United's Wells gives city life a try

By Charles Boehm, Potomac Soccer Wire Staff Writer

When D.C. United’s big sponsorship deal with Volkswagen was unveiled last week, most of United’s players enthusiastically welcomed the news that the German automaker would offer them employee pricing on new VWs – with one exception.
 
“Umm, I’m not going to take advantage of that,” said goalkeeper Zach Wells.
 
Raised by what he affectionately calls “hippie” parents, Wells is a striking constrast to the stereotype of the flashy pro athlete. While his fellow Major League Soccer player David Beckham was cited by Carbon Trust last year as having one of the biggest carbon footprints in human history, Wells has made a conscious choice to live in a small apartment, without a car, in the heart of the District of Columbia. The tall Californian relies on a bike, the city’s Metro rail system and rides from his landlord and upstairs neighbor Ben Olsen to get around, citing both environmental and practical reasons.
 
Last year Olsen and his wife Megan moved into a three-story rowhouse in D.C.’s funky, historic Shaw neighborhood, located south of Howard University and just a stone’s throw from the U St. nightlife corridor. When Wells arrived from Houston Dynamo in an offseason trade, he and his girlfriend quickly laid claim to Olsen’s basement apartment, keen to take advantage of the urban life he’d missed out on in his previous stints in automobile-loving Houston and before that, with the New York Red Bulls, whose Giants Stadium home base obliged him to live in the New Jersey suburbs.
 
“Yeah, it’s fun,” said Wells of his new neighborhood. “After being in New Jersey and so close to Manhattan, and then being in Houston, living in a city that’s a little more sprawled out, I jumped at the chance to be able to use public transportation and to get a little more into the cultural scene.”
 
Wells usually hitches a ride in Olsen’s car for the daily commute to RFK Stadium, but with the United veteran on a different schedule due to a long-term ankle injury, the goalkeeper often walks over to the nearby Stadium/Armory Metro station to catch a train home. So far he’s had few fellow riders recognize him, which might be a good thing given United’s struggles this season.
 
“I try to stay on the end cars,” he joked. “But that’s part of the good thing about being an MLS player, the anonymity…But 20, 25 minutes on the metro reading a magazine or the paper is a lot better than dealing with traffic and everything else.”
 
The Washington region is straddled with some of the highest costs of living in the nation so given Major League Soccer’s modest wages, United players typically choose more affordable housing in the Virginia suburbs, some requiring as much as an hour’s drive to RFK. Olsen bucked that trend with the purchase of his rowhouse – he says its ongoing renovations have helped him cope with the frustration provoked by his ankle troubles – and he’s helped Wells get acclimated to the diverse neighborhoods in their area.
 
Wells has become a regular at a nearby Jamaican restaurant and on Tuesday he hoped to attend his first show at the 9:30 Club on V St., one of the city’s top live music venues. But with the recent public focus on climate change and the call for energy conservation, he’s also enjoyed the challenge of making his lifestyle more eco-friendly while dodging the financial “burden” of urban car ownership.
 
“He’s good, he’s into that stuff. He reads about it, he’s probably into it more than anybody else on the team, that’s for sure. He recycles and everything,” cracked Olsen, before delving into a tongue-in-cheek account of his own attempts at conservation.
 
“We do what we can, I guess. We recycle bricks. I bricked my new [patio] but we recycled the old ones. But I’m not that bad. You know what I do now? I turn off the water when I brush my teeth now. That’s been my big thing – try it, it’s tough. All my life I just kept it on and now I do it, and it’s like a fight. So it’s those little things I’ve been trying.”
 
As Wells’ landlord, he’s in a good position to evaluate the goalkeeper’s resource consumption, though, and he did call him out on one particular issue.
 
“I want to get a water heater, the tankless one,” said Olsen, “and I actually need one because now that Zach’s down there with his girlfriend, they take really long showers… we have a small tank and it’s four stories with Zach in the basement, you know? I got one, two, three four five people living there – usually have six, when my brother is down, or Megan’s friend who works here stays over a lot. We got a lot of people taking showers, so you got to get in and out. You can’t hog the hot water.”
 
So his water usage might not pass the ‘green test.’ But Wells is clearly working to adapt his lifestyle to leave a smaller imprint on the world around him, and that puts him well ahead of the curve in pro sports.
 
“I’m not a hippie,” said Wells. “But I think going green is kind of trendy right now, it’s in everyone’s mind and I figure, why not take a little responsibility for your actions? If everyone pitched in a little bit, then we can make a big chance so I’m just trying to take care of my end of things.”


Editor's Note:
Check out “Wells/Olsen outtakes” on Charles Boehm’s Caught in Possession blog to comment on this article and for quotes from the pair not used in this story.


About the author
Charles Boehm has covered D.C. United and the rest of the Washington-area soccer scene for more than three years. A native of Dallas, Texas, Charlie made D.C. his home following a hard-working NCAA Division III college career and subsequent Peace Corps stint in the small, soccer-crazed, island nation of Grenada. While in Grenada, he coached and played in the Grenadian Premier League. For more from Charlie, check out his Caught in Possession blog right here on Potomac Soccer Wire. Feedback and news tips welcome at cboehm@potomacsoccerwire.com