Son of ex-Sounders player realizes his gift -- not with his feet, but his mind

SEATTLE -- Imagination has brought Aaron D’Errico back to soccer. Not on a field, but through a comic book.

D’Errico said he always wanted to play soccer like his dad, who was the first pick of the expansion Sounders in 1974 and captain of the U.S. National Team.

"My mother was a beautiful model. My dad, this amazing, muscular soccer star. It was like having Wonder Woman and Superman as your parents,” explained D’Errico.

But their son, Aaron, as titled in one poem, was more like The Crooked Prince.

“If you make a fist, that’s what my legs are doing consistently,” D’Errico said of his cerebral palsy.

And while his dreams of pro soccer were dashed early on, his love for comics never died.

“I’m out to show the whole world, show them, show them what they can do,” D'Errico said.

Mentor to Aaron, Pat O’Day said, “He came in because he’d drawn a picture of me. I was astonished … I always felt that I had some skills at spotting creative people! And, boy, I saw one when Aaron came in the door.”

It was a meeting Aaron calls, “a cosmic coincidence.”

After all, O’Day was also an original co-owner of the expansion Sounders. But not until years into their friendship did O’Day realize he was helping the son of a former player.

Close to 40 years after David D’Errico first played in Seattle, his son now realizes his gift – not with his feet, but with his mind.

It starts with his original creation, Ammon Walker, who, despite cerebral palsy, dreams of becoming a soccer star like his dad. Ammon modifies the virus that causes cerebral palsy, and turns it into a supernatural power.

D’Errico has written the first 22-page issue. But he’s searching for an artist to help him bring Ammon to life and is hosting a worldwide search online.

“Some people have it and some people don’t, and he has it,” said O’Day.

D’Errico said, “I took something that would be considered a definite hindrance and said, You know what? In my imagination, I can overcome this.

One of my favorite quotes is from Spiderman: ‘With great power, comes great responsibility.' I realize that if people, once they started paying attention to my work, I had the responsibility to do good things with it.

"And that’s why I do it,” concluded D’Errico.