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Local TalentThe Earthquakes’ Steven Beitashour, a graduate of Leland High, is playing for the team he worshipped as a kid.by Adam Murphy on Aug 06, 2010Steven Beitashour didn’t celebrate after scoring his first MLS goal against Chivas USA in April—the midfielder/defender just ran back into position as if the ball had sailed over the crossbar. “People always ask, ‘Hey, why didn’t you celebrate?’” Beitashour says. “I was upset when I scored because we were losing 3–2 and there was a minute something left in injury time.” The third goal the Chivas scored was still fresh on his mind, he says. It was a tweener ball that split Beitashour and fellow defender Jason Hernandez. The goal wasn’t a cheapie, either. The ball took a deflection toward Beitashour waiting just outside the box, but bounced away twice. That forced Beitashour to use all his length just to strike the ball with a left-footed sliding volley. “It’s not about celebrating,” he says. “It’s the whole result. It’s the team result. We still lost.” Beitashour says he hates losing because of his competitive nature—something, he says, that his friends and family say he has a little too much of. His coach at San Diego State witnessed that competitive fire every day. “He’s got great mental strength,” says SDSU men’s soccer coach Lev Kirshner. “He is a fierce competitor and he is willing to do whatever it takes to win.” Beitashour’s workman attitude on the pitch is also rooted in his pride in the club he grew up rooting for. Beitashour was a four-time letter winner at Leland High. “It’s where I wanted to play,” Beitashour said. “It’s my hometown team. I grew up watching them, now I get to live the dream.” As a kid, Beitashour looked up to Landon Donovan, he says. And now he has to focus on stopping him. Beitashour received little attention from MLS teams during his time at SDSU. But he was invited to a camp in Belgium where he was offered a professional contract, and he said it was at that moment that he knew he could make it professionally. In the 2010 MLS Superdraft, the Earthquakes selected Beitashour in the second round, and he made his first appearance on April 10 against the Chicago Fire, starting in midfield. He says the biggest transition from the college to the professional game is the pace of the game. “Your decision-making has to be a lot quicker,” Beitashour said. “You can’t sit with the ball and take a look. You have to be more deceptive. You can’t look where you are passing. They read your eyes.” He says he can improve by “playing quicker when I don’t have the ball and knowing what to do two or three steps ahead of time. “Sometimes I do that and everything just flows and other times I am just concentrating on getting the ball to my feet and having a good touch, and by that time one or two steps have already happened.” Earthquakes vs. Kansas City Saturday, August 14, 7pm, Buck Shaw Stadium, Santa Clara by Adam Murphy on Aug 06, 2010 |
 LOCAL HERO: The Earthquakes’ Steven Beitashour, a graduate of Leland High, is playing for the team he worshipped as a kid. |
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