Zach Wells might have to give up the number “1” on the back of his UCLA soccer jersey.
Now President Bush has one, too.
The NCAA Division I champion men’s soccer team met the president in the White House yesterday, along with three other national champions: the Ohio State football team, the USC women’s volleyball team and the Portland women’s soccer team.
Junior defender Tony Lawson, the team’s captain, handed the president a specially embroidered UCLA soccer jersey with BUSH and the number 1 across the back.
“I said if he wants to come hang out, he’s got a place to stay. He said it might be a little hot in Los Angeles, and I said I’d buy him a snow cone,” Lawson said of his encounter with the president.
After shaking hands with “the most powerful man in our country,” Wells was more in awe than he was worried about losing his jersey number to the president.
UCLA’s top goaltender was also pleased to earn bragging rights over friends in Washington, D.C., who have never been to the White House.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Wells said. “It’s amazing when you associate the president with all the images on the TV screen, then to shake his hand and interact with him ... I didn’t think I was going to get that.”
The team spent Sunday sightseeing in Washington before they visited the White House yesterday morning and left that afternoon.
Head coach Tom Fitzgerald, who coached Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew for five years before coming to UCLA, was able to meet with old acquaintances on the Ohio State football team.
He also discussed the State of the Union with the president.
“(Bush) said, ‘Trust us, we’re doing the right thing for the country. Everything’s going to come out great,’” Fitzgerald said.