Officer-in-training puts soccer skills to use at academy

FREDERICK -- When Anthony McPeak graduates from the Frederick Police Department's academy in June, criminals will have at least two things to worry about -- McPeak's fast on his feet and he has a swift kick.

McPeak, 32, honed those skills while playing professional soccer for 10 years in the U.S. and abroad.

A striker, McPeak scored more than 200 goals for the Baltimore Blast, the Philadelphia Kixx and teams in Hong Kong, England and his native Scotland. Now retired, he's taken up coaching duties for the Damascus Soccer Club in Montgomery County and the Freestate Soccer Club in Bowie.

McPeak's cardiovascular condition puts him at the head of the class in running exercises, said Sgt. Clark Pennington, a member of the training staff at the police academy on Plant Road.

The fastest of the 13 recruits, McPeak recently ran a mile and a half in nine minutes and 34 seconds, Pennington said.

"That's slow for me," said McPeak, the hint of an apology sneaking through an accent that ties him to Glasgow, Scotland. "I'm not training the way I'm used to." His best time for that distance is eight minutes, 40 seconds.

McPeak's soccer background has benefited him beyond the physical fitness aspect of the academy.

"Like soccer, law enforcement involves a huge amount of teamwork," he said. "That's a big part of the job. Working together, you have to know you can rely on the other officers."

Another past job has helped him as he trains for a criminal justice career -- two years in the claims department of an insurance company in the mid-1990s.

That job included investigative work and plenty of report writing, a task police officers tackle regularly. "They made it very clear to us in the academy that if you don't like report writing, police work probably isn't for you," he said.

Police work also requires officers to be level-headed and good at sizing up situations as they encounter people who are often besieged by crisis.

McPeak faced a crisis of his own when his first wife died of a rare form of liver cancer in 1999.

Becoming a widower at 25 was a grueling experience, but one that was "character-building," he said. It instilled in him a greater empathy for others.

He found love a second time and lives in Walkersville with his wife, Rebecca, his stepdaughter, Anisa, 7, and their son, Vincent, 2.

The aspect of police work McPeak most looks forward to is the element of surprise, never knowing what each day will bring.

"It certainly won't be boring," he said. "You have to be constantly prepared for the unknown. You could be called to do anything at any time."

One thing's for sure though, his classmates tease the 6-foot, 170-pound athlete they've nicknamed "William Wallace," for the Scottish patriot who inspired the movie, "Braveheart."

"They say when there's a foot chase in the city, I'll be doing the chasing," McPeak said.