Penn soccer has become one big happy family

You could say the Penn men's and women's soccer teams are like one happy family?literally. With Dave and Meg Cardie in their first years as assistant coaches of the men's and women's teams, respectively, Penn soccer has truly become a family affair. But don't expect the two of them to neglect the Quakers for a sibling brunch. "I don't see much of him here," said Meg Cardie, the younger of the two. "I'm coaching, he's coaching. I see him more at family parties." The Cardie duo has been a soccer legend around the Pennsylvania area for years. Meg Cardie was a four-year varsity player at La Salle. She started at center midfield every game and holds the records for most goals and assists in a career for the Explorers. "Her strength is her passing," Dave Cardie said. "She sees the field really well and distributes the ball well." "She's a great ball handler and great at taking people on," said Penn men's coach George O'Neill. Meg Cardie reserves much of the credit for her soccer skills for her older brother. "I would say he was always the big brother I wanted to be just like," she said. "I always looked up to him." Her older brother, an all-American for the Quakers during his senior year in addition to making all-Ivy and all-Soccer 7 for three years, certainly was a good role model. "He's an exciting player," said O'Neill, Dave Cardie's coach for the Philadelphia Inter club team which made the national finals in 1987 and 1988. "He's very tough. He would just blow by people. He's very versatile." O'Neill, in his first year as Penn's permanent coach, takes credit for bringing the Quaker superstar back to his alma mater. "As soon as I got the job, I needed an assistant," O'Neill said. "He was the first man I asked." The two Cardies in the soccer program are not the family's lone Penn representatives. As assistant director of the Newman Center, older brother Bob Cardie, does not have much opportunity to flaunt his soccer prowess. Nevertheless, he takes full responsibility for the family's love for soccer. While growing up, he realized he was too light to play football and searched for a new sport to play. Along came a youth soccer team and Bob Cardie jumped right on the bandwagon. Soon enough, the his younger siblings began to develop a fondness for the sport. "Meg was the tomboy of the neighborhood," he said. "She would beat all the boys in sports. [Dave and I] used to get into fights all the time. Lots of times, our one-on-one basketball games would turn into wrestling matches." He knows, however, their greatest athletic success came in soccer. "Along with being skilled, Dave's extraordinary talent is his speed," he said. "He's just a very gifted athlete. Meg can see the field really well and controls the ball on the field. They're both smart soccer players. They rarely give up the ball when they have it." Bob Cardie played in three Division III championships for Scranton. He currently plays for the over-30 Little Club. As do his younger siblings, Bob Cardie coaches a soccer team, the Newman Center's intramural team. "We've gone to the championships for the past three years," the confident coach said. "This year we're definitely going to win it all." Robert and Katherine Cardie, the parents of the soccer duo, express very little surprise their children grew up to be such brilliant players. "Dave was a pretty smart kid," Katherine Cardie said. "He didn't like getting haircuts because the other kids would hit the back of his head afterwards. He put a Band-aid on the back of his head before and after he got on the bus so no one would hit him." All geniuses have to start somewhere. When Meg began playing soccer, there were no girls' teams in the area. The Cardies decided to let their daughter play on a boys' team. "The coach called me up and said, 'There's probably a mistake, I have a Margaret Mary on the team. We run tough practices and I don't know if she'll be able to keep up,' " Robert Cardie remembered. "After the first practice, I asked how she did. He said, 'She's fine right where she is.' " The father of the family believes, however, that skill is not the best asset his children demonstrate on the soccer field. "They're both the type of players that will give you 110 percent," Robert Cardie said. "They're not ones to cause problems on teams. Even if they weren't as good as they were, they would still be welcome by coaches." Although Dave and Meg Cardie forever will be welcome by coaches as both assistants and players, they have yet to devote their lives to the sport. She continues to teach special education at St. Katherine Day School while he sells and services insurance policies for Prudential Insurance to support his wife and two daughters. Nevertheless, the two Cardies cannot get soccer off their minds. "I know I'll always be involved in soccer in some way," Dave Cardie said, "whether it's at the collegiate level, high school level or the professional level." For now, the Quakers are more than content to keep the Cardie family in their program.