Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 6, 1995 TAG: 9507060106
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Morse, 15, is a member of the Roanoke Star Under-15 White team. He is one of 15 players and 10 adults who will fly to London on Saturdayfor the first leg of a 24-day trip to Austria, Germany and Denmark.
For the fifth year in a row, the Roanoke Valley Youth Soccer Club is sending a team to Europe for the Dana Cup tournament, an invitational meet which last year drew 800 teams from 47 countries. While they are there, the Star will also participate in the Austria Cup, which will include 120 teams from 25 countries.
Although the club fields 25 teams - serving 425 youngsters from all over the Roanoke Valley - so far, only the U15 White team has ever traveled such a distance for a tournament.
Part of the reason the team is going is its winning record - it just missed placing in the top four in this year's state tournament. But whether a Star team travels depends most upon the motivation and determination of the members, said the club's executive director, Danny Beamer.
Morse and his teammates have spent the past year raising money for the trip, which costs $2,000 per person.
They hosted tournaments, cleaned the fields, hauled trash, sold wrapping paper and passed out advertisements for Pizza Hut, McDonald's and Hardee's. When they were through, they had enough money to pay half of each player's expenses.
The team members work just as hard on their playing, too. They often get together informally between practices to work on their technique, said Will Krause, 15, who also is going on the trip.
For most of the members, soccer is a year-round activity, Krause explained, with games moving indoors during the winter.
All of the members play on their high school teams, and although Paul Wallace, also 15, admitted to playing a little golf now and then, most of them have few other outside activities.
``I focus on soccer,'' Krause said.
``Soccer is my life,'' Morse said.
Beamer, who has accompanied the teams in previous years, and the boys' parents have been preparing them for the trip by discussing cultural differences and by offering maps and brochures of the sights they will see. Wallace has actually read them. He and Krause are thinking about keeping journals of their trip that they can use to earn class credits next year.
The team will spend a few nights in hotels, but most of their time will be spent bunking together in school classrooms near tournament sites. They also will spend two nights with volunteer host families in Germany, for a taste of what life in another country is really like.
Beamer has explained about the lack of air-conditioning and the makeshift showers they'll find in most places, but he's not too worried about how the change in food will affect his players.
``Most of them will eat just about anything,'' he said.
His players' manners should be just fine, too.
``If we don't behave, we have to get up and run laps,'' Krause explained.
The parents are glad that the trip is not just about soccer, Beamer said, but will also give their children a chance to visit attractions such as the Alps, and the cities of Amsterdam, Brussels and Munich. They also will get to watch a professional game.
In the past, many team members have formed friendships with host families and players from other countries that have lasted years, Beamer said.
Of course, the United States is a relative newcomer to soccer, which is the most popular sport in the rest of the world. Most of the Roanoke Star players and coaches have not had the lifetime of training that some of the other teams have had, but Morse, Krause and Wallace aren't too worried.
Last year's team won the B-Cup final, and the team before that got into the quarter-finals for the A-Cup.
Although the other teams may have an advantage in technique, Beamer explained, ``they're not nearly as organized as we are.''
The toughest teams in the tournament are the government-funded Nigerian and Russian squads, but the Star's first game is against a powerful Greek team.
``Their club is really good,'' Beamer said.
Winning ``all depends on how we play,'' Morse said.
``We have to go into the game with a positive attitude,'' Krause added.
by CNB