August 18, 1999

Europe trip a kick for T.C. players

By Garret Leiva
Herald editor
       Being part of a soccer travel team requires taking a road trip now and then. For Jordan Ovaitt, Jess Douglas, Evan Hammontree and Andrew Desmond it meant a 2,000 mile jaunt across the Atlantic.
      Last Wednesday, these four Traverse City soccer players returned to northern Michigan after spending 30 days as guest players on the East Anglia Boys soccer team in England. Their time spent overseas provided experiences and insight they will carry throughout the upcoming high school soccer season, and their entire lives as well.
      It sounds like a chance of a lifetime opportunity: four local teenagers playing in a stadium of nearly 30,000 screaming spectators in Gotenburg, Sweden. How they ended up on another continent, however, was a simple chance encounter.
      "When I was at the USA Cup youth soccer tournament in 1996, one of the first teams I saw warm up was the East Anglia Boys Club," said Andy Valdmanis, Traverse City Central High School boys junior varsity and girls varsity soccer coach.
      "Just watching them warm up I knew I wanted to find out more about this club. They were the most talented group of players I had ever seen."
      A year later Traverse City made an equally impressionable mark when they played the Anglia club to a 0-0 tie in USA Cup action. This mutual admiration grew as several Traverse City players joined the English squad as guest players last summer. The Anglia club also sent its head coach 'across the pond' for 10 weeks this spring to aid the Traverse Bay Area Youth Soccer league's 16 and under age team.
      Becoming a part of the Traverse City Anglia club contingency, however, required more than a willingness to pay international air fare. To play for the 200 member travel team you must prove yourself both as a top notch player and a person. Prima donnas need not apply.
      "East Anglia selection is based on behavior and attitude. If you're an outstanding footballer, but you're a jerk, it's not going to happen," said Valdmanis, who noted that the soccer team is supplied with players from 900 different clubs in the East Anglia region of England.
      By proving themselves capable in both categories, the Traverse City players competed in two premiere international soccer tournaments.
      In Sweden's Gothia Cup, the Anglia club advanced to the quarter finals from a field of 64 teams. Hammontree was awarded U-16 player of the tournament, while Ovaitt blocked two kicks as goal keeper during a shutout to advance the Anglia squad. At the 18th annual Dana Cup in Denmark, Desmond's U-14 Anglia team won their age group.
      Competing against players from Norway, Sweden and Germany, the Traverse City players were exposed to a different style of soccer, along with an entirely new vocabulary.
      "The style of play is much slower and they use their heads more," noted Hammontree, a mid-fielder who has been playing soccer since he was 8 years old. "Where teams from America tend to rush things and push it, Europe players are content to knock it around and make the other team commit and create a gap."
      Aside from the visual differences, another notable change was the sounds of the game. A field is referred to as a pitch, cleats are called boots - and for the uninitiated - the sport is really football, not soccer. Despite the differences in vocabulary, language was not a barrier when it came to the occasional trash talking.
      "Almost all the teams knew English and there was this kid on the German team who came up to me and said, 'I break your leg,'" said center mid-fielder Jess Douglas. "At the end of the game they said, 'thanks for beating us.'"
      Despite some tough 'friendly competition,' the trip overseas proved a memorable experience for players Desmond and Ovaitt. While playing on gravel for his quarterfinal match made quite an impression on Desmond, the opening ceremonies of the Gothia Cup left an indelible mark on the 14-year-old Traverse City Christian School student.
      "It was a huge stadium filled with dance groups and singers. There was an African team dressed in tribal clothes and the U.S. teams with green faces and foam crows on their heads dressed as the Statue of Liberty," Desmond said.
      For Ovaitt, playing a pickup football game with his "homestay" family's kids and their friends was the culmination of his overseas experience.
      "Soccer is what kids do. Everything you see and hear in the newspapers and on t.v. is about soccer. They even have a 24-hour soccer channel," said the 16-year-old Central High School student.