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early retirement<br />
Eisenhower High School honors Justin Meram<br />
BY STEVE STEIN<br />
Justin Meram calls playing soccer<br />
at Utica Eisenhower High School<br />
the first step of his journey.<br />
“I grew as a player and as a person,”<br />
he said.<br />
The journey has taken Meram<br />
from Shelby Township to Arizona to<br />
Ann Arbor and now to Columbus,<br />
Ohio, where he plays professionally<br />
for the Columbus Crew of Major<br />
League Soccer.<br />
Eisenhower honored one of its<br />
most storied graduates on September<br />
24, retiring Meram’s soccer jersey No.<br />
9 in a ceremony before a boys soccer<br />
game against Utica at Swinehart<br />
Field attended by Meram’s family<br />
and his former Eisenhower coaches.<br />
To mark the occasion, Eisenhower<br />
players wore special warmup<br />
jerseys with “Meram 9” on the back<br />
that Meram autographed for them.<br />
He talked to the players and worked<br />
with them during warmups.<br />
Meram, 25, is the first Eisenhower<br />
soccer player to have a number<br />
retired. He called the ceremony an<br />
amazing experience.<br />
“Coming back to Swinehart Field<br />
brought back so many memories,” he<br />
said. “I’m blessed that they retired<br />
my number. I can’t thank everyone<br />
enough.”<br />
The idea came from Chris Corteg,<br />
Meram’s coach as a freshman<br />
and later the Eisenhower athletic<br />
director.<br />
Justin Meram accepts his jersey from varsity coach Josh VanHouten.<br />
Corteg said he talked to Meram<br />
occasionally about retiring his number<br />
when Meram would stop in for<br />
visits while he was playing for the<br />
University of Michigan.<br />
“I told him if he got to the MLS<br />
and stayed in it for at least three seasons,<br />
we’d get the wheels turning,<br />
and he agreed,” Corteg said. “If you<br />
stay in the league that long, you’re<br />
the real deal. It validates that you’re<br />
a quality player.”<br />
Indeed it does. Meram said only<br />
about one in five players makes it to<br />
his third season.<br />
Now in his fourth season playing<br />
midfield for the Crew, Meram had<br />
13 goals and eight assists through 88<br />
career games, 41 of them starts. He<br />
had eight goals this season as of mid-<br />
October.<br />
He wore No. 9 at Eisenhower<br />
from 2003-2006, scoring goals at a<br />
frenetic pace and serving as team<br />
captain as a junior and senior.<br />
As a freshman, he was a key<br />
member of the Eisenhower team that<br />
played for a Michigan High School<br />
Athletic Association state championship<br />
but lost 2-1 to Okemos.<br />
Meram rang a shot off the post with<br />
about a minute left.<br />
Corteg said Meram was small<br />
physically as a freshman, but he had<br />
the skills and speed to play against<br />
faster and stronger players.<br />
Meram led the Eagles to an undefeated<br />
regular season as a senior<br />
and he was named All-State and<br />
Macomb Athletic Conference Red<br />
Division MVP.<br />
Josh VanHouten, Meram’s coach<br />
that season, said Meram always was<br />
the best player on the field and he<br />
made his teammates better players.<br />
But it wasn’t enough to earn<br />
Meram a spot on a Division I college<br />
team, so he went to Yavapai Junior<br />
College in Arizona and made a name<br />
for himself.<br />
He led Yavapai to two national<br />
championships in two years and he<br />
was selected the National Junior<br />
College Player of the Year in 2008.<br />
In 2012, he was inducted into the<br />
National Junior College Player Hall<br />
of Fame.<br />
Meram played for U-M for two<br />
seasons after his junior college career<br />
ended.<br />
He was a Second Team All-Big<br />
Ten Conference selection both years<br />
before Columbus selected him No.<br />
15 overall in 2011 in the league’s SuperDraft.<br />
“I’m blessed to be able to play the<br />
game I love,” Meram said. “Anyone<br />
can have their dream come true. All<br />
it takes is one person who believes<br />
in you, but it starts with believing in<br />
yourself.”<br />
There may be a day Meram’s No.<br />
9 comes out of retirement briefly so a<br />
family member can wear it.<br />
Meram said his nephew Julius<br />
Meram, now a fifth-grader, wears No.<br />
9 for his club teams and it would be<br />
an honor to let him wear No. 9 for<br />
Eisenhower.<br />
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28 CHALDEAN NEWS <strong>NOVEMBER</strong> <strong>2014</strong>
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