Sept. 22, 2010

Contact: Robert Ivory, SID Assistant

When you go to Krenzler Field to watch the men's soccer team, you may be shocked to witness a noticeable quiet on the Viking sidelines. But then you hear a short, but very deep and serious command coming from a man with a dark complexion in his all black Cleveland State soccer apparel.

That would be fifth year Viking head coach, Ali Kazemaini.

If you strike up a conversation with somebody that knows `Kaz,' they will tell you that he was one of the greatest players ever to play at Krenzler and in Cleveland. If you look through old newspaper clippings of Kazemaini, you will also find a well-spoken person that said, in 1985, "I'm just a mellow, laid back guy that doesn't like to brag."

Today, that "mellow, laid back guy" is still is as modest as ever.

"It was a humbleness that I naturally learned," Kazemaini said about himself. "As I get older, my style of coaching does not change. I am not a rah-rah coach. There is nothing wrong with that, that's just not my style."

Although the coach does admit to occasionally getting upset with his players, those short, deep commands are words of soccer greatness.

Getting to that level of soccer excellence has come from a life of the beautiful game. It seems that every time that Kazemaini found peace with himself, a new challenge would arise.

"In the term of life decisions, soccer was a vehicle for me to get through life," he said. "I was fortunate to play soccer and I was fortunate to be good at it professionally."

Much of his story fits into his words: "To me, life is what God brings in front of you."

Growing up in Iran, Kazemaini learned the game playing on the streets, but did not get the approval of his parents.

"If you wanted to play with the best, [in Iran], you had to go in the ghettos and places where your parents don't want you to be," he said. "You find every excuse to be where you wanted to be. We wanted to play with our buddies that were from the poor areas because they were better than the kids that were from our neighborhood."

Kazemaini admits that his parents were against him and his brother playing the game because they wanted their sons to get a good education and hang around the right people. Kazemaini's father was the Minister of Sport for the Shah of Iran, which added to the pressures of everyday life.

"I played seven days a week and I would play five hours a day until my parents smacked me across the back of the head to get in the house," he said. Kazemaini had his older brother to look up to, as his brother played soccer with one of the most successful teams in Iran at a young age. The coach admits that his brother was his idol, and that he thought he could never be as successful as his brother.

"My brother was ahead of me," Kazemaini recalled. "I remember my brother got beaten up pretty bad by my father because he wasn't where he said he was. But I knew where he was because half the time I was trying to find a way to get a cab to go see him play."

But as Kazemaini was growing up and getting better at the game, Iran was at a turning point with the 1979 revolution.

"Basically, my parents thought it was better for my sister, my brother and I to leave the country," Kazemaini said. "One morning I got up, and my parents said I was going to go away for a little bit to see Germany. After three weeks in Germany, I was ready to go back home because school was starting. I was then told that the next day I would be getting on a flight to the United States."

Kazemaini ultimately made his way to Southern California to live with a foster family, not knowing any English.

"It was hard because I was on my own as a 14 year old," he said. "The best way for me to forget about the hurt of being away was to get involved in something."

Kazemaini played soccer, water polo, tennis, and was the place kicker for the football team at Orange High. During his soccer career in high school, he amassed the most goals in a season (39), most goals in a two-year span and most career assists (35) at that time in the school's history. That led the school to retire his jersey, making him only the second person to have their jersey retired at the school at that time.

Upon graduation, he had to find a college that fit him best. When asked what attracted him to Cleveland State, Kazemaini simply replied: "Nothing, really."

"My coach for a particular club got the head coaching job at Cleveland State. He was a friend of my brother's and my brother took the first opportunity that wasn't going to cost me anything to go to school. That's all it was. It was all about life."

Although the transition was initially tough for him, he admits there were some positives.

"I was so much better than any one else (at soccer)," Kazemaini said. "I was the new jock on campus and people wanted to talk to you, and the girls though it was cute that I could not speak (English) but that I was a good athlete." Kazemaini would go on to have one of the greatest careers in Cleveland State history. He was named MVP of the team three times, selected as MVP for several tournaments that the Vikings played in and also was a two-time school tennis MVP. Kazemaini is also only one of two players at CSU to lead the soccer team in scoring four years in a row, which included 41 career goals and 102 total points.

