Mike Lapper

Lapper played youth soccer in the North Huntington Beach Untouchables youth club. He graduated from Marina High in Huntington Beach. Lapper played collegiate soccer at UCLA from 1988 to 1991. While a Bruin, Lapper won the 1990 National Championship, earning first team All American honors. While in college, Lapper also played with the local Los Angeles Heat of the Western Soccer League in 1988 and 1989. He was a WSL First Team All-Star in 1989.

Lapper began his professional career in 1994 with German Second Division club VfL Wolfsburg in Germany (1994–95). On a side note, he scored in his debut game with that team. He continued to start for Wolfsburg until coach Eckhard Krautzun, who had sought Lapper's services, was fired by team management. Lapper soon found himself in the position of so many American players in Europe during those years. The new manager, Gerd Roggensack, had no interest in American soccer players and Lapper found himself unable to even make the substitute list. At the time that Krautzun was fired, Wolfsburg stood at the top of the German Second Division. By the end of the season, it had slipped to fourth and failed to win promotion to the First Division. Lapper requested a transfer and in 1995, the team sent him to British Second Division club Southend United for £100,000. At the time, Southend was pushing for promotion to the Premiership, but when it actually faced demotion to the second division in 1997, Lapper left Southend to sign with Major League Soccer (MLS). However, he did have a final stint within English football, when Halifax Town signed him on a rolling contract in late 1999. His time at the club proved unsuccessful and he soon returned to the U.S.

When Lapper signed with MLS, the league allocated him in June 1997 to the Columbus Crew. While with that team, he played 110 games, starting 99, until his retirement in 2002. Additionally, he scored five goals and assisted on 10 more.