Halterman’s game-saving heroics at Langhorst Field on the campus of Elmhurst University in Chicago’s western suburbs, with the rain turning to thick mist and collecting around the floodlights, are not his first for the club. He chuckles a little when thinking back to last Fall and the time when floodlights, no matter how water-logged or dim, would have proven awfully helpful.
A Shootout in a Blackout
“No one had experienced anything like it before,” said Halterman about that time in Massachusetts, during a marathon four-month Qualifying cycle, when the lights went out – and the play went on.
“Daylight was fading, there was a lot of overtime to go, and no sign the lights were going to come on.”
Chicago House had battled at Randolph High School (over a thousand miles from Chicago) against Brockton FC United, one of the top semi-pro outfits in Massachusetts, to a 1-1 draw through 90 minutes in their fourth and final Qualifier A win meant reaching the Open Cup for the first time. The referee-team took a huddle and decided to cut extra-time short and go straight to a penalty shootout.
Halterman has a mind as quick as his reflexes. And it sprung to action.
“I told the refs, ‘hey you need to change the color of the ball at least, for everyone’s benefit’,” Halterman said of how he finally, after much cajoling, convinced the ref to make use of a yellow, high-visibility snow ball. “I couldn’t believe they tried to fight me on it.”
A Marathon in the Inky Dark
The shootout went to nine rounds. Predictable, given the circumstances. Halterman, never one to shirk responsibility, stepped up to score from the spot before – in what one can only describe as total darkness – he saved a second kick of the day to give his team the chance to move on. “In that darkness, you couldn’t see many of the shooters’ cues, so I needed to change my process a little.”
After Vuka Bulatovic scored the winning kick for Chicago House, the champagne flowed, if only briefly. The players had to ran off to a nearby Planet Fitness, where they all booked 24-hour memberships in order to have a place to shower and change before returning the rental vans and scurrying back to Logan Airport for a plane back home.
After all, there was work the next day for every member of the all-amatuer team.
For Halterman, that work is Construction. He manages his own company, Timber Wolf Construction and Woodworking. The work is varied and it suits him. He takes on a wide array of jobs from “full basement and bathroom renovations to handyman stuff.” He does: “Whatever needs doing.”
That’s the spirit that’s seen him become a symbol of this young club, founded in 2020 with professional intentions, but forced to downshift into the amateur world with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
