# Do your GKs play other sports?



## mulliganmom (Apr 24, 2018)

Curious how many of your GKs play other sports. We have always played other sports and it has had a very positive effect, and been supported by the GK coach. Soccer is the only club sport we play, so it is front and center. Getting older certainly makes it hard to fit it other sports, but curious as to how many GKs are playing more than soccer.


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## Vestige (Apr 24, 2018)

My son really hasn't been too interested in other team sports, and since he's in DA, he wouldn't be able to now anyway. But he is working on his black belt in Kung Fu, which we've noticed has helped in a number of ways for him.


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## Technician72 (Apr 24, 2018)

My DD plays Volleyball, Basketball, and Track for her school.

All 3 have helped her with her footwork, tracking the ball, angles, spacing amongst teammates, speed, conditioning, and her hands have been critical playing center in the post for basketball.


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## htk (Apr 24, 2018)

My daughter plays club volleyball, although that will be ending with DA starting up. She’ll still do beach volleyball, because she can pick and choose her schedule for that.


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## silverstreak (Apr 24, 2018)

REPOST FROM ANOTHER DISUSSION>>>>>>.my dd is an 02 and is 6'1.........she played full time keeper since U8.....but played rec seasons to get field experience, so she did not suffer too bad on the footskills and ball handling........going back now I think both basketball and beach volleyball have been the best contributors to her success at the 10-15 age range that I could have done for her.....not just what the sport itself provides for cross train....but with the big growth spurts of a big athletic girl we had to trust that playing in the sand has helped with her balance...agility and core strength as well as keeping her injury free to this point.......Soccer first Tho.....


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## KeeperMom20 (Apr 24, 2018)

Mine plays tennis in the fall and runs track and field in the spring. She’s done both for many years (tennis lessons as a younger kid and then HS both years, track every spring since 3rd grade.) Soccer is her only club sport. At her school, the students are required to participate in an afternoon activity year round and my kid picks the team sports. Honestly, we’ve encouraged her to take it a bit easier with yoga or hiking type stuff, but my kid is after the award her school gives for 12 seasons of a CIF sport. Very few girls get it at her school and she set her sights on it freshman year.


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## MWN (Apr 24, 2018)

Mine plays "fortnite" (a video game) but will likely go out for HS Football in fall as the punter/kicker.  Previously the kid played basketball and football/pop warner.  A few weeks ago he announced his attention to play football.  When asked why he said "I want to go out and hit somebody without getting a red card."  Okay.  Makes sense.  Worse he will get is a yellow flag.


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## Keepermom2 (Apr 25, 2018)

MWN said:


> Mine plays "fortnite" (a video game) but will likely go out for HS Football in fall as the punter/kicker.  Previously the kid played basketball and football/pop warner.  A few weeks ago he announced his attention to play football.  When asked why he said "I want to go out and hit somebody without getting a red card."  Okay.  Makes sense.  Worse he will get is a yellow flag.


LOL...and that is why he is a Keeper.   My daughter too plays video games.  I have asked her about different sports and she has no interest except for Fencing.  LOL


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## pewpew (Apr 25, 2018)

If you count riding dirtbikes/quads in the desert then yes. Or depending where we camp..if you can shoot out there too..she likes to get some range time. I told her when she turned 10 I'd teach her to shoot and drive the UTV. It took her two years before she decided she wanted to drive. She had no desire to drive before that but likes shooting.


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## Grace T. (Apr 25, 2018)

My son does martial arts but has begun to dislike it (even though he's only 2 belts off his black)....he just rather do soccer all the time and resents that I make him do something else and won't let him drop it when he's so close.

Between academics, keeping up with the field stuff at his age (which I consider a separate sport) and year round GK and karate there's not a whole lot of time left....used to ride horses (dodged that bullet), used to do swimming (got bored going back and forth across the pool or swimming when it was cold), used to do some rec basketball (didn't really like it).  The entire family still does 5ks during the holidays (my sons have long ago left me in the dirt).  We occasionally chat about what he might take up when martial arts are over...maybe tennis.

Fortnight is the big thing among kids these days.  Both mine play.  Miss the days before organized sports we had Disneyland passes and could go every week (they were very little then).


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## NorCal (Apr 25, 2018)

My daughter is in 8th grade and at the Jr. High she played 2 years of Basketball (point guard), 2 years of Volleyball (outside hitter) and 1 year of Softball (shortstop).


