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Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Daniel Lee's artistic skills will be in the hands of San Jose Earthquake fans this season.
Earthquake tickets feature young local artist's work
By Sam Scott
A piece of Sunnyvale-produced imagination will accompany soccer fans to the June 24 San Jose Earthquakes' match.
Daniel Lee, a third-grader at Vargas Elementary and Sunnyvale resident, designed the image featured on the tickets for the June Earthquakes/ Chicago Fire matchup.
"It's a soccer ball cracking the earth," Lee explains, an appropriate choice given the new name of the former San Jose Clash.
Lee's was one of 16 designs chosen for the Earthquakes season ticket illustrations. Lee joined other contest winners on Spartan Stadium's field at half-time during the team's April 1 home opener against the MetroStars. The game featured the local debut of German über-soccer player Lothar Mattaeus and Iranian star Khodadad Azizi. In addition to the thrill of illustrating thousands of tickets, Lee received a framed copy of his work and four tickets to the game.
Kiana Ledward, the Earthquakes' community outreach manager, said the young artists' designs have been a hit with season ticket holders.
"Everybody is pleased to see drawings done by kids who love soccer and who are in the community," she said.
Lee's success was a family affair. His dad, Chan, told him about the contest only days before the deadline. His mother, Kiah, picked out the best of his five designs. Lee's father, fearing it was too late to mail the drawing, jumped in the car and drove it to the Earthquakes' office.
Kiah Lee said Daniel had a surplus of ideas. He draws constantly, sometimes more than 50 drawings a day. The family encourages the talent, bringing in paper from office recycling bins. Lee's parents think it's good to foster Daniel's developing imagination, but they've had to put limits on what gets posted in the house.
"I say 'No, no, I can not keep anymore'," Kiah said.
Others are a little more eager to display Lee's work. Last year, his poster hung among the winners of the Sunnyvale Public Safety's Fire Safety Poster contest.
However, Lee said, winning the Earthquakes' contest was more fun, particularly in the prize category. "The prizes for the Fire Safety contest were fire alarms and stuff," he said.
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
