soccer sundays

andy


bochay


chris kohler


yuri

once upon a time i used to play soccer in Potrero Park at the end of 24th St. when i lived in san francisco. i used to live on 26th and Florida st. i was super broke at the time. i had figured out a way to live off a few bucks a day, buying $1 pasta and $1 tomato sauce (those little Hunts cans) from the store at the corner of 26th and Potrero. i would eat half for lunch and half for dinner. i'd usually go for some mike and ikes and mountain dew late night, or if i had some money i'd buy some beer. when i saved up some cash i'd treat myself to nachos at el farolito on 24th and alabama and eat half for lunch, half for dinner. it was a miserable existence in a beautiful city and a lively neighborhood. if you read my story in Fanzine then you have a pretty good idea of what i was putting myself through. that also spelled the end of my soccer sundays.

i shot these photos before i got super depressed, so this is probably early 2004 or 2003. i think i had a plan to shoot everyone we played with... there was probably 10-15 of us punks running around the park. most of us never played soccer, or if we did, the last time we played was years ago. for me at the time, it was probably 12 years since i played. it was a great time to be outside back then in SF, and i squandered almost all of it away.

i don't know where any of these people are anymore, although we were friends at one time. Andy i think may live in Bay Ridge, brooklyn. at least he did the last time i saw him at the Lock Inn on Grand St. Yuri used to be Andy's girlfriend, but they broke up and maybe she lives overseas now. Bochay was a great guy who, i last heard in 2004, was living on some island off the coast of Vancouver, and you had to take a boat to get there. Chris Kohler was a crazy kid who lived many years ahead of his time. He might still live in San Francisco.

anyhow my plan to shoot photos of all us soccer players didn't pan out. i ran out of money for film, but there's a chance i have more photos hidden somewhere undeveloped. even these i've never seen before i scanned them, so i guess it's okay to be a little nostalgic.