THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604140203
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Hey. We pounded those pesky Baltimore Bays 3-1 on Saturday. We want the Xoggz!
The preceding was your quick-and-dirty primer to this impossibly named soccer league in which the Hampton Roads Mariners dwell - the United Systems of Independent Soccer Leagues. This is the far-flung circuit of 100-plus teams with three men's leagues, one women's league and the wildest nicknames in sports captivity.
Sadly, we'll not be visited this season by the Ohio Xoggz, the Bellingham Orcas, the Miami Tango, the Kalamazoo Kingdom, the South Florida Future, the Michigan Madness, the Oklahoma City Slickers . . . need I continue?
The Bays, though, they're toast. And so the Mariners are 1-0 - last week's loss to Charleston was an exhibition, which the club failed to mention till after the fact - on their way to what they insist are big and bold and beautiful soccer things.
``We've got the people, the marketing, the team this year. The stadium will complete it,'' a beaming Mark Garcea, the Mariners co-owner, said after the game, referring to the 7,500-seat Lake Ridge stadium he says the Virginia Beach City Council has told him it will OK. ``Then you'll see 5,000 to 7,000 to a game. We're very optimistic.''
Is Garcea dreaming? Sure. He thinks he can put a Major Soccer League team in that Lake Ridge stadium within five years.
But is he a dreamer whose deck is a few short of 52? Too early to tell. You wouldn't think Saturday's paid crowd of 2,231 fans at First Colonial High School - a middling high school football turnout - on a warm evening for the home debut would have them sipping bubbly in the Mariners office, but Garcea was positively bonkers over the tally.
``To look up into the stands and see all the kids and families was great,'' Garcea said. ``That's what everybody's always talking about, getting out and doing family things.''
There was face-painting and balloon animals, out back beside the portable classrooms. There was the required scraggly mascot, some unfortunate character with a soccer ball for a head who sort of stood around a lot.
There was a kick-the-ball-through-the-hole carnival game, a quarter a try, behind the stands. There were food and drinks (no beer), $12 T-shirts, $20 sweatshirts and annoying rock music that blasted the people in the bleachers and on the field for minutes at a time.
There were people who kept shouting things like ``nice ball'' and ``yellow card,'' and most of the men, women and children gathered seemed to know and appreciate everything that was going on.
Shawn McDonald, the Mariners coach and general manager, didn't appreciate everything. The music, for instance. But in the battle for mass appeal, McDonald understands playing the purist angle falls a distance second to playing The Ramones.
``There isn't a lot of yelling instructions that you do in soccer, but when I did they couldn't hear me,'' McDonald said. He shrugged. ``But I definitely want to keep the music. We need to make it entertaining. We'll find the right balance with the music and all the extra things.''
Playing entertaining soccer is fairly essential, too, McDonald said. And so he's gathered a bunch of aggressive players who he said need to be reminded often that defense is part of the game.
``These players are talented. They want to play,'' said McDonald, who used to coach in college, where defense is often a first priority. ``I don't want to go back to playing only defense, where you try to counter two or three times. Playing this way is not only exciting for me personally but also for the people in the stands.
The ever-present question, though, is whether enough sports fans in South Hampton Roads really care? The Mariners have 15 more games at First Colonial this season to get a good read.
``I think we can get two sellouts (5,000),'' marketing director Ed Nagourney said. ``We can do it for the U.S. under-23 team (April 27). And another game later on. We're giving away a boat.'' by CNB