Mark Santel (born July 5, 1968, in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

) is a retired U.S.

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

who is currently an assistant coach for the

Saint Louis Billikens The Saint Louis Billikens are the college athletics in the United States, collegiate athletic teams that represent Saint Louis University, located in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. The Billikens compete in NCAA Division I, Division I of the Natio ...

. Santel played professionally in the Major Indoor Soccer League,

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. ...

and

Major Soccer League Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

. He also earned eight

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

with the U.S. national team between 1988 and 1997.

Youth

Santel was born and raised in

Saint Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

. He played soccer from youth as a member of the renowned local club Scott Gallagher. He also attended

Christian Brothers College High School Christian Brothers College High School (CBC High School) is a Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Lasallian Catholic Church, Catholic University-preparatory school, college preparatory school for young men in Town and Country, M ...

where he played on the boys' soccer team, earning team MVP honors in 1985 as well as a NSCAA and Parade All- American. After graduating from high school, Santel attended

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...

where he played on the men's soccer team. He was a 1989 Second Team and a 1988 and 1990 First Team All American.

Professional

In 1991, the

Wichita Wings The Wichita Wings were a professional indoor soccer franchise based in Wichita, Kansas. The Wings were admitted to the Major Indoor Soccer League as an expansion team on August 21, 1979.

of Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) drafted Santel number 1 overall in the 1991 MSL Draft. However, he actually played the 1991–1992 season with the

St. Louis Storm The St. Louis Storm was a soccer team based out of St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis that played in the Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992), Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). They played from 1989 to 1992. Their home arena was the St. Louis ...

(MISL). In 1992, he began playing for the

Colorado Foxes The Colorado Foxes were a professional men's soccer club originally based in Commerce City, Colorado, that played in the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) and USL A-League. Founded in 1990, the club moved to San Diego, California in ...

of the

(APSL) and would remain with the team through the 1995 season. He was a member of both the 1992 and 1993 APSL championship teams. As

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

(MLS) prepared for its first season, it signed dozens of players to league contracts. In order to ensure an initial equitable distribution of talent, the league allocated high-profile players to each team. As part of this process, MLS allocated Santel to the

Dallas Burn Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. In both 1996 and 1997, Santel was elected to the MLS All Star team. On December 4, 2000, the Burn traded Santel to the

Kansas City Wizards Sporting Kansas City is an American professional soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The administrative offices are located in downtown K ...

for a third round draft pick. He spent one season with the Wizards, playing twenty-one games before retiring at the end of the season.

National team

In 1987, Santel was a member of the

United States men's national under-20 soccer team The United States U-20 men's national soccer team is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation. The highest level of competition in which the team competes is the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which is held every two years. The United States' b ...

at the

1987 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Chile from 10 to 25 October 1987. The 1987 championship was the 6th edition of the FIFA World Youth Championship and won for the first time by Yugoslavia. Remarkably, in the course of the tourn ...

. Santel went on to earn thirteen

, scoring one goal, with the senior U.S. national team between 1988 and 1997. His first game with the full national team came in a January 10, 1988 loss to

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. He did not appear again with the national team until February 1, 1991. Then he played sporadically until his last game in 1997. His national team goal came in a November 14, 1993 shellacking of the Caymen Islands. Final score was 8–1.

Post-playing career

In 2002, the Lou Fusz Soccer Club of St. Louis hired Santel as its girls' program director. He is the head coach of the boys' soccer team and the girls' soccer team at Barat Academy. In December 2004, he was hired as the sales and marketing representative for Velocity Sports Performance, a sports training facility in Chesterfield, Missouri. He is also the co-author of the children's book ''Soccer Dreamin''.

Honors

Individual *

MLS All-Star The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual Association football, soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from another league. MLS initially ado ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

All-Star Game flashback, 1997
at MLSsoccer.com

References

External links

MLS stats

Photo of Santel

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santel, Mark 1968 births Living people All-American college men's soccer players American men's soccer players American Professional Soccer League players Colorado Foxes players FC Dallas players Sporting Kansas City players Major League Soccer players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players St. Louis Storm players Saint Louis University alumni Saint Louis Billikens men's soccer players Soccer players from St. Louis United States men's international soccer players USL First Division players Major League Soccer All-Stars United States men's under-20 international soccer players Men's association football midfielders 20th-century American sportsmen