and arguably the top player in the whole state of Kentucky -- and he was being forced to throw on a long-sleeve shirt, gloves and block opponents' shots rather than terrorize the other team's goalkeeper.
"I hated him for it," jokes Burse, shortly after attending his first team meeting with FC Dallas. "But he said he always saw something in me as a goalie even when I was scoring goals and being successful as a field player."
Despite having to spend time off and on in the goal with his club, Burse played all but one of his four seasons in high school as a striker, which is exactly the way he wanted it. While he wasn't the type of player who scored goals in bunches, he was always the type that made the finishing pass to setup the goal. And he enjoyed that playmaker role.
After all, he excelled at it enough to garner both NSCAA and McDonald's All-American honors while at St. Xavier H.S. -- an athletic powerhouse in the Bluegrass State, but one known for swimming, tennis and basketball (New Jersey Nets forward Scott Padgett is a product) much more than its soccer program.
The only reason that Burse ended up going to Ohio State as a goalkeeper recruit and not as a forward was because of an ankle injury he suffered at the end of his senior season of high school before the start of his under-17 year with his club team, Javanon SC. He didn't want to miss the post-Christmas trip to Orlando to play in the adidas Disney Showcase, so he said he'd play goalkeeper as a way to get onto the field.
"I wasn't mobile at all," he said. "So all I could do was stay in the goal for that tournament."
Fortunately for the Buckeyes coaching staff, they saw the same type of potential in Burse as a goalkeeper as Maldonado did.
So, in essence, Burse traveled up to Columbus in 2002 without much goalkeeper training at all. He was simply a tall (6-foot-1) and athletic kid who had a knack for getting a hand on balls that other goalkeepers couldn't. Besides that, he was raw. His angles were poor and his awareness in the box was shabby at best.
"I still had a field player's mentality during my first year or so of college," he said. "I felt like I could make a mistake and it wasn't a big deal. You do that as a forward. But as a goalie, you simply cannot make a mistake. It took awhile for that concept to really sink in."
One of the great luxuries of playing in a city that is home to a Major League Soccer club is the access Burse had to watching professional players on a regular basis. He started off his time at OSU as just another fan at Crew Stadium. But during the summer between his sophomore and junior seasons, he was asked by then-Columbus Crew assistant coach John Murphy to come and train with his goalkeepers. It was exactly the type of golden opportunity he needed to advance as a goalkeeper.
"Murph was really my first (goalkeeper) coach," he said. "I was in there with the Crew all summer. I mean, it was about as awesome of an experience that anyone in college could ask for. It was overwhelming for me at first, but I started getting used to it. It opened a whole new world for me."
Burse said that he learned as much from Jon Busch that summer as he did from Murphy, as the All-Star goalkeeper tutored him on every facet of the game.
"Busch really went out of his way to help me," he said. "I was a college kid, so he didn't have to do that, but he did."
That same summer, Burse got a call out of the blue from Glenn "Mooch" Myernick, the top assistant coach for the U.S. national team. He explained that they would need a third goalkeeper to come in and train with Kasey Keller and Jonny Walker during the week leading up to the U.S. team's World Cup qualifying match with Grenada.
The next thing Burse knew, he was partnering up with Keller during stretching exercises and doing everything the two U.S. goalkeepers were doing in training. Needless to say, it was the highlight of his career, and the event that sparked his interest even more in developing his game in order to one day have a shot at playing as a professional.
"I knew I was not on their level," said Burse. "Not many people are on Keller's level. But I had a feeling that one day I could be near that level. That's what motivated me the most from training with those guys."
The 21-year-old has progressed a lot since that summer of 2004. He ended up having a standout career at Ohio State with a total of 13 shutouts, a 1.11 goals-against average and 162 saves. It puts him on a list of goalkeepers that OSU head coach John Bluem has helped develop at both Fresno State and in Columbus, including David Kramer, Mark Dougherty and, his goalkeeper coach as a senior, Jon Lowery.
Lowery, for one, believes that Burse can go on and achieve success at the next level.
"Right off the bat, anyone will notice his athleticism," he said. "That's what blew me away when I got here last winter. I'm not surprised at all that he was the first goalkeeper selected in the draft because we felt last year that we had one of the best in the country.
And because Burse has not only been a full-time goalkeeper, his upside is similar to that of last year's No. 2 selection overall, Brad Guzan, who also was a standout field player before focusing solely on goalkeeping when he reached the college level.
"Ray-J is part of a new breed of goalkeepers," said Lowery, who spent time as an understudy to Adin Brown on the Tampa Bay Mutiny in 2001. "As a former field player, he has exceptional foot skills. His distribution is one of his strengths. He's only going to get better at everything else at the next level."
That's the thing with Burse: He's so new to the position, that he's practically a project. But one that the FC Dallas faithful will probably get a glimpse of sooner than later. Burse will also now have the luxury to train under former Portsmouth goalkeeper Alan Knight, which he is looking forward to greatly.
"I researched him on the Internet," said Burse of Knight, who played for 22 years with the same club before retiring in 2000. "Let me tell you this: He was The Man when he played. He'll be a wealth of knowledge for me as a goalkeeper, which is exciting."
How about that: the words "goalkeeper" and "exciting" in the same sentence out of Burse's mouth.
Maybe he owes his old club coach an apology.
Marc Connolly is the managing editor of ussoccerplayers.com and regularly writes to MLSnet.com. Marc can be reached at marc@oakwoodsoccer.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
