Undying Dream

Tonight: U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal, Seattle Sounders vs. Chico, 7 p.m., Juanita High School in Kirkland. Admission: $6 adults, $3 children.

LOSING HIS SON to a rare form of cancer 19 years ago drove Alan Hinton and his family out of England. But he continues with a dream - to help make soccer a success in the U.S.

They often talk about the son and brother they will never again see but never forget. His name is Matthew. He died in April, 1976, and probably would have been a great soccer player. He was, after all, Alan Hinton's son.

Tania Hinton was 7 when her brother died of a rare form of cancer. He was two years older and the center of Tania's world. Just a few years ago, she told her father for the first time, "Daddy, I used to look up in the clouds to see if I could see him."

While children try to remember such things, adults try to forget. Alan Hinton and his family left England the next year. Starting over in America helped them leave the past and its pain behind.

"We're still dealing with it, but we've at least distanced ourselves," said Alan's wife, Joy Hinton. "We sometimes go back to England, and it brings back memories. For that reason, it's not so easy to be there. By leaving, we probably walked away from a brilliant career for Alan, but we've made a life for ourselves here. This is home."

Seattle is where they settled, where they raised Tania and where Alan Hinton has made a life - for better and for worse - out of soccer.

He coached the Seattle Sounders when they were an NASL team drawing 25,000 in the Kingdome. The league didn't survive and Hinton made do by coaching indoor soccer with the Tacoma Stars. After the Stars folded, Hinton put together a team of 13-year-olds, figuring he would make them superstars.

Hinton, 52, has a notion that soccer will work in America in his lifetime, that it will once again fill big stadiums. For now, he is trying to fill the relatively small Memorial Stadium with the new Seattle Sounders, an A-League team of mostly local, former college stars. The team has yet to show a profit. Hinton may be dreaming, but his determination is undying. And understandably so.

"I credit my tenacity to my son," Hinton said. "I feel any success I have is a tribute to him, his determination and his fight to live."

The Sounders, 11-3 in their second season, are in first place, as are most teams Hinton coaches. Tonight they will play a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal game at Kirkland's Juanita High School. The Sounders are favored to win the Cup.

"I like to be around winners," Hinton said. "I try to help losers, but in the end I spend my time around winners."

Anyone else would sound audacious. Hinton does not.

He grew up in a factory town of Wednesbury, near Birmingham in western England, which gave him the working-class dialect he speaks with. His family rented a house with assistance from the city, and luxuries were few. Because he was the soccer player in the family, he was fed steak while his two younger brothers, Brian and Roy, got beans and bread.

Hinton grew up going to church on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and twice on Sundays. He went to a school called St. Bartholomew's. He was the school's head choir boy. Hinton sang at weddings and funerals, though he much preferred weddings.

Hinton remembers Wednesbury as a "dump," though he met Joy there when he was 15, she 13. He left soon after, dropping out of school at 15 to play for a club in Wolverhampton.

"I went to the university of life," he said. "I learned to be nice to everybody."

Hinton's variation on the golden rule told him to teach kids for free after the Stars dissolved in 1990. To pay the bills, he became a real estate agent and his wife's partner in her thriving business.

It was one of the parents, Neil Farnsworth, a Microsoft executive, who was impressed by Hinton's methods, knew of his accomplishments, and asked him if he would like to return to professional soccer. Farnsworth and another former Microsoft executive, Scott Oki, came up with the money to field a team and made Hinton its coach.

"He creates an atmosphere of professionalism even at the kids' level," Farnsworth said. "He develops a desire in players to do well for him."

Goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann, who recently received an invitation to play with the U.S. National Team, called Hinton a "great player's coach."

"He doesn't push you," said Hahnemann, who played for Seattle Pacific. "You're expected to know what you're supposed to do."

Hinton played for the best teams in England and likely would be coaching one of them now had he not moved to Dallas, where he finished his playing career in the NASL. He played his last season for the Vancouver Whitecaps. He was 15 pounds overweight, and 36, but still set the season record for assists with 30.

After the NASL and the MISL folded, he considered returning to England, but found more reasons to stay in Seattle. He now has a paying job, but still coaches his youth team, now the U-17 Crossfire Sounders, which has won state championships three of the past four years.

He has a hidden agenda.

"Watching them grow up is just as exciting as watching them play," said Hinton.

In a small but significant way, his players have become his sons.

"If there was ever a question whether to leave the Sounders or youth team," Farnsworth said, "I think he wouldn't do the Sounders."

Joy does not watch too many Crossfire games because the players remind her too much of Matthew.

"I look at Alan with them and I just see Matthew," she said. "It's just too hard."

But for Alan, the team is a comfort and a way of keeping perspective. Just yesterday, the Hintons' water heater burst, flooding their home. The unit will cost at least $500 to replace. Hinton got the news just after practice, but seemed hardly bothered by it.

"It's just money," he said. "Someone told me once, `They don't put pockets on coffins.' That's really true. There are more important things."