The South Carolina Gamecocks have stolen a top-notch talent from a program that doesn’t exist.Michael Lindsay is a senior at Starkville High School. He has played soccer for the Yellow Jackets since he has been enrolled and completed his senior season as the starting forward for the squad.
Former SHS teammates and Starkville natives Justin Morse and Jay Windham describe Lindsay in one word.
“He’s really humble,” said Windham, a freshman history major. “He doesn’t have a big head at all. If anyone is good enough to deserve a big head, it’s him, but he chooses to be a team player and help others rather than be greedy.”
“Michael is the kind of player every coach wants on his team,” said Morse, a freshman mechanical engineering major. “He can make even the worst teams good. Even though he may not know it, he’s a silent leader.”
Lindsay drew looks from many different colleges around the Southeast, including Kentucky, South Carolina, Memphis, Tulsa, UAB, UNC-Wilmington, Clemson, NC State and Methodist University.
Lindsay said that because soccer was his primary concern when looking at colleges, he never considered any schools in Mississippi.
“People have asked me if I’m going to college in Mississippi, and I’ve had to tell them, ‘not if I want to play Division-I soccer. I cant,'” Lindsay said. “I wish that wasn’t the case. I can’t say for a fact that I’d go to a school in Mississippi just if they had a soccer team, but the chance would be greater.”
He has committed to playing NCAA Division-I soccer for South Carolina, a team that finished 11-5-1 in 2006 and won the Conference USA championship in 2005.
“I grew up in Starkville, and I’ve grown up loving SEC sports,” said Lindsay. “Kentucky and South Carolina are the only SEC schools with soccer teams. South Carolina is on the east coast, and they participate in Conference USA soccer, but they also compete against ACC teams, which are the cream of the crop in NCAA soccer. I felt most at home there.”
Lindsay began playing soccer around the age of 4 and realized in high school that soccer was his favorite sport. He was also active in track, football and baseball before choosing soccer as his niche.
“Not too many people play soccer,” Lindsay said, “so it kind of felt better to be good in soccer because it’s unique. You don’t see it every day on ESPN. It’s becoming new in America, even though it’s an age-old sport.”
Other than high school soccer, Lindsay has played the game across the state and nation in other places.
He has participated in Select Soccer, playing in a category above his age for the most part. He also played in Tupelo on a club team, where he won the state championship three times.
Lindsay has also participated in the Olympic Development Program and has trained as far away as California.
“It is very vital to get more soccer experience than just high school, especially being in Mississippi,” Lindsay said. “This is totally different than football. College coaches do not come to Mississippi high school soccer games. High school players have to play Select or ODP to get any recognition at all.”
While on an official visit to Kentucky, Lindsay was spotted by USC’s head coach, Mark Berson during a Kentucky-South Carolina soccer game.
Berson, who knew Lindsay personally, contacted him as soon as he returned from his trip to Lexington. Lindsay committed to play for the Gamecocks shortly after.
After graduating from college, Lindsay said he hopes to continue his soccer career on the professional level in Major League Soccer or perhaps in Europe.
“It’s what I love doing,” said Lindsay. “I love playing soccer, regardless of what little publicity we get. I don’t care.”
Lindsay is also good friends and former teammates with Eliot Sanford, who is driving the campaign to add a men’s soccer team to MSU’s athletic roster.
Lindsay supports all of Sanford’s efforts to bring men’s soccer to Starkville and has even signed the online petition.
“I hope Eliot’s efforts lead to something,” said Lindsay, “and I think if he wants it bad enough, it will. It’s hard to give a timeframe for it, because there’s so much work that has to be done. I’m hoping for something to happen within the next three or four years. I want Eliot to keep going and not give up. I believe he can do it and this is something he believes in. This is the right thing to do.