Early Years
Donovan was born on March 4, 1982, in Ontario, California, to Donna Kenney-Cash, a special education teacher, and Tim Donovan, a semi-professional ice hockey player originally from Canada.
When Donovan was six, his mother allowed him to join an organized league, and he scored seven goals in his first game. Donovan was a member of Cal Heat – a club based in Rancho Cucamonga under coach Clint Greenwood. In 1997, he was accepted into U.S. Youth Soccer's (football) Olympic Development Program. He attended Redlands East Valley High School in California. In 1999, Donovan attended the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, part of U.S. Soccer's training program. While at IMG Academy Donovan almost had his feet bitten off by an alligator while enjoying a post-training round of golf.
Read more about this topic: Landon Donovan
Famous quotes containing the words early years, early and/or years:
“If there is a price to pay for the privilege of spending the early years of child rearing in the driver’s seat, it is our reluctance, our inability, to tolerate being demoted to the backseat. Spurred by our success in programming our children during the preschool years, we may find it difficult to forgo in later states the level of control that once afforded us so much satisfaction.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“When first we faced, and touching showed
How well we knew the early moves ...”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summers.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)