Catching Up With ...
        1964 and 1968 Olympic Track Trialist Ginny Husted (June 22)
        SPU Athletic Trainer (June 29)
 
SEATTLE – First car. First house. First love.
                                         
Ask anyone about any of those, and they'll remember.
 
First national championship.
 
Ask an athlete about that, and not only will they remember, they'll probably say there was nothing quite like the first one.
 
Unless it's the second one.
 
Peter Hattrup remembers. The high-scoring forward, who played from 1982-85 on the Seattle Pacific men's soccer juggernaut, won two NCAA titles.
 
“The first one we were expected to win,” Hattrup said of the 1-0 victory against Tampa at Tampa in 1983. “I don't know if I expected to win – none of us has ever been there before. … It was the first time, and it was unbelievable for us.”
 
SPU did it again in 1985. Hattrup scored two first-half goals in a 3-2 victory against Florida International in Miami as the Falcons regained the crown that those same Sunblazers had taken from them in Seattle the previous year.
 
“The joy and satisfaction of winning was the same,” Hattrup said. “But it's nice to know that you've done it more than once, so it's not a fluke.”
 
No fluke this, either: Hattrup is still all about soccer, these days as the technical director at the Crossfire Premier soccer club, about half an hour northeast of Seattle. It's a multi-faceted job that includes everything from administrative duties to coaching.
 
“What it really means is that Bernie James is the coaching director, and I do everything he asks me to do,” the 48-year-old Hattrup said with a laugh. “My favorite part is still to be on the field coaching.”
 
HOLDING COURT ON THE PITCH
He never became the next Perry Mason. But Hattrup acknowledges that following in the path of the famed television attorney is something that at least crossed his mind.
“That would have involved a lot more school, and I wasn't as dedicated to school as I could have been,” he said. “If they would have just let me go into court and argue, I would have loved it – I could have done that and played soccer.”
 
Lawyering's loss was soccer's gain, and Hattrup ultimately held court on many different fields around the country.
 
SPU was among them. Hattrup racked up 59 goals and 31 assists as a Falcon. The goal total included 26 during his final campaign in 1985, which at the time stood as a single-season school record. It still ranks No. 2 on the all-time list, surpassed only by Jason Dunn's 28 goals in 1993.
 
His career assist total is tied for No. 5 all time for Seattle Pacific.
 
“It was always fun to see the ball go in the goal. But it was also fun to set one up for someone else, especially someone who hadn't scored a ton,” Hattrup said. “As long as we scored, it was nice to be involved.”
 
ON TO THE PROS
After finishing with the Falcons, Hattrup kept that involvement going, whether outdoors with F.C. Seattle (born after the 1983 demise of the NASL Seattle Sounders), or a few miles down Interstate 5 with the Tacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League.
 
His soccer sojourn eventually took him as far south as Atlanta, where he played indoors, then to Kansas City when the team moved there, and finally back to Seattle in 1994 when the Sounders were reborn and joined the American Professional Soccer League.

“After leading a nomadic life, jumping from indoor to outdoor, moving every six or eight months sometimes, trying to figure out what to do next … to not only come back home and play with guys whom I had known forever was great,” Hattrup said. “We all played in these tournaments all the time during the summer, and we were able to come back and have a legitimate team.”
 
Legitimate team, indeed. The 1994 Sounders won the regular-season title at 14-6, but fell to the Colorado Foxes in the first round of the playoffs.
 
The following year, it all came together. Hattrup topped the APSL in goals (11), assists (8) and total points (30), earning MVP honors. The Sounders won the first of two straight championships, defeating the Atlanta Ruckus in the third game of a best-of-3 series.
 
“I would never say I expected to lead the league in goals and assists and points. But it wasn't a shock to me,” Hattrup said. “I didn't have a great year the year before (no goals, one assist in 13 games), so I put in a lot of time in the offseason. At age 31, I was probably in better shape than I had ever been in my life. I didn't want to sit and watch anymore.
 
“That was nice way to end that little section of my career.”
 
Hattrup had a fling with then-brand new Major League Soccer, chosen by Tampa Bay in the inaugural player draft in 1996. A preseason knee injury sidelined him, and he never played a game with the Mutiny. Traded to Dallas in 1997, he got into seven games with the Burn before being waived.
 
He returned to Seattle, joining the Sounders (then in the USL First Division) for the 1997-99 seasons, and finally finishing up with them in 2001.
 
“I was ready (to step away) because I couldn't do what I wanted to do anymore,” Hattrup said. “I would have played forever. I'd play right now if someone would pay me a living wage.”
 
His position with Crossfire – especially the coaching part -- helps slake his thirst for the game.
 
“I work with everything from 8-year-old girls to 17-year-old boys,” Hattrup said. “The younger kids are fun because you're not working with anyone else's bad habits. They're so full of life and so much fun. The older kids are good because you're getting more into the tactical side of the game. I enjoy being able to jump from one to the other.
 
“It's the next best thing to playing.”
 
And definitely something to remember.