In a feel-good story about “growth, discipline and the amazing healing power of the second chance,” the Houston Chronicle’s Richard Justice, um, chronicles the turnaround tale of Dynamo backup goalkeeper Tyler Deric.
Signed by Houston as part of their Academy team, Deric’s MLS career was quickly derailed when a significant lack of commitment caused coach Dominic Kinnear and academy director James Clarkson to give him a tough love challenge to either “change his life or to stop wasting their time.”
Then “a 19-year-old kid with a drinking problem and a shattered dream,” Deric returned home, abandoned alcohol and found new focus in religion, prompting the Dynamo to give him a second look for the 2009 season, where he sits third in the pecking order in goal. But being on the bench is no big deal to Deric, whose motivation now comes from “a point where I didn’t have soccer anymore. I don’t ever want that to happen again.”