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## NorCal (Apr 25, 2018)

Still up in the air what she will do next year in HS. I believe its Volleyball in the Fall and either Basketball or Soccer in the Winter (or possibly both at the same time)...we will see.


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## Not_that_Serious (Apr 25, 2018)

my kid will have meltdowns when i take the ps4 controllers and his phone so he cant play fortnite. My son use to train in TKD and BJJ before the club schedule hit - and school he trained at was getting ridiculous with fees, even with one belt off going black. Martial Arts gives kids strong balance - if they focus on doing thing correctly. My kid has no desire to get back into Martial Arts - which bums me out a bit but cant force it. well i could, but that would be draining for me.


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## Mystery Train (Apr 25, 2018)

My DD did lacrosse for two years in middle school and volleyball for her freshman year in HS.  We both had visions of her being a two sport star in HS, but we were quickly disabused of that notion, even though she was a great VB player.  The coaches make it almost impossible to do double sports.  They want 110% commitment, and HS VB overlaps with club soccer, and in the off-season, both HS VB and Soccer coaches had grueling work-out demands, so something had to give.   Side note:  Even though she practices soccer year round, the only time she ever had "overuse" injuries was the year she did VB and soccer.   After years of playing keeper and being essentially injury free, we found out just how valuable recovery time is!


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## Multi Sport (Apr 25, 2018)

No other sports unless you count Futsal and Football at PE. He actually loves playing Football because he says it's easier to catch and diving for the ball comes naturally.


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## 80's Force (Apr 26, 2018)

My Son (05) has been Juggling Travel Ball Baseball and Club Soccer for Several years. It's been Crazy but he Loves Both. The Eye Hand Coordination practiced in Baseball compliments his Keeper Skills and Vice Versa. All of his coaches have been Great with it. I will say though that it's harder to miss a soccer game as the only Keeper on the team than it is to miss a Baseball game with several backups. Our club is good about calling up keepers from within the club.


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## MyDaughtersAKeeper (Apr 26, 2018)

My daughter will tell you she plays three sports: soccer, futsal and arena soccer.  She dabbled with a few others but to little extent.  I could not get her to bit on Krav Maga (even though she had fun at some of the classes).


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## Keeper pops (May 2, 2018)

My 03 DD played  VB & BB for her school when she was in 8th grade last year. Unfortunately, she tore her ACL playing BB. She missed the current 2017/2018 season. She just got medically realsased and getting back with her old Club.


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## gkrent (May 2, 2018)

Mine played basketball until high school and then the club BB coach said she had to decide.  She picked soccer LOL


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## socalkdg (May 2, 2018)

Basketball and Soccer.   For a keeper basketball seems the best sport to cross train with.   She blocked a shot this past weekend that 6 months ago would have been a goal.   Plus my kid wants to play club soccer and High School basketball,  and I worry that shutting her down on other sports might make her hate the sport she is best in.   I did say no to her playing baseball yesterday.   Crazy kids we have.


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## AGK (May 19, 2018)

I was fortunate enough to hear Brad Friedel speak at the NSCAA convention last year. He spoke at length about diversity adding he had scholarship offers in 3 sports. Diversity also includes 1,000 other non athletic activities that lead to a well rounded person. We encourage a well rounded approach.


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## Dargle (May 21, 2018)

AGK said:


> I was fortunate enough to hear Brad Friedel speak at the NSCAA convention last year. He spoke at length about diversity adding he had scholarship offers in 3 sports. Diversity also includes 1,000 other non athletic activities that lead to a well rounded person. We encourage a well rounded approach.


Friedel also grew up in Ohio in the 1980s.  Because of the climate and the underdevelopment of club (what we called "travel" season) soccer, there wasn't year-round soccer even if you wanted it.  You could play indoor soccer with boards during the winter, but not many places were set up for that so most kids had plenty of time at least for winter sports.  Plus, most sports didn't have club or travel, so you could easily play soccer, basketball, baseball with your school teams and never have to travel anywhere for practices.  Soccer in Ohio was early to the travel ball concept precisely because many schools didn't even offer soccer.


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## AGK (May 21, 2018)

Dargle said:


> Friedel also grew up in Ohio in the 1980s.  Because of the climate and the underdevelopment of club (what we called "travel" season) soccer, there wasn't year-round soccer even if you wanted it.  You could play indoor soccer with boards during the winter, but not many places were set up for that so most kids had plenty of time at least for winter sports.  Plus, most sports didn't have club or travel, so you could easily play soccer, basketball, baseball with your school teams and never have to travel anywhere for practices.  Soccer in Ohio was early to the travel ball concept precisely because many schools didn't even offer soccer.


