By Max Sass, Sports Editor
We have yet to see a human cloned, yet somehow there are two versions of Greg Cumpstone. The junior goalkeeper for the Hofstra men's soccer team is a different person on and off the pitch.
On the soccer field, Cumpstone is a serious athlete, fiery in his leadership and unwavering in his commitment to winning. Off the field, he is a James Bond buff and a fun-loving 20-year-old.
Cumpstone is now second on the Hofstra shutout list with 14, trailing Matthias Gumbrecht, who graduated in 2005, by just nine. Cumpstone still has all of the 2010 conference season remaining as well as his entire senior year to take over Gumbrecht's spot at the top of the Hofstra list.
"The most important thing always is that we are doing well as a team and hopefully clean sheets will come with that," Cumpstone said.
Occasionally he has to yell at his defense like he did after a series of miscommunications against Fordham but he gives them most of the credit. Cumpstone said that 90 percent of a shutout should be credited to his defense in front of him.
Part of the reason Cumpstone has to be forceful and yell on the pitch occasionally is because he was named a team captain along with junior Tom Bekas and senior Erik Rengifo.
"I wear it with so much pride," Cumpstone said of the captain's armband. "I am proud to be the captain of this team, one of the three captains of this team and hopefully I would love to be the captain of a team that wins the CAA."
The road to captaincy was a long one for Cumpstone who entered Hofstra in 2008 behind incumbent starter James Winters. As if battling for the starting job while adjusting to college life was not enough, Cumpstone was out with a freak injury.
Cumpstone was unable to tell the story without laughing. "We were doing long balls and I went to catch a longball and driving behind me is Coach [Richard] Nutall in a golf cart. [He] runs over my ankle and sprains it and so I was out for three weeks."
When he did finally did get on the field it was on the road against Tulsa which Cumpstone called, "an absolute shocking debut for me". Cumpstone conceded three goals in that game. The next game he played was against Virginia Commonwealth, where Cumpstone once again was tagged for three goals. Despite the demoralizing beginning Nuttall stuck with the freshman and in his third game (against Delaware) recorded his first clean sheet.
Cumpstone held onto the starting job ever since, aided by his family's support. His parents have missed few home games. "They're all soccer fans," Cumpstone said. "My dad plays soccer, my mom used to play soccer, my brother plays soccer over at Southern Connecticut University and it is nice because you can talk about the games with them. I know I have their confidence and that gives me confidence."
Cumpstone, in order to prepare for the season, spent part of this past summer away from his family and support staff. "I was lucky enough to go over to Hungary, to Budapest, this summer to train with a professional team for a month." Cumpstone trained with Ferencvaros and says it helped him make big strides.
"I trained over there for a month and that was really good for me. You are seeing top-level players, getting shot on by top-level players, working with top level coaches and players and it was a good experience for me."
Though he missed his family and friends back in America, Cumpstone settled into a rhythm in Hungary and would consider going overseas to play professionally.
"I just want to be playing if I can, regardless of where it is," Cumpstone said. "If it's in Europe, if its in the United States, if its in Asia or wherever it is, it would be fun to play and that is what I work for and try to achieve."
Cumpstone still has almost two years to finish up before he possibly leaves for a career overseas. He plans on having fun and taking advantage of his college years. That is the other side of Greg Cumpstone. Firey on the field, fun off of it.
"I like to have a good time," he said. "You're in college, you're only young once, this is supposed to be the best four years of your life, that's what everyone says."
Freshman year, in Groningen Hall of the Netherlands, Cumpstone ran through the halls yelling, "HECTOR!", imitating Brad Pitt as Achilles in Troy, one of Cumpstone's favorite movies.
Cumpstone cites Troy as well as 300 and the James Bond movies as his favorites. The characters played by Pitt and Eric Bana in Troy, as well as Daniel Craig as Bond are charismatic and confident people that possess traits Cumpstone does as well.
He is a huge fan of the English soccer club Chelsea and does not hesitate to admit why. "When I was younger, we went over to England and it was the same year that Roman Abromovich, the Russian billionaire, bought Chelsea", Cumpstone explained. "So me, being a bit of a glory seeker, I was like ‘I'll choose them, they're the richest club in the world and they're going to buy the best players'."
Cumpstone, unashamed of his front-running tendancies is also not afraid to wear tights on the field, especially when it is cold. "Joel [Tyson, Hofstra's goalkeeper coach] rags on me, he's not a big fan of them and [senior defender] Joey Amendolare kind of lays into me, he thinks they're unlucky."
Occasionally though, the fun slips onto the field. Cumpstone tells a story from his sophomore year in high school, in his second career start.
"We are 2-0 up in a night game against our arch-rivals, a team called Morgan, and the game is going on and I see some girls walk in and there is this one girl that is a senior that's pretty good looking," Cumpstone said. "She walks in and I'm looking over at her, kind of just staring at her, just totally lost it for 5-10 seconds just checking her out and all of a sudden, apparently, they [Morgan] slipped a through ball in and a forward was coming right in on me, and apparently it was a ball I could have easily come out and claimed, but my focus was over on this girl. The guy gets the ball and before I know it he's turning and shooting and its going in and everyone's yelling at me."
Alas Cumpstone never got the girl, but he will settle for the all – time Hofstra shut out record as well as a CAA Championship.
Junior goalkeeper Greg Cumpstone (13) punts the ball against St. Peter's. (Sean M. Gates/ The Chronicle)