Mark McGlinchey was just starting the path to his lifelong dream in 2005.
He was 19. He‘d just completed his first semester at Midwestern State (Texas) University and his first season with the MSU Mustangs, a traditional Division II soccer powerhouse. This was absolute gravy for the Edinburgh, Scotland, native whose family followed relatives to Kelowna when McGlinchey was 11 years old. He knew he had to work hard and stay focused in the coming years to realize his goal of becoming a professional soccer player.
Yet, McGlinchey‘s hopes vanished when he got the phone call we all dread.
Having returned to Midwestern State a week after spending Christmas break with his family in Kelowna, he received news that his mother, Teresa, was losing her battle with cancer.
Suddenly, McGlinchey had a decision to make: family or future. He chose family. Immediately.
“I returned to Kelowna because of that,” said McGlinchey, 23. “She passed away a month later. It was a good thing I came back.”
McGlinchey, now a midfielder and captain of the Okanagan Challenge, and a shower-glass installer by day, sacrificed a promising future in soccer for his family. But the question wasn‘t whether he would leave school. It was how fast he could come north to rejoin the family.
Despite university life and the opportunities it can provide. Despite the soccer. Despite a future McGlinchey had mapped out since he was old enough to kick a ball.
Yes, McGlinchey‘s destiny was to stay in Kelowna, to forget the plans he‘d made for himself.
If his mother‘s passing didn‘t serve as a sufficient message, the successful triple-bypass surgery his father, Jim, went through, did.
Out with soccer and school. In with full-time work. That‘s a lot on the plate for a teenager.
No one told McGlinchey that life was fair. But still, he had little choice but to make a life-changing decision because of those he loved. He understood that then, and understands it more now.
“I think it changed me,” McGlinchey said. “I was such a young age. I‘d actually been through that with my best friend in Scotland, who died when he was 16 of cancer. So I‘d already experienced it. But it changed me a little bit. I think it made me more mature a little bit quicker.”
McGlinchey made the decision to leave school out of respect and love. His mother gave joy and laughter to the family, which the quieter Jim and Mark admired and loved.
“She was very outgoing, laughing all the time,” McGlinchey said. “She had a big laugh. She‘d light up a room. She was funny. She loved to tell jokes. Very outgoing.”
Clearly, the loyal son was needed in Kelowna more than he needed to be in Wichita Falls, Texas.
The pull was undeniable.
Besides the trials of his immediate family, McGlinchey and his future wife, Rachelle, were trying to maintain a long-distance relationship.
But McGlinchey hardly considers his life unsatisfying. He and Rachelle now have a two-year-old son, James, and another child on the way.
McGlinchey also gets his soccer fix with the high-flying Challenge, who can clinch the Pacific Coast Soccer League men‘s premier division regular-season title at the Apple Bowl tonight with a victory or a draw against Victoria United.
As the only Challenge player who has the responsibilities of work, a wife and a child, maybe McGlinchey benefited from the rocky road life decided to hand him.
Certainly, his heady, cool play on the pitch suggests a maturity that his teammates and coaches notice.
“I think if most people look at their life and what they have planned for it, there would be a slow and
ongoing process of maturing and dealing with responsibilities,” Challenge coach Clint Schneider said. “Mark got a big spoonful of life.”
It‘s inevitable, though, that the questions remain. What if none of this had happened? What if Teresa had never contracted the disease, Jim had never had heart surgery and McGlinchey had been able to play four years of university soccer?
The questions are irrelevant. McGlinchey knows that. Even at 23.
“If I‘d stayed in Texas, I probably wouldn‘t have had my wife or son or anything,” he said. “It worked out for the best . . . It‘s great having my boy here. I can play soccer with him all the time. It‘s pretty exciting. He‘s obsessed with soccer, too. Every time he wakes up, he‘s screaming for a ball.
“The whole dream was to become a pro soccer player at the time. It might have happened. But to be honest, the way my life is right now, I would never change it. I‘m so glad it turned out the way it did.” Top of Page
