Sixteen years later, the Cary resident is the captain of the team, which has qualified for the 2012 Paralympics in London. The 32-year-old midfielder also played in Atlanta in 1996 and Athens in 2004. With 75 goals in 95 appearances, he may be the most distinguished Paralympic soccer player the U.S. has ever produced.

And he's done it all while working two jobs, at Home Depot and for the town of Cary at WakeMed Soccer Park, that allow him to leave for weeks at a time, as he did this summer to compete in the CPISRA World Championships in the Netherlands.

McKinney scored twice in a 3-2 win over Ireland that clinched a spot in the top eight and an accompanying berth in London next summer. The U.S. finished 3-3 at the tournament and seventh overall.

"Getting to play soccer, kind of as a career, and competing in the Paralympics has been the best part," McKinney said. "I've gotten to do something I love for this long."

McKinney grew up in Hilton Head, S.C., and played soccer at Concord University in West Virginia. He was only 16 when he made his U.S. debut, and a year later scored five goals at the 1996 Paralympics. He moved to the Triangle in 2004 when he joined Home Depot's now-defunct sponsorship program for Olympic athletes.

Paralympic soccer is played 7-on-7, with a smaller field, no offside calls and underhand throw-ins. The majority of players have cerebral palsy, while others have suffered traumatic brain injuries or strokes, with varying levels of disability.

McKinney's right hand is clenched into a fist and the mobility of his right ankle is restricted, limiting his ability to move laterally and change direction. Yet he was able to compete at the Division II level, and dominate at the Paralympic level.

It's a varied group: One member of the player pool won NBC's "Last Comic Standing," while another has a PhD in applied math. Tyler Hansbrough's younger brother Greg, who had a brain tumor as a child, was invited to training camp two years ago.

But recruiting can be difficult. Some players with mild forms of cerebral palsy are eligible to play but choose to keep it private from all but their family and friends, while others become discouraged and stop playing soccer before they're old enough to play for the national team.

McKinney embraced the program even before U.S. Soccer took over the team, back when players paid their own way to training camps and overseas tournaments.

"You're looking at a youngster who really sacrificed an awful lot to represent his country on a U.S. national team and also in a program where at the end of the day we don't get a lot of (attention)," U.S. coach Jay Hoffman said. "And yet he's always been one of those people who said, 'This is something I really want to do.' "

McKinney doesn't know how much longer that will be.

At some point he wants to go back and get the degree he never finished after the Home Depot sponsorship allowed him to concentrate on his Paralympic career.

"I'm 32 right now," McKinney said. "If the coaches ask me, I could play a couple more years. I could potentially play five more years if I stay in shape. But I'm getting old in soccer years, actually. If we do really well in London, that might be the end for me."

At this point, the passage of time may be the only thing that can keep McKinney from playing the game he loves.