by Riley Bauling
Daily Lobo
It's funny how much things can change in a year.
One day you're set on playing professional soccer, the next you're thinking of how cool it would be to net crabs in Alaska.
Or coach a kids' soccer team in South America or the Caribbean.
Or join the Peace Corps.
"Last year I would have said, 'Yeah that's what I want to do.' I want to make it a career. I want to play soccer for the rest of my life. But now, I'm starting to realize there's a little more to life than just playing soccer," said Brandon Moss, the senior captain of UNM men's soccer team.
After 17 years of competitive soccer, Moss is ready for some "him" time.
He's ready for some time to just chill.
"I've got all these fantasies of going to Alaska and being a king crab fisherman, or going to Hawaii or the Caribbean and kind of bumming around man, bussing tables or whatever," he said.
Moss's change of heart came about a year ago. He said he wants the chance to do something else while he's still young and spry.
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Being the captain of every soccer team you've ever been on might do that to you.
"I'm sure I'd be doing things a lot differently if I was just a regular college student," Moss said. "You're still having to go to bed early, get up early. The running and the physical demand of it I think is maybe what keeps me from wanting to take it a step further."
Perusing the Peace Corps Web site last year got Moss thinking: thinking about how he wanted to learn a foreign language and thinking about how he wanted to volunteer his time to help people who need it.
"You can increase your knowledge of Spanish and go down there and help people. Looking at the Web site, they've got these people going down there and coaching these little tribal soccer teams. It just sounded so rewarding and like such a good experience," Moss said.
Don't get him wrong though. He's not necessarily going to pass on that professional contract if it's being waved in his face.
"If you have a shot to do it, you have to take it," Moss said. "The chance to be a professional athlete doesn't come around every day. You're in a position that a lot of people would like to be."
Moss's chance to play under the big lights is legit. Especially if UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein's description of his player is dead on.
"Moss is a machine," Fishbein said. "He's the epitome of somebody that leads by example. He's the hardest worker, the best conditioned. He's mentally tough. He's a great teammate."
As one of the top gems in Fishbein's first recruiting class, Moss has been there since the beginning. As the anchor of the midfield, he's a big reason why UNM is ranked No. 3 in the country by three different polls.
But after this year, maybe it's time for the man who has never been more than a soccer cleat away from a ball to try something else.
"Soccer has taken me a lot of places," he said. "It's also kept me from going some places I would like to go."
