Lucky Mkosana fondly remembers Kimball Union, Dartmouth roots

Lucky Mkosana and the Tampa Bay Rowdies face Ottawa Fury FC at Al Lang Stadium. (Photo by Matt May/Tampa Bay Rowdies)

As the phone lights up Wednesday afternoon, the ‘802’ area code comes a bit as a surprise. But it’s one of those things that Lucky Mkosana, a former striker in prep school at Kimball Union and college at Dartmouth, has never got around to changing.

“It’s been like that for as long as I can remember,” Mkosana said with a laugh. “Never really had time to change it.”

Mkosana, 31, is from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and in his eighth year as a professional soccer player. He’s on his fifth different team, the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the USL Championship, outlasting the fall of the NASL with the New York Cosmos and a brief stint in Finland with IFK Mariehamn.