Bowie High Grad is a Veteran of Pro Soccer

Scott Buete was born in Arizona and moved to Bowie with his family when he was about 8 years old.

But by then Buete, who attended , had been playing soccer for about three years. “I played around age 5 in Arizona and then joined a club in Bowie. I also played basketball and baseball as well,” said Buete, who grew up in Old Bowie.

Those early years with soccer helped pave the way for a pro career for Buete, a former star at Bowie High under head coach Rich Kirkland. After graduating from Bowie High in 1999, he played at the University of Maryland from 1999 to 2003 and was an All-American for the Terps.

Since college he has played pro outdoor soccer for the Chicago Fire, Atlanta Silverbacks, Charleston (SC) Battery and FC Tampa Bay. And since 2007 he has played indoor soccer for the Baltimore Blast.

“I have been all over the place. It is kind of hard to move around the country," said Buete, now 31, who attended Eisenhower Middle School in Laurel. “After each season I would pack the car and leave the next day or two” for Maryland.

Being away from his Bowie roots was part of the reason he turned to the indoor game with the Blast. “Playing indoors … I did not know that is what I wanted to do. I was an outdoor kind of guy. Even before I started [with the Blast] I questioned it. People say it is rough on your body playing indoors,” he said.

Buete said the Blast kept pursuing him.

“I thought it would be nice to be close to home. I decided to jump in and do it,” said Buete, who has been part of two title teams with the Blast. “It takes a long time to learn [the indoor game]. I am happy to do it. It is the one thing I have enjoyed the most in my soccer career. My family has been able to come up to the games. In past years I rarely saw them.”

Buete, who lives in White Marsh with a Blast teammate, has been back to Bowie High at least twice as a speaker at soccer banquets. One of his former Bowie High teammates, Eric Anewalt, has been a coach with the Freestate Soccer Alliance.

The Blast open this season at home November 12 against Syracuse and Buete hopes to play for several more years.

“I want to play until I can’t walk anymore. In the last year or so I have had some injuries. I have to take it year-by-year. I was not able to contribute last year (with the Blast) because I had two knee surgeries during the season,” said the midfielder, who was limited to four games in 2010. “My passion is still right now to play. I will know when to hang it up.”

Buete said after his playing career he would like to coach and to that end he is an assistant this fall with the men’s soccer team at CCBC Essex, a junior college program in Baltimore County.

“One of our players from the Blast, Robbie Aristodemo, had coached there. Robbie was helpful getting me into coaching. He urged me to contact CCBC head coach Rick Zinkand," Buete said.

CCBC Essex won, 2-0, at Prince George’s Community on Oct. 3. “They are a good team. They want to work together,” Buete said of Essex. And the former Bowie High standout hopes that is the case this season with the Blast.