Michael Creswick may come from across the pond, but he’s found a home in the United States. The Newcastle-upon-Tyme, England native came to the States last year, and has made the switch rather smoothly.
“The transition has been easy. My wife (who is from Montgomery, New York) and playing soccer have made it easy.”
However, Creswick has been surprised by a few things in the United States.
“I’m surprised by how popular soccer has become in the United States. Coming here, I knew how popular basketball and football were in America, but soccer is on the rise. It starts with the youth. I’ve been really impressed with how keen all these kids are on the sport.”
Creswick is a striker for the Kingston Stockade FC, an NPSL team based out of Kingston, New York. He was one of the squad’s top players from day one. He was even voted Mitre National Player of the Week after tallying two goals and one assist against New York Athletic Club on May 29th.
He would score the club’s first-ever hat trick less than a month later in a 6-1 rout of Seacoast United Phantoms.
Stockade FC happens to be owned by Dennis Crowley, who co-founded and is now the Executive Chairman of FourSquare. Crowley seems to be the perfect owner for the team.
“He’s great,” Creswick said. “He’s very active with the team and loves the sport. On his Instagram, you can see that he still likes to play pick-up soccer games. He knows the sport and comes to many of our games. He’s passionate and is big fan of the team.”
With Creswick being an England native, I had to ask him about his country’s performance in the Euros. The Stockade midfielder let out a long sigh before giving an answer.
“Honestly, as an England fan, we’ve come to expect us to lose in the big moment,” he said. “We play well for a little but then you get the feeling that it’s gonna go wrong. We have good young talent. We just need to clean it up and get a new coach.”
As for the team that Creswick plays for, the Stockade recently wrapped up their regular season with a disappointing 6-0 loss to New York Cosmos B, the defending NPSL champions. The loss gave the Stockade a 5-7-2 record on the season. It was a summer that had its share of highs and lows, wins and losses.
Creswick hopes to be back on the team next year after finding an interesting route to his first year on the squad.
“I went to a combine in Florida and met some guys from the Stockade. After the combine I emailed the team asking for an opportunity to play or coach. I gave them my résumé too and it all worked out.”
There you have it. Michael Creswick is living proof that if you really want something, sometimes you have to make it happen. Without that email to the team, who knows if he’d even be in the NPSL.
Kudos to him for making the effort to continue being a part of the sport he loves.
