Georgios Spanos Is Big East Soccer Champion
BY CATHERINE TSOUNIS

Georgios Spanos on the field.

The 2006 sports covers of local New York newspapers show a young champion soccer player in a spectacular soccer pose. Georgios Spanos, known for his steadfast defense, dominated the 2006 collegiate sport. The young athlete, as team captain, has taken his team to victory nationally. He takes seriously the responsibility of organizing his entire team from his position on the right defensive flank. Spanos has played every game of the 2006 season except for 17 minutes. In September 2006, he assisted the goal that gave No. 17- ranked St. John's a 1-0 decision over Big East foe Louisville.

Team Captain Spanos earned Big East weekly honors in September 2006 for his extraordinary efforts at Louisville, in Kentucky. This is the second time Spanos was named the league's Defensive Player of the Week. Spanos was also the second St. John's University player in weeks to be named the Top Drawer of Soccer.Com's National Team of the Week. Spanos, a senior, earned national recognition the same month, receiving "Best of the Rest" honors as the Soccer Times runner-up for National Player of the Week. In addition, he was named to Soccer America's National Team of the Week.

Spanos led a consecutive shutout effort from the St. John's defense. He extended a shutout streak to 367 minutes with a win over Louisville on Saturday, September 23. During that same month, the team captain, with his players, had a roundtable discussion of their June 2006 soccer visit to Vietnam at St. John's School of Law. The team left Vietnam undefeated 1-0-2. Their spectacular performance catapulted St. John's soccer to the international scene.

"The most rewarding thing I've taken with me from the trip was the interaction with all the Vietnamese children we met," Spanos said. "We felt compelled to give something back to the children, who were so excited to see us. The team was moved by the experience. We decided to all pitch in with our money. We made a donation to the Daughter of Charity Formation Center (a Vincentian organization in Da Lat, Vietnam).

Spanos concluded the 2006 college soccer season with a unique record. Captain Spanos, with the help of veterans Patrick Engstrom, Billy Hale and Joel Gustafeson on the backline, helped drive one of the most dominant defensive performances in St. John's University history. Spanos exudes confidence and strength when he walks with his players to campus activities. "I dominate the area as a defender" he said. "No opportunities are created in my side of the field. My goal is to play professional soccer."

"Call me Georgios," said the team captain, a West Islip, native. "My mother, Camille, has roots in Southern Italy- Sicily." These areas were part of Magna Graecia. Megalê Hellas is the area in Southern Italy colonized by Greek settlers in the 8th Century B.C,, who brought with them the lasting imprint of their Hellenic civilization. The Romans called the area of Sicily and the foot of the boot of Italy Magna Graecia, since it was so thickly inhabited by Greeks. With this colonization, the Greek culture was exported to Italy in its dialects of the Ancient Greek language, its religious rites, and its traditions of the independent polis. But it soon developed an original Hellenic civilization, later interacting with the native Italic and Latin civilizations.

"My father's family is from Kourounia, Chios, and Piraeus, Greece," said Spanos. "I learned Greek at St. John's so I can communicate with my cousins in Chios. I have practiced with Pan Cyprian over the winter break of 2005. I was raised in a Greek Orthodox family, attending St. Nicholas Church of Babylon, as well as St. Paraskevi Church of Greenlawn, Long Island. We attend church on all major holidays. I have a 20-year-old brother, Frank who attends the New York Institute of Technology in Westbury, New York."

Georgios Spanos is a college athlete focused with a strong character. "Discipline. Stay truthful," he believes. "I live by two sayings: patience is a virtue and hard work pays off. I build my life with these two sayings. My parents are my role models. They are good people, who work hard and are patient. 'Never take the short way out', they say. 'Respect is earned and not given'. I have learned what a dollar is worth from my family. I respect persons and am humble. My parents are top class persons. They gave me a way of life. I want to follow their concepts. I want to give to my children, what they gave to me."

"I came to St. John's University, because it is a powerhouse for men's college soccer," he said. "I knew I would develop and make it to the next level. As a senior and team captain, I motivate my players by leading as an example on and off field. I understand their role in the team: give them positive feedback and build up their confidence. I listen and am tough. A captain must be tough with the players so we can win.

"My strategy is to visualize myself on field before a game for a few hours," he explained. "I know what I am going to do on field. Every team you play against dominates an area and one must move ahead." He was Big East Defender of the Week August 28 and September 25, 2006, a major achievement. "No one has ever gotten two weeks as a national collegiate athlete in soccer for the season," Spanos noted.