Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 26, 1993 TAG: 9302260210
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-10 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BRIAN DeVIDO STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FOR A NO-PRACTICE SOCCER TEAM, THESE GUYS ARE BIG SCORERS
Jim Allen seems to have found the right ingredients for putting together a successful under-19 men's soccer team.First, find a group of college freshmen who have the skills but not the time nor the opportunity to play college soccer.
Then call the coaches of a couple of local colleges and find out the names of some potentially good players who aren't on the varsity.
Then call the players and assemble a team over the phone.
Finally, make sure they never practice.
Unorthodox recipe for success? So far, its working.
Allen's New River Rangers are 14-0-1 in indoor play this year. Five of the team members are freshmen at Radford and the other five are freshmen at Virginia Tech. They've been dominant, scoring a total of 54 goals and surrendering seven.
The way the team was put together may be odd, but there's nothing crazy about the way the Rangers have been playing this year.
Indoor soccer is a faster-paced and higher-scoring game than the outdoor version. Yet in the Rangers' last 13 games, they've given up a grand total of three goals.
One of the main reasons for their strong defense is goalie Alex Hanuska, a freshman enrolled in mechanical engineering at Tech. He played high school soccer for five years in Karlsruh, Germany, and now lives in Charlotte, N.C.
The 6-2, 195-pound Hanuska made Tech's junior varsity soccer team, but didn't have the time to practice every day.
"There's a lot of stress in college," he said. "The first thing I'm worrying about is getting my grades up."
By the way, there's no problem with soccer taking up too much time for the Rangers.
"We tried to get together on Tuesdays and Thursdays a couple of times, but with everybody having schedules, it got to be ridiculous," Allen said.
He figured if the team couldn't practice, it could at least play in tournaments. So far, it has entered three indoor tournaments, all on weekends. The Rangers went 2-0-1 in a Roanoke tournament in January, then won tournaments at Virginia Military Institute and Beckley, W.Va. They went 7-0 in the VMI tournament, beating freshman teams from VMI, Fork Union Military Academy and Emory & Henry.
In the Beckley tournament last weekend, the Rangers outscored their opponents 13-0 while going 5-0.
Jeremy Allen, the coach's son, was second-team all state for Group AA state runner-up Blacksburg High last year. A freshman at Radford University, he's among the Rangers' leading scorers.
Jim Allen, who has coached high school and select teams for 13 years, said it's the talent of the players that makes up for the lack of practice.
"About everyone on our team was all-state in high school," he said. "Since we have no commitment to practice at all, we just wing it on skills.
This year's Rangers actually started in the fall, when Allen was looking for some new players for an outdoor squad. He called Tech coach Jerry Cheynet and Radford University coach Don Staley in hopes of tracking down some good players not on the college teams.
"It was a fluke how I got some of these players," Allen said. "Some told me they were too old, but they'd just give me names of their friends."
The outdoor season ended in November. The Rangers went 8-2. The squad was cut from 18 to 10 for the indoor season.
The team plays another tournament at Concord, W.Va., this weekend. After that, it won't play again until after spring break.
As the Rangers would tell you, there is more to life than soccer.