My apologies Dargle but I am not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.


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## Dargle (May 21, 2018)

AGK said:


> My apologies Dargle but I am not sure I understand the point you are trying to make.


Friedel grew up in a time and place where everyone played multiple sports and activities.  It wasn't an active choice.  It simply wasn't possible to do one activity year-round in most sports.  So, while he is surely right that it is great to be well-rounded and it certainly helped him in a variety of ways, his example of getting scholarship offers in three sports is much rarer today even for kids who play multiple sports.  Moreover, it's also not what differentiated him from other goalkeepers who succeeded in his era (not all were as successful as he was, of course, in those other sports, but many played other sports).


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## AGK (May 21, 2018)

Dargle said:


> Friedel grew up in a time and place where everyone played multiple sports and activities.  It wasn't an active choice.  It simply wasn't possible to do one activity year-round in most sports.  So, while he is surely right that it is great to be well-rounded and it certainly helped him in a variety of ways, his example of getting scholarship offers in three sports is much rarer today even for kids who play multiple sports.  Moreover, it's also not what differentiated him from other goalkeepers who succeeded in his era (not all were as successful as he was, of course, in those other sports, but many played other sports).


So are you suggesting that today’s players cannot be active and successful at a high level in multiple sports/activities?


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## Dargle (May 21, 2018)

AGK said:


> So are you suggesting that today’s players cannot be active and successful at a high level in multiple sports/activities?


I was suggesting he was comparing his time/place/era with ours and that's really only plausible if you're saying that GKs then were better than they are today (which I'm not sure he was saying, although you reported the comment so perhaps you have more context).  Today, if you did enough to get scholarships in two non-soccer sports, the chances you would be able to play at a sufficiently high level club/DA etc to also get a scholarship in soccer are not great.  Not impossible, particularly in girls where there are more scholarships available and more sports opening up, but difficult.  Certainly moreso in SoCal where soccer overlaps with a lot of other sports' seasons.  Now, perhaps that's all Friedel meant - that we've gone crazy with year-round training in every sport and everyone would be better off if we backed off a bit.  Which was my point.  There's a major structural/systemic difference from where and when he played and today.


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## Dargle (May 21, 2018)

Dargle said:


> I was suggesting he was comparing his time/place/era with ours and that's really only plausible if you're saying that GKs then were better than they are today (which I'm not sure he was saying, although you reported the comment so perhaps you have more context).  Today, if you did enough to get scholarships in two non-soccer sports, the chances you would be able to play at a sufficiently high level club/DA etc to also get a scholarship in soccer are not great.  Not impossible, particularly in girls where there are more scholarships available and more sports opening up, but difficult.  Certainly moreso in SoCal where soccer overlaps with a lot of other sports' seasons.  Now, perhaps that's all Friedel meant - that we've gone crazy with year-round training in every sport and everyone would be better off if we backed off a bit.  Which was my point.  There's a major structural/systemic difference from where and when he played and today.


I should add that I do know players who have been successful in multiple activities and sports.  We probably could all cite examples (although perhaps not players with offers for D1 scholarships in three different sports).  For example, I know a GK who is also an accomplished pianist.  He's going to have to make a choice about his priorities soon because piano competitions are national/international and he'll need to be on a team with at least one other GK and possibly two others because it's common to have one injured, but that's fine.  He's certainly a great kid and is better off for life having done both.  The benefit of piano, though, is he the schedule outside of competition can fit nicely with soccer.  Not as easy anymore with AAU basketball, travel baseball, club volleyball, serious gymnastics etc.


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## Grace T. (May 21, 2018)

The other thing about goalkeeping is that for the longest time, people said it's better not to jump into goalkeeping too early.  The NSCAA for example recommends that kids don't begin to specialize until age 12.  But given how the game has evolved, and that kids as young as 8 are playing club ball, that's a little difficult to manage.  It would require not playing soccer with goalkeepers until a later age (which always causes rebellions when it is suggested...the push back to the 4 v 4 no keepers was really severe when it was first rolled out..."it's not really soccer") or US Soccer mandating rotations in the position and expressly telling coaches that goalkeepers should not be allowed to do certain things that without specialization might lead to injuries (diving, one v ones, kstops, coming out for the cross).  Right now, you have the situation that kids that are shunted into goal without the proper training are essentially sacrificial lambs, risking injury, bearing blame for potential losses since they don't have the skill to stop certain plays, and losing out on touches in the field (particularly if they are good in the goalkeeping role and the coach is win oriented).  But if you are going to train them, it's really almost a sport entirely different with a different set of skills and you aren't going to get good at it unless either you are a natural or you start really early.  And with kids starting to get their intense field training even earlier, waiting until age 12 puts keepers (who don't naturally get a lot of touches on ball anyway) at a huge development disadvantage (no wonder keepers peak so late into their prime!).  The one thing that the US did very well was develop goalkeepers well....I'm not so sure that's going to be the case in the near future.


