Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 15, 1993 TAG: 9307150078
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The boys' under-15 Roanoke Star White team players will give towels to their hosts when the players reach Essen, but this could be taken as a snub.
Towels in Germany, says Star director Danny Beamer, are like small squares of sandpaper, so the Star team brings a creature comfort straight from America. Well, by way of Brazil, where a company called Santista Textiles smashes a 26-by-50-inch beach towel into a package the size and feel of two shrink-wrapped hockey pucks. Soak it in water for 30 seconds, tumble dry, and you've got a towel.
It's also something like being invited to dinner and bringing your own food. History, however, suggests the Germans won't feel hurt. Last year, Beamer said, his team took over T-shirts that were worn "every single day."
The towels, of course, could be used to cover the topless beachgoers this team will see during part of their 18-day, 10-game European journey that begins Friday.
(Morality alert: Nine parents are traveling on this trip, and none of the 15 kids, nor their hormones, are allowed out alone.)
Not even to the notorious red light district in Amsterdam, a tour stop in the Netherlands.
"It was pretty wild," said Tait Duus, who went last year.
That's about as clinical as a 15-year-old can manage about such a subject.
"There was one little village, all it was was prostitutes." Duus said. "We didn't go in there."
Shoot. No slides, I guess.
Although they can't be accused of not trying.
"One guy on our team went up to a [topless] girl and asked if he could get a picture next to her," Duus said. "You don't want to do that."
(The girl rolled over.)
Some of the Roanoke Star players - the ones who haven't been overseas - talk about playing well, having a winning record, getting great soccer experience.
Yeah, right. Beamer said the European competition is good - his team will play in the 680-team Dana Cup in Hjorring, Denmark, and also will play in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. But the experience is something else, and there's no indication anyone other than Beamer and second-timers Duus and William Watkins know what's about to happen to them.
Goalkeeper Michael Creasey and striker Donnie Smith never have flown, much less been out of the country. Here's what's on their minds:
"I think I can handle [flying], as long as it doesn't kill me," Creasey said. "I'm thinking more about playing. It's where soccer started."
True. But when you're worried about spreading pure lard on your morning toast under the assumption it's butter, the finer points of soccer may blur as you gag.
"I'm going for the educational experience, but I'm going to win," Smith said.
Good enough. But when you're sitting on the toilet in your host family's house warily watching the hallway for innocent passersby - some of the bathrooms have no doors - getting the game-winning goal may seem frivolous.
Smith, however, has things in perspective. He's ready.
"Half of 'em don't speak English," he said. "It will be odd."
Yes. Odd that, in a country where English isn't the native language, only half the people don't speak it.
At least the U.S. players have one of their own, Duus, to play the wise old man. There are so many things to pass on, so many traveler's tidbits. Some are mundane, like bringing turf shoes for those fields of clay that resemble parking lots. Others are more vital.
"You had to flush the toilet, and there are so many different ways," Duus said. "Sometimes it's a light switch on the wall. We found it eventually."
There was the breakfast-lunch-dinner of salami in Germany, and the oasis of cornflakes for breakfast in Denmark. The time in Germany Duus had to ask for cheese on his pepperoni pizza, which turned out to be a salami pizza. The time the jet-lagged players nearly fell asleep sitting in chairs with their welcome-to-Germany meal before them.
Duus liked touring old musty castles and dungeons, thought the mayor of Essen's official welcome was OK but kind of boring and really liked the Dana Cup, played on top-quality fields against good competition.
But, as he knows, more than soccer is going on here. Approach food warily. Raid the sporting goods stores in Copenhagen. Don't expect a shower curtain. Watch out for barreling cyclists on the streets. Go to the beach, and bring your darting eyes.
"No," Duus said, asked if his parents went on the trip. He paused.
"Thank God."
by CNB