Shalrie Joseph's Long Road

(May 9, 2003) - In just a few weeks New England Revolution midfielder Shalrie Joseph has become a reliable asset for a club that is still finding its way after an inconsistent start to the 2003 season. But not many years ago, soccer was not the most important thing to Joseph. Staying alive was.

As a high school student in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Joseph walked through metal detectors every morning at George Wingate High School. His classmates were involved in drugs and crime and every day was another chance for his life to take a turn for the worst.

“Believe me, soccer is not the priority in Brooklyn,” said Joseph, who lost his father to lung disease at the age of 12. “Basically it's about staying away from trouble and trying to survive. School wasn't even a priority … A lot of guys I hang out with brought a lot of stuff they were involved with our way and I got a little caught up in what they did.”

It was not just about bad company and drugs, a reality which confronts most teens. Violence was a reality on a daily basis for Joseph, who moved to the U.S. from Grenada in 1995. He credits his mother and his cousin, who attended high school with him, with helping steer him away from the pitfalls. Today that same cousin is finishing college at Stony Brook University.

But even the words of advice and encouragement were not always enough to prevent him from being one-on-one with danger. And it was not just the occasional gunshot heard in the distance.

“I saw a guy get stabbed right in front of my eyes when we were just hanging out right outside school,” said Joseph, an only child. “It happened right in front of the police and they didn't even do anything about it.”

His surroundings affected his education and his grades were not even his primary concern. In fact after finishing high school, Joseph was planning on cutting his education short. His plan was to play for the Brooklyn Slammers, and earn a meager living that way.

“I had decided that school wasn't for me and I wasn't going to school anymore,” he said. “I was just going to play soccer with a team in a local league that I played with during high school. But after deciding I was playing for that kind of money I realized it was not going to do me or my family any good.”

So one week before the start of school, Joseph enrolled in a junior college near Syracuse, NY which was just kicking off its soccer program. He would soon turn to St. John's Head Coach Dave Masur, who had encouraged Joseph to pursue his education and soccer dreams during his high school years. Before long Joseph had moved from the streets of Brooklyn and became a star on the collegiate level and a fixture on the Grenada National Team.

His mother, Ann Marie Joseph, who works at a Daffy's on 34th Street and, had prayed for Sharlie's success ever since she came to America more than 20 years ago to ready the path for the arrival of her only son from Grenada in 1995. Joseph's goal is now to get his mother, aunts and cousins out of Brooklyn once and for all.

“I want to work hard to get them out of Brooklyn so everyone can be together,” said Joseph, who still visits his former friends whenever he returns to Brooklyn. “The reason I went through what I did is that I wanted to stay alive, support my family and be there for them and provide them for what they need.”