Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 27, 1993 TAG: 9305270348
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
If you wanted to play in a youth soccer league, you joined the newborn Roanoke Star program.
And you wore green socks.
Your teammate might be wearing a button-down shirt and cutoff jeans, hardly appropriate dress for aspiring Peles.
And, egregiously, white cleats. "Totally uncool," declared Bobby Warnick, who survived those days.
Just as bad, there were those thick-padded, combination sock-shinguard things. "I remember looking at people and saying, `Oh, Lord, I would never wear those,' " said Chanda Ingram.
And you probably practiced at, say, Highland Park. "Terrible field," opined Tait Duus. Well, who needs a mowed field, goal and a net, anyway?
Those three and three others - Bradley Blum, William Watkins and Carrie Moore - somehow prospered in those early days. All joined the Roanoke Star program when teams first were formed for their respective genders - guys in '86, girls three years later.
The sextet worries no more about uniforms or practice fields, however, especially after being selected as U.S. Olympic Development Team members in their respective age groups. That's the most Roanoke players to qualify in one year, said Roanoke Star Director Danny Beamer.
They will play in a Border Cup tournament featuring teams from Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Tennessee, then play in the U.S. Olympic Development subregionals July 10-13 at Rider College in New Jersey.
From that, 25 players are picked to attend a regional camp at Penn State at the end of July, from which 16 are chosen to make up one of four regional teams in the United States. Twenty-five players from those four teams will be picked for a national team in each age group - 16 as regulars, nine as alternates. The under-18 players have a chance to make the U.S. Olympic team.
All that, not to mention a crisp, neat, blue-and-white uniform.
Warnick, Ingram, Duus, Blum, Watkins and Moore will wear their Roanoke Star uniforms this weekend in the 125-team Crestar Festival Soccer Tournament. About 2,000 players will hit town to play 206 games on 17 fields. The tournament is smaller than last year's 178-team affair and, Beamer says, more manageable.
Management skills have helped the six players leave behind their sartorially inferior teammates of years ago. All had to give up something they liked - baseball, basketball, free weekends, whatever - to get serious with soccer. Then they started to get better, as did the Roanoke Star program.
"We played all fall [the first year]; our first goal was scored in December," said Moore, who attends Patrick Henry and made the under-16 development team.
"It started to get pretty sad," added Cave Spring's Ingram, who made the under-18 development team.
Blum's memories are vivid, too.
"Our first team, [there was] some little girl who used to just school us all," said the 16-year-old North Cross student who made the under-16 development team.
Beamer, who coached most of them back then, remembers some odd moments.
"Lots of times, they'd be standing there looking at me with puzzled expressions," Beamer said. "And they had never traveled much. They were so excited, they'd be jumping in a pool and swimming before a game, which is a no-no."
More coaching, more practice, a stronger work ethic and simple passing of time rescued them. Players from soccer hotbeds Northern Virginia and Richmond not only had been practicing longer and more seriously, their teams had played together longer.
Warnick, a Cave Spring student who made the under-18 team, said Roanoke-area players stopped being doormats as individual skills improved and as the players were exposed to more and more outside competition.
"When we first started playing teams from Richmond, we'd always get spanked," said Cave Spring's Duus, who made the under-15 team. "Now we're playing even-up with them. The coaching has a lot to do with it. [And] people get more committed as they get older."
Beamer says a young, committed soccer player is an easier find now, because of the availability of college scholarships and the growing awareness about American players earning six-figure salaries to play in Europe.
At the moment, making the Olympic development team is enough reward.
"It helps your game," said the 15-year-old Watkins, a two-time Olympic development team member from North Cross who made the under-15 development team. "You have it in your head that you made the team, and realize you have some capabilities you don't really know about."
Duus, who is 15, said it's "one step closer to the higher level."
Warnick agrees.
"I'm a senior. I felt it was almost imperative for me to make the team if I wanted to continue playing soccer," said the 17-year-old, who reported increased contact from college coaches after he was named. "It was amazing. . . . It didn't make me a better player just by playing in [the tryouts]."
"I'm just looking forward to playing with these really good players," Blum said. "It'll be a good experience."
Same with the 15-year-old Moore.
"It's just great for me as a player to be able to play with great players from all over the state that I play against," she said.
Ingram said she was surprised to make the team, but her play apparently impressed her teammates-to-be.
"The Northern Virginia girls would be like, `Where are you from in Northern Virginia? Roanoke? Where?' " said Ingram, 17. "I know how competitive they were compared to what the competition is here."
To be sure, Roanoke still suffers from a soccer inferiority complex. Even if a Roanoke-area team beats one from Richmond or a similar soccer hotbed, "They still think they're better than us," Warnick said.
It's gaining some credibility, however, in part because of these six players. The Crestar tournament helps them gain exposure. Their play will have to do the rest.
In Roanoke, Ingram said, "There are players who can play soccer."
by CNB