One would be hard-pressed to find a local soccer star with a resume and love for the game matching that of Joe Speca.
Speca, 68, was one of the top soccer players in the Baltimore area for many years.
He grew up in Highlandtown, and he played for Mount St. Joseph and Patterson high schools.
“Our Mount St. Joe coach, before he died, gave me the greatest compliment,” Speca said of the late John Plevyak. “He said, ?I know when I walked on that field, they had to beat us by two, because I knew you were good for one.?
Speca was his team?s leading scorer in high school, then developed into a feisty defender in the pro ranks.
He played for his neighborhood team, Pompei, for nearly 20 years, and eventually led the squad in the Italian Sport Association.
From there, he joined the Baltimore Bays, and played on numerous United States national teams.
One of the highlights of Speca?s career came when his United States national team defeated Brazil, 5-3, in 1959.
“Biggest upset in sports history that year,” Speca said.
He played in the Pan American Games in 1959 and 1963, and was a part of the 1959 team that took a bronze medal.
“That was the first medal in soccer history that the U.S. ever won,” Speca said.
He continued to play for Pompei, and joined the Bays in 1967.
When he signed with Baltimore?s pro team, he was the lone American player, and the local face of the team.
He eventually got into coaching, something that he wasn?t nearly as fond of as playing. He took a struggling Friends School program, that had not won a game the year before, and led them to a 5-5 campaign in his only year at the helm. Speca also coached the Bays against international competition in 1975.
“I?d like to be 24 and play one more game,” Speca said.
In the greatest tribute of his career to this point, Speca was inducted into the Maryland Soccer Hall of Fame in 1995.
THE SPECA FILE
Sport: Soccer
Position: Halfback/Fullback
Hometown: Highlandtown
Current residence: Bel Air
Did you know? Speca played for the United States World Cup squad in 1962 and was on the Olympic team in 1960 and 1964 … His cousin, Santino Quaranta, is a former Archbishop Curley standout now with DC United … Speca and his wife, Toni, have three children, Joseph, David and Gina, and eight grandchildren … Speca is currently a marshal at Bulle Rock Golf Course in Havre de Grace.
