KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It all began with a Christmas card from his cousin.

He didn’t know it, but that piece of mail, post-marked “Parkville, MO” would be the beginning of a life-long journey as a Park Pirate for Ara Zakaryan.

“It all happened by chance,” says Zakaryan. “I got a Christmas card from my cousin, and I decided to see, so I came from Michigan and the rest is history.”

Zakaryan made Park his home, and while at Park, he found another love – coaching soccer.

In the beginning, things were tough for the Pirates. There was no budget, and as coach, Zakaryan was not paid a salary. The team had only a few soccer balls, two or three at the most, and there was one bus.

“I remember one time we got 15 miles or so in the bus, and the tire went flat,” Zakaryan said. “So, we fixed it and kept on going.”

Today’s playing surface would have felt like playing on a cloud compared to what Zakaryan’s Pirates called home-field.

“I had to buy dirt to fill in the holes, and there was no grass. No grass at all,” Zakaryan stated. “Rocks were also a problem. It seemed like we were always removing rocks from the field, but things got better.”

In the mid-1950s, new organizations were beginning their involvement with then-Park College, and improvements came with the new affiliations.

Zakaryan, a trained chemist who still owns chemistry patents, was also interested in seeing improvements in the areas of chemistry at Park.

“Chemistry was also very important to me, but really, it all was. Again, I love Park,” Zakaryan said. “Others would go home for a holiday, I stayed. To them, Park was a place to get an education and learn. For me, it was so much more. For me, it was home”

Zakaryan met his wife at Park, and they were married on campus in Parkville. He now has four children and five grand-children, one of which is about to make her impact on the collegiate athletics world. Carolyn Schorgl, a stand-out golfer in the Kansas City area, will continue her career on the links next fall at the University of Nebraska.

ARA, THE COACH

In addition to his love for Park, Zakaryan loved – and still loves – the game of soccer, and anyone who talks with him will know that he doesn’t hold his tongue when talking about the game.

“I’m opinionated, but it’s because I love soccer,” Zakaryan explains. “I just think there are ways to go about the game that will make you good. And there are ways that won’t help you improve.”

No. 1 on Ara’s list is solid coaching.

“A good coach is at the top of the list,” says Zakaryan. “There are so many things in the game that you have to teach, and when you put them together with the God-given talents that you can’t teach, you begin to win.

“First, you have to teach players how to move and stay in control. Stopping the ball and being aware is key. You also have to teach how to move without the ball in order to be able to move the ball up and down the field with diagonal passing.”

Zakaryan was coaching at a time when soccer wasn’t in front of people at a moment’s notice. There were no David Beckham’s, and there certainly weren’t talks in Kansas City of removing shopping malls in favor of new development surrounding a magnificent soccer-only facility.

“I had to figure out how to help teach people to play the game,” Zakaryan said. “There were so many players that were beautiful to watch in action, and it was a fun challenge learning how to put the pieces together.”

Parks on-the-field rivalries today are spirited and provide great competition on the field. The case was no different when Zakaryan was coaching his Park College soccer club, and one rival – Tabor College – stuck out in his mind as one that gave the Pirates fits in the early going.

“Tabor was an amazing team,” Zakaryan said. “They were a beautiful team to watch, and I remember one season very early in the year, they beat us badly, 6-0. Our team was trying to do things which were impossible, and we just didn’t have it. After some coaching and teaching, though, we traveled to Tabor later in the year and beat them 7-0.”

Zakaryan recounts the mid-1950s as a time that didn’t see much in the way of high-level soccer in the Midwest, but his teams were never one to quit.

“I coached because I wanted to help the kids,” says Zakaryan. “The good teams were all on the East Coast. We had players that loved the game, and that made it enjoyable for me to help them.”

Since his coaching days, Zakaryan has kept up with the Park men’s soccer program, and he and current head coach Efrem Shimlis have become friends since Shimlis was a player in the ‘90s.

“I could sit and listen to Ara speak for hours,” explained a grinning Shimlis. “I think I’ve heard all of his stories all a few hundred times. But you know, I learn something new each time I sit down with Ara. He is a great friend.”

Zakaryan is quite the fan of Shimlis, as well.

“He (Shimlis) has a God-given gift. Park has always been lucky, and they are more than lucky to have Efrem as their coach now. You have to keep him – forever,” Zakaryan paused. “I say it with a smile, but I mean it.”

Zakaryan is now a business-proprietor in Kansas City, owning Ara’s Gallery & Oriental Rugs near 75^th and Wornall in the Waldo area of Kansas City, Mo.