|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
April 22, 2004Soccer team is music to school's earsByRecord-Eagle features editor In a world of Raptors, Predators, Force and Storm, the Fightin' Blueberries stood out. That's the name of the soccer team at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Yes, Interlochen had a soccer team this year - its first foray into organized athletics, legend has it, since a volleyball team in the 1970s. Organized for the first time and so called due to the nickname (blueberries) local kids have attached to the arts school students because of their blue-on-blue uniforms, the team was in a class by itself in the winter indoor league at Just for Kicks in Traverse City. First, there's the matter of their fans. Many of us who inhabit the world of soccer have kids who play indoors on teams during the winter to keep their skills and fitness levels up. It's more informal and less pressure than playing during a high school or club league season. Attendance at some indoor games can be thin; parents worn from going to outdoor league games in the spring and the fall often trickle away and let carpools do it, which sometimes makes for a representative smattering of adults to cheer the players on. And once the kids have reached the age when they can drive themselves - well, only a handful of parents attend. The only other fans might be a sprinkling of members of whatever sex it is that is opposite of the players on the field. The stands can be near empty. And then comes Interlochen. With fan buses. The team formed after international and day students playing pickup games on campus heard about the indoor league in Traverse City. They got 23-year-old hall counselor Dave Humeston to be their coach and champion their cause. Humeston worked with the school to get approval and transportation. He never envisioned that it would become such a big deal that by the last game, the school would send nearly four bus loads of fans - more than 200 - on top of various staff members driving students. And that was following an afternoon pep rally and send-off to a team that wound up winning all but two of their eight games. And then there were the noisemakers and pompoms and, at the last game, a guy dressed up as a blueberry. "He was wearing one of those blue washtubs," said Alicia Topa, Just for Kicks building manager. "It was great. "We were so excited to get the crowd ... I think that's the most people they've ever had in Just for Kicks." The boys were from here and all over the world - Macedonia, Venezuela, Turkmenistan, Japan and on and on. One, pianist and senior Mijail Rodriguez of Costa Rica, had never played on a formal soccer team before. But you'd never know it. He scored 29 goals in the seven games he played. But he grew up on soccer. "Soccer is, like, life," he said. "It's like the biggest sport and only sport (back home in Costa Rica). "For me, actually, soccer - it's like my art. I really love it." And the fans played a huge part in making it so much fun for Rodriguez and his teammates. "The fans were amazing. They were like the seventh player on the field every time," Rodriguez said. (Indoor teams in his Under-19 age bracket play with six players on the field versus 11 in regular soccer.) "You try your best - and even farther - to show them what you've got and entertain them. "The first game, we thought maybe some people will go, but not as many that came. Then after the first couple of games we saw people really liked the idea of this team in an arts school and got really excited about it." Jennifer Wesling, dean of students and education services, said the school relaxed evening schedule requirements to make it possible for students to attend the games. And having the team helped break the studious routine that is more the norm. "The Fightin' Blueberries' games gave our students the rare opportunity to be rowdy audience," she said. "Our fan buses were full for each game and the players were like celebrities around campus. "The Blueberries and Coach Humeston provided a rowdy, healthy and welcome departure from our intense arts and academic schedule." The season's over now. The students have hung up their jerseys and are back to focusing on their pianos and clarinets, cello and oboe, trumpets and tubas. But they may never forget their shining moments as members of The Fightin' Blueberries. "I think it was one of the best things to cut the monotony out of the winter months here, for sure," said Coach Humeston. "Definitely for the institution as a whole, it seemed to benefit everybody . . .it was definitely a new type of element for everyone. "It really kind of stirred things up."
|
|
