[2] Between his junior and senior years of high school he joined 14 other Bucks County, Pennsylvania youth players on tour in France and West Germany in 1977.
[3] In 1978, the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League selected Maurer in the third round of the NASL draft, a few picks after future teammates Perry Van der Beck and Sandje Ivanchukov.
[1][4] Rowdies head coach Gordon Jago sent him to train with the German 2nd Division side, Rot-Weiss Essen, as well as with English clubs Crystal Palace, Millwell and Dullwhich Hamlet.
[5] Unlike Van der Beck and Ivanchukov, Maurer saw very limited action in Tampa, appearing only in indoor matches and club friendlies between 1978 and 1980.
Years later he was recruited to coach by a former Tampa Bay teammate, Guy Newman, who was at the time the director of the Del Mar Carmel Valley Sharks soccer club in California.