A Christmas story, 1994: The 5-year-old got a soccer net and soccer ball for Christmas. And the kid constantly was taking apart the soccer net and putting it back together. He liked to transport it to friends' houses or wherever he wanted to play.
That kind of ingenuity came in handy in junior high, when he and his dad made their contraption to practice kicking the ball. It was no small endeavor: 30 feet by 40 feet. The teenager climbed into a tree to attach it.
In high school, there was more engineering. A portable kicking net on the sidelines.