More than being remembered for his footballing exploits, indoor pro David Bascome wants to be the kind of shining example to young people that Harold (Doc) Dowling was to him.

Dowling was the former North Village junior coach who kept the youngsters in tow, and to this day the Bascome brothers, Shaun Goater and many others who had Dowling as an early mentor still have a high regard for him. It is the kind of impact Bascome wants to make, too.

"Whenever I come back home I still go down to Bernard Park to see him," said Bascome, a 10-year veteran in the Major Indoor Soccer League in the United States.

His deft ball skills may have left many an opponent chasing shadows, but he failed to `pull a fast one' on Dowling when he showed him his report card once.

"If you had bad grades, Harold Dowling wouldn't let you train," Bascome remembers.

"I got an F on my report card and I thought I could get by my grandmother by changing that F to an B by curling it around and thinking I could get away with it... not realising that Harold Dowling had to look at my report card, too.

"He saw the B but next to it was written `unsatisfactory'. He says `David, how could unsatisfactory be a B? You must really be a good student'. Then he said `I'm going to call your school' and not only that he gave me a whack.

"He also put me on suspension for six or seven weeks and told me I couldn't play until the grades came up. Then I went home that night and told my grandmother `I'm suspended'.

"She asked me why and I said because I changed a mark on my report card, so on top of that I got another six weeks suspension. For almost the whole season I was out and it really hurt me."

He added: "That was in primary school, the Minors (Division), but if they didn't teach me a lesson it probably could have gone a different way. Now, every time I come back I go down to Bernard Park to see him. I can't forget that, there were some important lessons he taught me."

Learning life's lessons is what it's all about for Bascome who is sharing his experiences with youngsters at his Pro Soccer Clinic which started yesterday at the National Sports Centre northern field. The clinic is a carry-on from the Bascome-Goater Clinics which he held for 12 years with good friend Shaun Goater and is now run by Bascome Pro Soccer School, Bascome's company.

"We push about 200 kids each year and what I find is each year we are losing players at the age of 15, 16, 17 and this is a problem," said Bascome.

"The camp wasn't designed at the beginning to make these kids the greatest players in one week, but to give them an environment for that week where they can see the discipline and organisation and respect for the game.

"In the States we've come up with the college prospects programme and we have two pro coaches coming down from the US who are scouting players who have to have a certain grade point average."

Bascome has also been coaching youngsters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where he has lived for the last 12 years. He launched a coaching business, the Bascome Pro Soccer School, where he has a staff of seven coaches providing coaching and helping to develop clubs in the area. There are some 29,000 youngsters playing soccer in his area of Harrisburg, District 9.

"We take them from developmental stage straight to being college prospects," explained Bascome who never completed college himself, after attending Anderson College in South Carolina in the late 1980s.

"What you have to realise is America is one of the most organised countries in the world in regards to sports. Why do you think they are ranked nine or 10 in the world (in soccer)?

"Yeah, Bermuda has a lot of talent, but discipline has a lot to do with it (success). Fundamentals are instilled from young. American players are more disciplined but they play textbook from an early age and that hinders them a little bit because they don't have a chance to relax and play."

Bascome still sees a passion for the game among Bermuda's youngsters and the game is also now proving to be quite popular among young girls, as it the case in the United States who have the world's top women's team.

"I would be fooling a kid if I told him I was going to teach them passion," said Bascome.

"In America they see the final outcome. They are looking and thinking `I can go to college or play professional', but what are the players looking at down here?

"The 120 who are involved with the national programme get saved, but what about the other 800 or 900? That's something that the club development down here has to sort out because it is important."

Bascome has two coaches here helping with the clinic and two other officials are also keeping an eye out for talent. Paul Williams coached Bascome at the Denver Thunder while Mike Williams was with him at Harrisburg Heat.

Bascome has made arrangements to have 14-year-old player Cheyra Bell travel up to Harrisburg this month and stay with his family while she attends a coaching camp. She is the daughter of former North Village player, Derek Bell, who died in a boating accident last year.

Through Bascome's contacts Cheyra will also play some games with a club team there. Thomas Watson and Jahnai Raynor have also been to camps in Harrisburg.

"I watch the way they carry themselves because that is important," he says of the players participating in the clinic.

"Sports can save you but you have to know what the sport can do for you. Sport has been a blessing for me and every time I do a motivational speech I like to have a ball with me because that is what got me where I've been.

"I never would have dreamed that from this game I would be able to talk about issues in life, even giving business information and motivational speeches to many schools. Shaun and I wanted to be successful, to be professionals, but we weren't sure if we were going to get there. We knew in order to be successful we had to pick up a lot of tools along the way."

It was after dropping out of college and then losing his grandmother that Bascome began to think more about what he wanted to do with his life. "Shaun going to England inspired me," he admitted.

"With Wendell Baxter pushing me and my brothers pushing me I knew I had to do it and it was the commitment I made to myself."

Bascome has spent all of his 12 years as a professional playing indoor soccer and expects to finish his playing days as an indoor player. His career is presently at a crossroads following the collapse of Harrisburg Heat, but Philadelphia and Baltimore are interested in signing him. The decision will be made when he returns to the States.

"I will be playing for one of those two teams," Bascome assured. "Having the chance of having five months off, giving back to Bermuda and running my company, I'm definitely going to stay indoor. Playing indoor allows me to do much more."

However, even after his playing days are over, Bascome plans to remain in the Harrisburg area, though he will maintain his links with his homeland in the form of his annual clinics. In the process he hopes to use his life experiences to keep the youth on the right track. As he says, it is not just about soccer but learning life skills as well.

"I may not have a Master's degree in English or Mathematics but I have a Master's degree in wisdom and commonsense," he says.

"It's more than just a game and when people are first talking to me if 90 per cent of my conversation with them is about the game, about me being a professional, then I still have work to do.

"I try to get the kids to understand that it's not the material things you have that make you successful. I ask them all the time what is the difference between being rich and poor and the first thing they say is `money, if you've got money you're rich, if you don't have money you're poor'

"I ask them if I give them a million dollars and they share it with a million people, you have nothing left. But if I give you a lot of knowledge and information and you retain it and then share it with a million people, you will still have it and then you can sell it."

Added Bascome: "I'm trying to prepare these kids to make them strong enough to deal with life, to take something away from what I'm telling them. I want them to know me more than David Bascome, the pro football player.

"I'll been back here more during the season once I stop playing, trying to help develop the clubs in Bermuda. That's going to be my aim once I finish playing.

"However, I have no intention of coming back on a full-time basis. But things may change."