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## mulliganmom (May 22, 2018)

Grace T. said:


> The other thing about goalkeeping is that for the longest time, people said it's better not to jump into goalkeeping too early.  The NSCAA for example recommends that kids don't begin to specialize until age 12.  But given how the game has evolved, and that kids as young as 8 are playing club ball, that's a little difficult to manage.  It would require not playing soccer with goalkeepers until a later age (which always causes rebellions when it is suggested...the push back to the 4 v 4 no keepers was really severe when it was first rolled out..."it's not really soccer") or US Soccer mandating rotations in the position and expressly telling coaches that goalkeepers should not be allowed to do certain things that without specialization might lead to injuries (diving, one v ones, kstops, coming out for the cross).  Right now, you have the situation that kids that are shunted into goal without the proper training are essentially sacrificial lambs, risking injury, bearing blame for potential losses since they don't have the skill to stop certain plays, and losing out on touches in the field (particularly if they are good in the goalkeeping role and the coach is win oriented).  But if you are going to train them, it's really almost a sport entirely different with a different set of skills and you aren't going to get good at it unless either you are a natural or you start really early.  And with kids starting to get their intense field training even earlier, waiting until age 12 puts keepers (who don't naturally get a lot of touches on ball anyway) at a huge development disadvantage (no wonder keepers peak so late into their prime!).  The one thing that the US did very well was develop goalkeepers well....I'm not so sure that's going to be the case in the near future.


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## mulliganmom (May 22, 2018)

Interesting point. And yes, specializing is not recommended til they are older, but so often when you have the only kid willing to play in the goal and they like it, they \get boxed into the position at an early age. Our DD loved playing goal, but by age 10.5, even though she was supposed to be given field opportunities, she never got them because, " No one else will let their kids play in the position." Playing outside sports - basketball, swimming, lacrosse, a track team at school - gave her what she missed playing on the field. She even played a season of AYSO three years up and only played the field. At this stage, she has decided to give up the other sports and only focus on soccer and goalkeeping. She is going into 9th grade, and loves playing GK. I don't know if she would be here tho, if not for the exposure to other sports that gave her other skills and some choices.


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## GKKING (May 23, 2018)

mulliganmom said:


> Curious how many of your GKs play other sports. We have always played other sports and it has had a very positive effect, and been supported by the GK coach. Soccer is the only club sport we play, so it is front and center. Getting older certainly makes it hard to fit it other sports, but curious as to how many GKs are playing more than soccer.


My Keeper Kid plays Rec. Basketball and it seems to coordinate well with his goalkeeper stuff.


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## AGK (May 24, 2018)

Dargle said:


> I was suggesting he was comparing his time/place/era with ours and that's really only plausible if you're saying that GKs then were better than they are today (which I'm not sure he was saying, although you reported the comment so perhaps you have more context).  Today, if you did enough to get scholarships in two non-soccer sports, the chances you would be able to play at a sufficiently high level club/DA etc to also get a scholarship in soccer are not great.  Not impossible, particularly in girls where there are more scholarships available and more sports opening up, but difficult.  Certainly moreso in SoCal where soccer overlaps with a lot of other sports' seasons.  Now, perhaps that's all Friedel meant - that we've gone crazy with year-round training in every sport and everyone would be better off if we backed off a bit.  Which was my point.  There's a major structural/systemic difference from where and when he played and today.


