Just For Kicks

By Al Chase

Hawaii’s best headed
to ODP camps

July is the month 150 of Hawaii's best youth soccer players attend mainland Olympic Development Camps. Various age groups make the trek each week throughout the month.

The local ODP state tryouts in March featured 17 college coaches working as staff members. They were joined by United States Soccer Staff Coach Mike Haas and Mike Parsons of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Their job was to instruct and evaluate Hawaii's best up and coming players. Their recommendations determined which boys and girls were eligible to further their soccer education.

The coaches were George Kuntz, UC Irvine men; Einar Thorarinsson, Gonzaga men; Erik Visser, San Francisco men; Barry Gorman, Penn State men; Bob Grey, Marshall men; Steve Rammel, St. Mary's (Calif.) men; Seamus McFadden, San Diego men; Dan Kuntz, Cal Lutheran men and women; Sean Bushey, Whitworth men and women, and Marine Cano, UC Irvine women.

Also, Jillian Ellis, women's coach at UCLA; Lori Walker, Oregon State women; Jim Millinder, Southern Cal women; Kit Vela and Jorge Vela, New Mexico women; Bill Steffen, Oregon women, and Chris Volk, UC Irvine goalkeeper coach.

The girls' camp is at Moscow, Idaho, and the boys go to McMinnville, Ore.

Special moment

Brian Ching and Zach Scott, Hawaii's contributions to the Seattle Sounders, will be part of a slice of history when the Sounders play the Vancouver Whitecaps in Seahawks Stadium July 28 in an A-League match. This is the first event on the grand opening schedule at the new facility built for Seattle's NFL team.

In a similar moment in Seattle history, the Sounders, then in the North American Soccer League, had the honor of playing the first sports event ever held in the Kingdome in 1976 in front of a sell-out crowd of more than 58,000.

Ching is Seattle's second leading scorer with nine goals and four assists for 22 points.

Wait 'til 2003

Congratulations to Hawaii's Over-40 women's team that reached the championship game of the Veterans Cup National Tournament in West Virginia. Hawaii was edged in the final 1-0 by a Maryland team.

The 2003 Veterans Cup will be played at the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park in August. Organizers are shooting to attract 100 teams for the event. After handing out brochures on Hawaii and information sheets on air fares and hotel rates at this year's tournament, the initial response has been excellent according to Hawaii Soccer Association officials.

Catching up

>> John Barry has been named full-time assistant men's soccer coach at the University of Richmond. He is the son of former Iolani boys coach Bob Barry who was named Willamette's men's coach last spring.

>> The AYSO National Games conclude today at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park. The Games were the brainchild of Mike Michalski, the Area Director for West Hills, Calif., who put the first tournament on in 1988.

>> Hawaii Pacific University decided in April to offer golf as a varsity sport. This means men's and women's soccer will remain on club status for the next couple of years.