCD with dreams of perfect accordion folds and balanced bank reconciliations by day.

With that, I give you Kevin's responses to his Soccer Life...

1. Name:
- Kevin Johnston

2. Role (Player, Parent, Coach, Referee, General Spectator, All of the Above, None of the Above, Other):
- Soccer Journalist and former player

3. Soccer-specific Nickname (and any story behind it):
- Just plain ol' boring KJ.

4. Age became interested in soccer:
- 7

5. First recollection of the game:
- In my first year of rec, I remember our GK punted the ball over his head for an own goal.

6. Highest level of play achieved:
- High school varsity

7. Honors/Awards
- What are those? ;-)

8. Last competitive match – Date (if known) & Level of Play
- My last match with any real meaning was probably in 2001 at age 18 with my youth club. I played a season or two in the men's open league at Off the Wall in my 20s, but I was more washed up than a whale carcass.

9. Position:
- Center back

10. Jersey number:
- #8

11. Coaching experience:
- None.

12. Refereeing experience:
- None.

13. Most memorable moment(s):
- My youth club was invited to be guinea pigs at a coaching seminar at the Indiana Convention Center, and we ended up doing a full training session led by former Brazil national team manager Carlos Alberto Parreira.

14. Least memorable moment(s):
- Coming up short twice in the club state finals -- two runner-up finishes and zero state titles.

15. Favorite World Cup moment(s):
- The most indelible moments in my memory are probably: Baggio's missed penalty, Chastain's converted penalty, and Zidane's Panenka/head-butt.

16. Favorite team(s)
- Indy Eleven

17. Favorite Historical player:
- Chris Wondolowski

18. Favorite Current Player
- Chris Wondolowski
Editor's Note: That's a first for this survey...historical and current player being the same guy.

19. Indoor vs Outdoor:
- Outdoor

20. Grass vs Turf:
- Grass

21. Other sports played (and to what level):
- High school freshman basketball and JV cross country

22. Other Comments:
- I've always been a huge fan of The Game Beckons and I'd like to say thank you to Drew and Don for the exceptional Indy Eleven coverage they provide.
Editor's Note: I hate including something that praises me, but they're his words so I felt I should honor them. Thanks for the kind words Kevin.