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Energetic senior is Pirate catalyst

Jon Livesay, who has long had a penchant for moving around, puts it to good use as a potent Crystal River midfielder.

By BRIAN SUMERS
Published November 22, 2005

CRYSTAL RIVER - Sensing her jumpy 3-year-old needed a controlled activity to keep him busy, Cindy Livesay turned to soccer.

Her friends told her the sport would be perfect for little Jonathan, a jittery boy with a penchant for moving around.

Now, fourteen years later, Jon Livesay - a dedicated one-sport athlete - has begun what could be his final season. He's a midfielder for Crystal River, an offensive catalyst who has as much fervent energy as he did as at age 3.

But now he knows how to use it.

"He listens to everything you tell him and processes it right away," coach Steve Ekeli said. "I can bark things to him, and he'll adjust while he's out there."

Still, Livesay, who has recorded four goals and 10 assists through six games, admits he was not always a good player.

"I cannot tell you how many times I scored a goal for the other team the first time I played," Livesay said, smiling. "It was just my first year. I caught on after that."

His mother would merely laugh, content her son found a fun way to use his energy. Despite Jon's directional difficultly, Cindy says he loved the game from the beginning.

"He was always ahead of the pack but going the wrong way, so we spent a lot of that season yelling, "That way,"' Cindy said, adding that evidence remains in the family's home video collection.

He lives in a country where football - the American type - trumps all other sports, but Livesay is a soccer nut.

During the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, when games usually were televised in the wee hours of the morning, Livesay hardly missed a match. For the month of the Cup, Livesay says he got about two hours of sleep per night - and his mother didn't mind.

"I guess he could be doing worse things at 4 o'clock in the morning, so I'm okay if he's up watching soccer," Cindy said.

Livesay wants to continue playing after high school and will have a strong chance, Ekeli said. Livesay expects to tryout this spring for Division II Saint Leo and has invited coaches from Central Florida to watch him play, though he knows a Division I program might be a long shot.

Still, he does not want to give up the sport he has played for more than a decade.

"This is what he loves," his mother said. "He was so excited for his senior year to start, but he's so worried about it ending. He already looks at that date and knows it will be all over at the end of January."

As team captain, Livesay has led the Pirates to a surprising 3-0-3 start, helping soothe memories of last season's 8-13 finish.

He set the tone by agreeing, along with several teammates, to shave his head into a Mohawk before the Citrus game two weeks ago. He would have kept the hairdo, but his part-time employer - the Regal movie theater in the Crystal River Mall - deemed it unsightly.

Livesay agreed to allow his teammates to trim his hair, which he now realizes was a mistake.

"They were like, "We're going to cut it down,"' he said. "They said, "We're not going to use a guard.' I'm not a barber. I don't know what that means. They shaved it right to the scalp."

Despite the slip, Livesay remains close friends with his teammates. He loves playing, though the sport hasn't caught on in the United States.

People ask, "Why in the world would you want to play a sport when it's like 30 degrees outside wearing extremely short shorts and Spandex?" Livesay said. "And who would want to run around like that for 80 minutes?"

"But I love it."

--Brian Sumers can be reached at bsumers@sptimes.com or 564-3628.

[Last modified November 22, 2005, 02:15:27]