Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990 TAG: 9005230086
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN SMALLWOOD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But what if the valley's best players - such as Patrick Henry's Lang Wedemyer and Michael Eddy, North Cross' Dustin Fonder and Joe Basile and Cave Spring's Ryan Manetta and Bobby Ashworth - all played for the same team?.
How good would that squad be? Could it challenge teams from Northern Virginia and Tidewater for a state title? Danny Beamer, for one, has no doubt about the answer.
"It would do very well," he said. "I think it could go to the state final for sure, no question in my mind."
Beamer should know. He is the executive director of Roanoke Valley Youth Soccer Club Inc. He has seen firsthand what such a team is capable of doing. He has coached it for the past four years.
When the Crestar Festival Soccer Tournament kicks off this weekend, the Roanoke Star White under-19 team will be seeking its third title in the three-year history of the event. The team, made up primarily of players born in 1972, features many of the top players in Timesland.
In an area where youth soccer is just beginning to reach the level of other metropolitan areas, the class of '72 has been a cut above.
Over the past three years, Star White has played in 17 tournaments from Tampa, Fla., to Toronto, winning eight and making the final 11 times. The team was ranked third in the state among under-19 traveling squads in 1989.
"That '72 group was blessed with some tremendous athletes," said Beamer. "I think they've been the pacesetters as far as club [teams in Roanoke]. They've been successful and have kind of paved the way for the other teams.."
Roanoke's first youth soccer leagues sprang up in 1972. Not so coincidentally, that was just after Richard Cook moved to the valley from Rochester, N.Y., and started the first high school program at North Cross, where he still coaches.
Soccer, though, didn't catch on in Roanoke the way it had in other parts of the country. There were few outstanding players or experienced coaches. Some of the local leagues put together traveling squads made up of top players to compete on a regional and state basis, but those teams were sporadic and never fared well.
The Roanoke Valley Youth Soccer Club came about "because people had a desire to have a place for soccer players with the interest and skill to play together and develop on a travel-team level," said Mark Feldman, the club's president.
The club was formed in 1984 and was chartered as a non-profit organization in 1985. It sponsors more than 20 teams, for boys and girls, in age groups from under-10 to under-19.
Beamer, 26, was brought on as executive director in 1985. A soccer enthusiast who started the Greensboro (N.C.) Buccaneers club team when he was 15, he was pursuing his undergraduate degree and working as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech when he was hired.
"We felt it would be good to get somebody from the outside to direct the program," said Steve Bodley, the club's first president and the man who hired Beamer. "We had played in some tournaments in Greensboro and knew Danny from there. We wanted an unbiased third party to come in here and run things."
Beamer also took over as coach of the 1972 team.
"I went to the first training session, and it was almost a nightmare coming from Greensboro - great athletes but hardly any soccer knowledge about them," Beamer said.
He set strict guidelines for his players. They had to be at practice on time. They had to keep up their grades in school. The ones who accepted the rules stayed. The ones who couldn't left.
"It really only took one season," he said. "That's a little strange because I got these kids when they were 13 and 14 and usually they're pretty set in their ways. But they found out they were going to play it my way or not at all.
The results began to show almost immediately as the team worked its way up the state ladder. This year, five players - Basile, Wedemyer, Manetta, J.D. Ouioco and Dee Dalton have made the Virginia 18 1/2 (years) Olympic Development Team, which also is coached by Beamer. Virtually every player on the Star White team will play collegiate soccer at some level next year.
Beamer has put together a profile packet on the team that features a biography on every player. He sends them to college coaches, along with the team's schedule.
"The easier you make it for the coaches, the more likely they are to recruit your kids," he said. "That's what we're trying to do. We want to get kids scholarships. We want to train the players, give them a higher level of competition to make them the best soccer players they can become."
This will be the last Crestar Tournament for the under-19 team. Twelve teams are registered in that division, with the top competition expected to come from teams from Charlotte, N.C.; Raleigh, N.C.; and Fairfax.
"It'll be a tough division to win again," Beamer said. "This is the last one [for this group of players], so it's a special one. [Our players'] desire to win is unbelievable. They hate too lose almost as much as I do."
by CNB