Pete Winslow has spent his whole life proving people wrong. In 2007 he discovered his passion, and began to prove to the world that he didn’t know what the phrase “I can’t” was. With no legs and only 3 fingers, Winslow became an international soccer champion.

Pete stumbled across power soccer in 2007 at a courage center expo. He didn’t know it at the time, but going to that expo would change the course of his life.

“I went to this courage center expo, my dad coaxed me into going, and I think the athletic director came up to me and asked me if I’d like to play power soccer. I wasn’t a fan of soccer at the time and I really liked baseball and other sports, but he said that I’d really enjoy the sport and that there would be free lunch if I tried it so I was in. Within the first 30 seconds I was hooked,” Pete said.

Pete fell in love with the sport almost immediately. He began playing and practicing often.

Most power soccer athletes have two motorized chairs; an everyday chair, or “luxury” chair, and then they have a  power soccer chair, a faster and less comfortable chair. When Pete first started playing he only had his everyday chair, so he quickly fixed that problem and bought himself a bright pink power soccer chair.

Shortly after Pete started power soccer in 2007, he heard about the U.S. team winnin the world cup in Japan. He kept hearing the names of these supposed incredible power soccer athletes, and he knew he wanted to be a part of that team and play with them.

“That’s a high bar to place, especially just after your first year of the sport, but I was willing to work hard for it,” Pete said.

Goal setting/achieving

Team USA starts scouring the country for new recruits to the team almost immediately after every world cup so that there is plenty if time for training and building a new team. They encourage athletes to send in videos of themselves performing various drills and exercises, and if the video is good enough, the athlete will be invited to a Team USA  training camp.

Pete wanted to make the team badly. The chance to represent his country in France for the 2011 world cup would be an amazing experience, and he wanted in. It took countless hours after school practicing, drilling, filming and editing, but eventually Winslow felt like he had a good audition tape to send in.

After sending in the tape, there was a lot of waiting. Countless athletes around the country were doing the same thing that Pete just did. Team USA spent weeks going over over all of the footage that was sent in so that they could select 20 individuals to invite to a training camp. That whole time, Pete was waiting anxiously with hopes that he may get the call.

Eventually, all the waiting paid off and Pete got a call saying that he’d made the top 20 cut of all the videos sent in. He was being invited to a Team USA  training camp in Indiana. He knew that the camp would be a tough one, with all of the nations best power soccer athletes. Pete was willing to put in the hard work so he could represent his country in Europe, but he was extremely nervous.

“I couldn’t eat, sleep or talk, I was so nervous. I was playing with these great athletes who already had world championships under their belt. A lot of people might’ve said I shouldn’t be there because of my inexperience,” Pete said.

Shortly after the training camp concluded, the head coach called Pete and his family to announce that he had made the cut to the top 12, and that he was now a part of Team USA. Pete was ecstatic and he thought the hardest part was over, but he was clueless to how hard the time up until the final cut and the World Cup would be.

“I had no idea there was so much work ahead of me,” Pete admitted.

Since the athletes on the team were all across the country, there was no way for them to get together often for practice, so the coaches would send out drills for the team to do in the time between practice camps.

“I was in the gym every week, maybe even three times a week, for hours and hours practicing.

I was behind 3 or 4 steps behind the other athletes on the team and I needed to catch up as quick as possible. It took me 3 hours to do a drill that some people might’ve been able to do in 45 minutes,” Pete said.

Pete worked very hard in the time off in between training camps. When it came time for the second to last training camp where the team would select its top 8, Pete was extremely stressed and nervous, but he was prepared.

“The training camp was so stressful, even more stressful than the other ones because I really wanted to play and to go to France and represent the USA,” Pete said.

After this training camp, the coaches would select the top 8 on the team. Those 8 athletes would get to compete in the World Cup, the other athletes would still be on the team, but they would not be eligible to play. Just like after the first training camp, Pete went home and awaited a similar call, a call announcing that he’d be playing in France. The call came.

World Cup

The team traveled to France a few weeks before the cup to practice and to play against other teams like Canada and Australia. The practices and scrimmages went very well, the coaches and players felt like they were ready for a great run at the championship in Paris.

During pool play towards the beginning of the tournament, Team USA had a tough loss to England. The coaches and athletes were so disappointed in their performance that they went to the nearest practice area and immediately had a three hour practice. Pete was borderline heartbroken, but this wasn’t the end. Pete, the coaches, and the entire team knew that they needed to respond, and come back and have an explosive rest of the tournament.

“All great teams have to lose to see who they are and see how they come back,” Pete said.

It must only be fate that Team USA and England found themselves playing each other once again in the tournament, but this time the teams were competing for first place. Team USA wanted revenge, and the entire team was buzzing with energy, ready to bounce back and show England that their previous matchup was a fluke.

“The championship against england was a full house, a zoo. I couldn’t even hear myself think,” Pete said as he described the atmosphere of the championship match.

It was a very good game for Team USA  and for Pete. They scored the first and last goal of the game against England, and Pete got to spend the last minutes of the game out on the field. After the clock ran out of time, Team USA were world champions, and Pete was an international soccer star.

Looking back

Pete views this as one of the biggest highlights in his life for various reasons. Reason one is that he got the chance to go represent the USA overseas doing what he loves. Reason two is that he got the opportunity to prove everyone who ever doubted him wrong. Pete is an international soccer star and champion, and is recognized on Team USA’s website as a part of a legacy team.

After all is said and done, Pete is very happy with how his power soccer career has gone so far, and he can only look forward to proving even more people wrong and to possibly be a part of more World Cup championship teams in the future.

“I like to shock people, if you sleep on someone they’re gonna shock you,” Pete said.