My apologies for not responding sooner.  I hear every word you have said Dargle, and you do make some good points.  I'd like to take a step back and look at the subject of this thread which is "Do your GKs play other sports?"  My reason for bringing up Brad Friedel's comments was even someone who played at the highest level appreciates the value of diversity in our kids.  Comparing eras and crazy ear-round training isn't the point.  The point is what are we doing with our kids and specifically to this post, to our GKs in relation to other sports.  I tell all my parents that 99.99999% of the kids I coach will go pro in something other than soccer, but 100% of the kids I coach will grow up and will need to be well rounded.  Sidelines are littered with kids and adults that for one reason or another did not turn pro.  To insinuate that it is the era, or year round training that is forcing parents into that decision in my opinion is wrong.  I have a 6'5" Junior who is an amazing keeper, he is also working on his eagle scout, he is a junior life guard, plays in his HS band and is in the national honors society.  In my personal opinion he is a better keeper because of his diversity and not 100% focused on goal keeping only.  I also have 9 and 10 year olds who don't want to do anything else but play keeper and that is OK too, but if they want to do other things as they get older regardless of how good of a keeper they become, I will encourage the diversity.  Just my two cents.


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## Eagle33 (May 24, 2018)

AGK said:


> My apologies for not responding sooner.  I hear every word you have said Dargle, and you do make some good points.  I'd like to take a step back and look at the subject of this thread which is "Do your GKs play other sports?"  My reason for bringing up Brad Friedel's comments was even someone who played at the highest level appreciates the value of diversity in our kids.  Comparing eras and crazy ear-round training isn't the point.  The point is what are we doing with our kids and specifically to this post, to our GKs in relation to other sports.  I tell all my parents that 99.99999% of the kids I coach will go pro in something other than soccer, but 100% of the kids I coach will grow up and will need to be well rounded.  Sidelines are littered with kids and adults that for one reason or another did not turn pro.  To insinuate that it is the era, or year round training that is forcing parents into that decision in my opinion is wrong.  I have a 6'5" Junior who is an amazing keeper, he is also working on his eagle scout, he is a junior life guard, plays in his HS band and is in the national honors society.  In my personal opinion he is a better keeper because of his diversity and not 100% focused on goal keeping only.  I also have 9 and 10 year olds who don't want to do anything else but play keeper and that is OK too, but if they want to do other things as they get older regardless of how good of a keeper they become, I will encourage the diversity.  Just my two cents.


In some cases, like my son's, US Soccer is the one who preventing him playing other sports.


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## Keeper_Mom (May 24, 2018)

My daughter plays basketball (with her soccer girls, they formed an awesome rec team) and used to swim competitively. I know she would love to be back in the pool, but the schedules conflict terribly.


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## Dargle (May 24, 2018)

AGK said:


> My apologies for not responding sooner.  I hear every word you have said Dargle, and you do make some good points.  I'd like to take a step back and look at the subject of this thread which is "Do your GKs play other sports?"  My reason for bringing up Brad Friedel's comments was even someone who played at the highest level appreciates the value of diversity in our kids.  Comparing eras and crazy ear-round training isn't the point.  The point is what are we doing with our kids and specifically to this post, to our GKs in relation to other sports.  I tell all my parents that 99.99999% of the kids I coach will go pro in something other than soccer, but 100% of the kids I coach will grow up and will need to be well rounded.  Sidelines are littered with kids and adults that for one reason or another did not turn pro.  To insinuate that it is the era, or year round training that is forcing parents into that decision in my opinion is wrong.  I have a 6'5" Junior who is an amazing keeper, he is also working on his eagle scout, he is a junior life guard, plays in his HS band and is in the national honors society.  In my personal opinion he is a better keeper because of his diversity and not 100% focused on goal keeping only.  I also have 9 and 10 year olds who don't want to do anything else but play keeper and that is OK too, but if they want to do other things as they get older regardless of how good of a keeper they become, I will encourage the diversity.  Just my two cents.


I guess I would put getting good grades (e.g., NHS) and doing other things (Friedel's non-athletic activities point) and playing other sports (Friedel's comment about getting scholarship offers in three sports) in different categories.  I was generally responding to the latter.  I don't know anyone who is against the former, although year-round sports can interfere even if you do multiple sports.  This thread has mostly been focused on the latter point.


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## AGK (May 24, 2018)

Eagle33 said:


> In some cases, like my son's, US Soccer is the one who preventing him playing other sports.


Understood Eagle33 but isn't that a family decision?  I'm assuming your keeper is having an amazing experience and you are all comfortable with the decision vs. feeling like something is missing.


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## Eagle33 (May 25, 2018)

AGK said:


> Understood Eagle33 but isn't that a family decision?  I'm assuming your keeper is having an amazing experience and you are all comfortable with the decision vs. feeling like something is missing.


I don't think taking an option to play HS sports away from kids is a good idea.


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