Kicking it up
at college level
 | Doug MacCallum, senior forward at St. Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine, heads the ball. (David Bates) |
By Justin A. Rice Globe Correspondent / September 3, 2009
Ken Carlin always knew Doug MacCallum had the capacity to be a goal scorer. Four years ago, though, he didn’t have an opening for MacCallum in the starting lineup of his Hingham High boys’ soccer team.
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Eight players from MacCallum’s senior class of 2005 went on to play at least one year of college soccer, including Colin Lincoln (University of Richmond), Sean Fitzmaurice (Navy), and Jesse Rezende (Northeastern).
On other teams, MacCallum “would have been their star and on our team in other years he would’ve been our star,’’ said the 11-year coach. “We just happened to be extremely loaded in [2004].
“That year my second team could have beaten most teams, one of those very rare teams that was just loaded with talent. He had a lot of talent.’’
MacCallum is now the unquestioned star as a senior forward at St. Joseph’s College in Standish, Maine. He netted a team-high 15 goals last fall and entered Tuesday’s season opener against Framingham State as the program leader in career goals (26). And his 59 career points were one shy of the school mark.
“I always felt like I had the ability,’’ said MacCallum, who scored five goals, with three assists, as a senior at Hingham, when the Harbormen captured the program’s first South Sectional title. “My high school team was just fantastic. We had such a great squad there; that’s more why I didn’t get playing time.’’
The former high school reserve set the new goal-scoring mark at St. Joe’s in the Greater Northeastern Athletic Conference championship game last fall. The Monks trailed Norwich, 2-0, when senior captain Kevin Melega assisted on MacCallum’s goal in the 75th minute. Melega grabbed the ball out of the net and brought it to midfield.
“It was kind of bittersweet actually; I couldn’t score another one and we ended up losing,’’ MacCallum said of his record-setting goal, which he doesn’t remember the team taking much pause to acknowledge after its 12-7-3 season.
There’s no time for reflection now, either. MacCallum has placed himself squarely on the radar screen of all of his opponents.
“He’s going to draw a lot of attention, so we asked him to create space, create opportunities for others,’’ first-year coach Steven Babineau said. “We had that conversation with him early and told him not to feel pressure to score as many goals as last year. He has taken that task on and shown, in the week and a half I’ve been here, he’s willing to work at that and help us in another area.’’
Happnie also is a late bloomer. He didn’t pick up the sport until his senior year at Rockland High so it was comforting to have a player from the area on the squad when he arrived as a walk-on.
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“He’s pretty outgoing and I’m pretty reserved,’’ Happnie said of MacCallum. “He made the effort to reach out to me and make me feel welcome.’’
Babineau is not surprised that two players who weren’t stars in high school have such a large capacity for adaptation.
“Someone who comes into a program and doesn’t step on the field right away has an understanding that ‘I need to get better at certain areas; I’m going to work at this,’ ’’ Babineau said.
On the other hand, Carlin wasn’t surprised to see MacCallum score six goals in his first season at St. Joe’s and add another five as a sophomore.
“A lot of high school teams play kick and run; we like to pride ourselves in possession soccer and team skills,’’ said Carlin, who is friends with MacCallum’s stepfather, Fouad Alzaibak, the president of the Galway Rovers soccer club. His brother, Alex Alzaibak, is a sophomore goalkeeper at Hingham High.
“It’s perfect: I go out and hang shots on him and get him ready for his season,’’ MacCallum said. “He does pretty well. He’s pretty talented back there. I’ve been shooting on him since he was young. Me and my older brother [Rob MacCallum] have been shooting on him since he was young. He’s definitely a shot stopper.’’
A former player at Nichols College, Rob MacCallum works for Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer. Doug MacCallum is a communications major but is unsure what he wants to do after college.
“That would be fantastic, stay in the game anyway I can,’’ he says of trying to work in the MLS.
If McCallum continues to improve at the clip he has, however, there might just be a future for him on the field.
“He was always a talented player,’’ Carlin said. “He wasn’t perhaps always the first one [on my team] but he got stronger, bigger, and much sturdier. He filled out. He’s a guy that loves the game and keeps getting better and better.’’
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