Mikhail Doholis is one goal-oriented kid.
The 15-year-old’s favorite movie is “Goal II: Living the Dream.”
His passion is scoring goals.
And his vision is that someday he will wear the red colors of Liverpool F.C. and play soccer in England’s Premier League.
That is a world away from the Vancouver street where he has spent evenings tricking a soccer ball with his feet. But Doholis’ dream got a boost in the fall when he donned another red jersey.
That of a United States national team.
A Union High School sophomore, Doholis is the most recent Clark County soccer player selected to live and train with the USA under-17 men’s national team at Bradenton, Fla.
Battle Ground native Nick Palodichuk played for the United States in the men’s under-17 World Cup in October, scoring a goal and playing every minute at the tournament.
In 2009, Doholis made several visits to the national team’s training camp, and he played in a reserve role for the USA during last month’s Nike International Friendlies at Phoenix.
Doholis, who turns 16 this month, said he felt right at home when he entered his first international match Dec. 4.
The opponent was Brazil, a country against which he has dreamed of playing. Moments after entering the match, he played the ball to start a sequence that led to the tying goal in a 1-1 draw.
Doholis is pictured on the U.S. Soccer Web site celebrating that goal with Kellen Gulley.
Last week, Doholis was an impact player as the Far West Region team of boys born in 1994 won all of its matches at a U.S. Youth Soccer ODP tournament in Orlando, Fla. He scored a goal in the first match and set up several others.
“He’s almost like lightning in a bottle,” said Kelcey Burris, the Union High soccer coach.
Playing against tough competition was hardly a new experience for Doholis, who has been playing with and against older players for several years. Recently, he attended training sessions with members of the Portland Timbers.
Until he turned 11, in his second season of competitive soccer, Doholis played goalkeeper. But once he experienced the action on the field of play, his speed and competitive passion made it clear he was a natural attack player.
Burris, his high school coach, said Doholis possesses quickness and tenacity with the ball at his feet that make him dangerous. But it is the growth off the pitch that lifted the teen to an elite level, Burris said.
“His growth maturity wise as an athlete over the last year has been phenomenal,” Burris said.
The Union coach said he will miss having Doholis on his team come the spring, but he is thrilled to see a local player climb to such heights.
“He’s fulfilling a dream of his, and we do anything we can do to help,” Burris said, adding that he hopes this is only the beginning of that dream.
Doholis credits many coaches for helping him achieve national team status. Among them are David Hughes, the late Stu Beck, and Sunny Dulai with Columbia Premier Soccer Club, Marc Evans and Bill Bateman with Eastside United, the Gresham club he joined two seasons ago, and the Olympic Development Program coaches in Oregon.
For his part, Doholis is thankful for his God-given talent. He draws inspiration from a grandmother, Tessie Bigby Smith, who helped raise Mikhail. She died in 2005.
“She taught me a lot about life and my base religious beliefs that I still have today,” Mikhail said.
“I always know that she is watching me play soccer and is cheering the loudest in a better place.”
Mikhail also credits the support from friends and family for this opportunity. Many of them attended a Saturday sendoff party, which was squeezed between last week’s trip to Orlando and his Sunday departure to begin is residency in Bradenton, Fla.
It was an emotional goodbye for Barbara Doholis, Mikhail’s mother. She said she is thrilled to see her son succeed at something he is so passionate about.
“I’m very happy,” Barbara Doholis said, “But it’s also very sad that he’s leaving home. Still, I’m very pleased for his accomplishment.”
In recent months, Mikhail Doholis made five trips to the training camp in Bradenton, Fla., and while he will miss his family and friends, he is looking forward to being immersed in soccer.
“I really like the high level of training down there, and just the fact that you’re representing your country,” Doholis said.
Tasha Doholis, Mikhail’s sister, notes that her brother should be right at home in Bradenton because he eats, sleeps and lives soccer.
That passion is a big part of this story. When he wasn’t at an organized practice, Doholis often spent time kicking the ball around with friend Tarik Subasic or simply working on ball skills in the street.
“It’d be late at night and I’d just want to go out in the street and put in some work,” he said.
Florida is a long way from east Vancouver. But it’s not near where Mikhail Doholis dreams of arriving. Like the fictional player Santiago Munez in the “Goal” movie trilogy, he dreams of rising from relative obscurity to playing soccer professionally in Europe.
When Doholis visualizes himself as a professional soccer player, it’s a clear picture.
In it he’s scoring a goal.
“I love to score goals — big goals of importance,” he said. “(I am) always thinking about scoring them, 24-7.”
Paul Danzer covers Community Sports for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4521 or paul.danzer@columbian.com.
