Inland Empire Community Newspapers • December 27, 2012 • Page A5

Landon Donovan at top of sports collecting industry;regrets missing senior season at REV

Archuleta, Steiner wed

By Harvey M. Kahn

Former Redlands East Val-ley and Redlands HighSchool student Landon

Donovan has the sports collectingindustry in a pickle. Fresh off backto back Major Soccer Leaguechampionship seasons with theLos Angeles Galaxy and havingkicked a match winning goal in the2011 World Cup, there has been amarked increase in demand for hiscollectibles," said a spokesman forthe Upper Deck Company's cus-tomer service department in Carls-bad. However, with hints of hisleaving soccer for an indefinite pe-riod, Upper Deck is selling all ofhis products at 50 percent off. Donovan sits in exclusive com-

pany at Upper Deck. He is one ofthe company's Big-5 in popularityand sales, resting somewhere be-tween icons LeBron James,Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, andRory McIIroy. Upper Deck signedDonovan to an exclusive contractin April 2011, making Upper Deckthe exclusive providers of his au-tographed trading cards, memora-bilia and game used equipment.Upper Deck would not reveal theterms of the Donovan contract, butsources said it is a seven-figuredeal.

In a video interview providedby Upper Deck with Donovan, he

said, "it is cool to be on a card, ona magazine cover, or in a videogame. It validates you. It's awe-some. Having an Upper Deck cardcirculating helps a lot with recog-nition. We collected cards as kids,mostly baseball cards." He toldthat his current favorite item tocollect are jersey's of otherplayer's. He said one reason hesigned with Upper Deck was to in-sure fans that they were getting au-thentically signed items. He notedthere are his forged autographs incirculation. "It's frustrating to see."Upper Deck was selling an of-

ficial limited edition 2011 MLSsoccer ball autographed by Dono-van with his MVP inscription for$439.99. An online survey of othercompanies listed his signed jerseyfor $670 and a signed 8x10 framedphoto for $119.99. There is a lim-ited edition large poster signed andin a display case for $1,448. Thehighest end Donovan item was lo-cated at sportsmemorabilia.comwho is selling a game-worn auto-graphed and inscribed uniform in-cluding cleats at $13,157.50. Theuniform was worn in a Los Ange-les Galaxy game against the NewYork Red Bulls and comes with aletter of authenticity and safetyhologram.

"Landon Donovan has nearlysingle-handedly reinvigorated thesport of soccer in the U.S.," said

Jason Masherah, Upper Deck vice-president of marketing. Informa-tion from the Premier Athlete andCelebrity site indicates that Dono-van receives anywhere from$10,000 to $50,000 per speakingappearance. He was honored byESPN in a ceremony held at Red-lands East Valley two years ago,but he did not graduate from there.He spent his senior year at the U.S.Soccer Development Academy inBradenton, Florida. He did playsome matches for REV his junioryear, enough to be named to theParade Magazine All-Americanteam, but most of that season heplayed on the U.S. National Under17 team.

He spent his freshman year atRedlands High and according tomost reports was the Citrus BeltLeague MVP at REV in his soph-omore year. Donovan told TopDrawer Soccer.com that he re-members as a high school fresh-man watching the seniors playing.He recalled the prep hierarchy,where the seniors taught theyoungsters. "I do miss that. I wishI could have gotten to the pointwhere I could have been a seniorand paved the way for the youngerguys. Those couple of years weresome of the best memories of mylife. The bus rides after school togo somewhere to play a game. Itwas just fun."

PHOTOS COURTESY/

Landon Donovan's name speaks volumes

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(909) 381-9898Adam Christopher

Archuleta and JennaColleen Steiner were

married Nov. 18, 2012, at South

Coast Winery Resort & Spa inTemecula, CA. The bride's grand-mother, Gloria Greathouse, adeputy commissioner of civil mar-

riages for the State of California,performed the ceremony.The bride is the daughter ofCarol Steiner of Romeoville, IL.The groom is the son of Tom andAlice Archuleta of Colton, CA.Maid of honor was Karena J.Bierman of Evanston, IL. Brides-maids were Cindy Archuleta andSara Archuleta of Grand Terrace,CA; Chrissy May of Scottsdale,AZ; and Jennifer Dixon ofChicago, IL. Hostesses wereCourtney Denton of Bolingbrook,IL, and Heather Seguin of Roselle,IL; Marisa Heilman of Chicagowas Guest Book Attendant.Tommy Archuleta of Grand Ter-race, CA, was the best man.Groomsmen were Tom Archuleta,Jr., of Grand Terrace, CA; EddieArchuleta of Colton, CA; SimonP. Steiner of Romeoville, IL; andJoseph Hernandez of Chicago. R.Brad Cowan of Chicago was theusher.The bride earned a bachelor's de-gree in Journalism from WesternIllinois University and a Profes-sional Certificate in Philanthropyand Nonprofit Fundraising fromNorthwestern University. She ispursuing her Masters of BusinessAdministration from University ofIllinois at Chicago and is a MajorGifts Officer for The Rotary Foun-dation of Rotary International inEvanston.The groom earned a bachelor'sdegree in Business Economicsfrom University of California -Riverside. He is a Staff Account-ant for Moving Station, LLC inChicago.The newlyweds met while play-ing flag football for Chicago Sportand Social. They reside inChicago.

Adam Christopher Archuleta wed Jenna Colleen Steineron November 18, 2012

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