Soccer match to honor Haig has a fitting star

MELBOURNE – The minute the first ball rolled onto the pitch Saturday night at Rick Stottler Field, two things were apparent: None of the men and women who would play the 90 minutes of soccer had forgotten their game and none had forgotten  Fidgi Haig.

The match, which pitted a team of the late soccer coach’s former club and Florida Institute of Technology women against men from his old Haitian Club Sportif Saint-Louis team, bolstered by ex-FIT teammates Robin Chan and Bino Campanini, resulted in a 6-2 victory for the men.

And though no one in the nearly-full stands really paid attention to who scored or didn’t, when the whistle blew, the tall young man in the 13 shirt — Haig’s son, Landen, who took his father’s place — had the hat trick.

He exited the match in the second half to an ovation from both benches as well as spectators.

“It was fun,” he said. “I felt like I’ve played with (CSSL) forever, and in a way I have. I’ve always known about them.”

Dr. Carl Henry Francois, who served as coach of the Haitian team, said the men loved their time in Melbourne and appreciated the opportunity to celebrate their old teammate with the players he coached.

“We have this reunion every year, but this year is very special because we want to have the whole team remember Fidgi as he would have wanted to be remembered: by playing,” he said.

Even the weather cooperated. Nasty for hours before the match, the rain stopped just in time for it to begin and the skies opened again in the closing minutes.

It was perfect for a good-natured event, which saw the women take a 1-0 early lead on a goal by K.C. Correllus, a State Cup and state championship winner at Satellite High School under Haig, before the men pulled ahead.

Each of the women wore the same number: Haig’s 9.

“It never gets old,” said Correllus, who also starred at Florida Gulf Coast University and has not played “in a long time,” she said.

“What does this mean? It means community,” added Jessie Withers, another Haig protégé who went on to play at the University of Central Florida and now coaches at Eau Gallie High School.

“It’s nice to see so many generations of players. It’s fun to be out here again. It’s fun to be with Fidgi’s old teammates. And, look, we have the UCF front line,” said Tish Jewell, yet another Satellite and UCF notable.

“All day I was reminded of Fidgi,” added Courtney Baines-Lundy, another Satellite and UCF graduate who coached last year’s state champions at Viera. “I am not (match-fit) but I kept seeing Fidgi with that look, that smirk, saying, ‘Keep playing the game. Keep enjoying the game.’ So I did.”

Landen Haig smiled and sounded very much like his father.

“I learned to enjoy playing the game from these men,” he said. “I learned to always have a smile on my face. It was a lot of fun. Just a lot of fun.”