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Just For Kicks

By Al Chase

Thursday, June 8, 2000

UH women to
kick off at Waipio

THE construction work at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Complex is on target for the Aug. 25 soft opening.

That's when the University of Hawaii Wahine open their season against Boise State in the Outrigger Hotels & Resorts Invitational.

Manny Menendez, executive director of the City's Office of Economic Development, said, "Not all 19 fields will be ready, but the stadium field will be ready."

Menendez made the comment yesterday at a pre-proposal meeting for those individuals and organizations who had responded to the City's request for proposals to manage and operate the complex.

The City plans to award a management contract for a five-year period with the option of extending the contract for up to two five-year periods to the successful proposer.

The deadline to submit proposals is July 11. The seven-member evaluation panel will complete its review of the proposals by July 25.

Qualified proposers will be notified by Aug. 1 and, if necessary, best and final offers are due Aug. 30. The target date for selecting a proposal is Sept. 15.

Proposals submitted will be evaluated on the responses to the following criteria.

Experience, qualifications, financial capability and resources in management, operations, maintenance and promotion of a similar type of facilities or enterprise as the Complex.

Management, operations and business plan to operate and maintain the complex.

Marketing plan to promote the Complex to supporters and users and support from private industry, international and national soccer federations and the local community.

Community use and benefits plan, which describes (1) availability of the Complex for the community; (2) priority to be given to the community; (3) user fee assessments, and (4) benefits to the community.

Financial contribution to be annually provided to, or required from the City to operate, maintain and improve the Complex, during the term of the contract.

Each of the five criteria is weighted (20 percent) the same.

The grand opening is scheduled for Sept. 2. The facility will be blessed and Menendez envisions a soccerfest that day with lots of kids involved.

"We will have meetings with the soccer community soon to find out how they want to do it," Menendez said. "It's better they tell us rather than government telling them."

It is estimated that 20,000 Oahu residents, including 16,000 registered members of the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) and 3,000 members of the Hawaii Youth Soccer Organization (HYSA), include soccer in their recreational mix. Local and national statistics suggest interest in the sport grows at about 5 percent annually.

David Vanole has been hired as goalkeeper coach for the U.S. women's national team.

He was the No. 3 goalkeeper for the U.S. men's team in the 1990 World Cup.

Tony DiCicco was women's goalkeeper coach from 1990-94 and kept that responsibility when he was head coach from 1994 to 1999.

Vanole has been the UCLA men's and women's goalkeeper coach the past five years.

In a study that began 23 years ago and updated every two years by R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter, retired professors of physical education at Brooklyn College, soccer has shown the greatest growth of any women's collegiate sport during that time period. Soccer is now offered on 84 percent of college campuses.