The Cleveland State soccer team became so popular that members of the Cleveland Browns asked for tickets. He also got a famous local athlete to crack jokes about the Iranian immigrant, even when tensions were still hot between the two nations.

"I was at a roast of [former Brown] Bob Golic," Kazemaini said, his face lighting up as he began to laugh. "(Golic) pointed at me and said, `Over my lifetime I have met a lot of intriguing people, but this man is the only Iranian I know that can get twenty thousand Americans to clap for him."

With the ability that Kazemaini had, he was asked by the United States Soccer Federation to play in South Korea for the President's Cup. He made local and national news when it was revealed that his passport had expired and his student visa was voided a year earlier (1979). Newspaper headlines called him `illegal' and noted that deportation was a possibility for the Cleveland State star.

"Honestly, the only reason I wanted to play on the Olympic team was because people asked me to go," he said. "The Olympic coach at the time, Manfred Schellscheidt, personally called me in the dormitory and asked why I did not try out. I told him `I don't even have a green card, why would I want to try out for the US Olympic team'?"

Kazemanini chuckled as he recalled his words. "The coach said he didn't care and that he just wanted to see me play and to see if I was any good," to which Kazemaini replied, "Well, that I am."

He admits today that going to play under the US banner was just another way to get his mind off life. At that point, he had not talked to his parents for seven years.

(As a side note, after the issue was resolved, the media stated that it was not solely the student's fault for the validity of his citizenship.)

After he finished at Cleveland State he was offered, but declined, a contract to play at Borussia Mönchengladbach in Germany, a team that had lost in the European title match just a few years before.

"I would have loved (to play in Europe)," Kazemaini said. "I had no home support, guidance, to make decisions for me. I was on my own and I just wanted peace of mind. I did not want to go through the trauma of uprooting again and move to Germany. I had everything here [in Cleveland]."

If he had taken the contract, he would have moved to three different places on the globe in seven years, without his parents or any family, by the age of 21.

"The people of Cleveland were so nice to me," he said. "This was like my new home, and the people here took me in and made me feel welcomed in this country."

Kazemaini chose to stay in Cleveland and, in 1984, was a first round draft pick of the Cleveland Force, a Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) team. He won the Rookie of the Year honors in the 1984-85 season and scored a total of 74 goals from 1984 to 1988 with the Force. He retired in 1993 and began his coaching career.

After coaching for 14 successful seasons at John Carroll University, winning several championships in that time, Kazemaini returned to his alma mater in December of 2005 to reignite the program he helped build up.

"I wanted to give something back to Cleveland and Cleveland State," he said. "Everything I do is for local kids. This is some way to give back."

With those local kids, Kazemaini has high expectations for his club.

"It would be great if Cleveland State gets back into the top 25 (in the nation)," he said. "It gives the local kid a wider platform to shine. You will always find that we will have local kids as the focal point of this program."

Kazemaini has already seen the fruits of his labor. In his first year with the team, Cleveland State made the biggest turnaround in the NCAA Division I by going from being winless in 2005 to wining six matches. In 2008, the Vikings made it to the Horizon League Championship, falling to Loyola 1-0.

"We have to play good soccer," Kazemaini said. "I want the team to play technically soccer because, once we have a system that plays that kind of soccer, our talent will allow this team to play at the highest level. If you cannot play that style, you can never get to that level."

What Ali Kazemaini has done for Cleveland State soccer, both as a player and a coach, will never be forgotten. What it comes down to for the Iranian-born immigrant - the son of a high-ranking official, who was sent out of his homeland for his protection, and who excelled in the game he loves - is one thing; his adopted home.

"People look at Cleveland as Cleveland and don't sell Cleveland with a pride," Kazemaini said. "I sell Cleveland with a pride. When somebody gives me an offer to (move out of Cleveland), I straight tell them, `What for?' They look at me like I'm nuts.

"My wife is from here, all my best friends are from here, my business was born here, and I played in this town."