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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1984)
Thursday, November 8, 1984/The Battalion/Page 11 d Soccer gets ‘Americanized 1 United Press International PALLAS — Despite periodic ;laims to the contrary, good old \merican ingenuity is not dead. Tgake an idea and make it better. Jl’hat concept helped make this na tion great and it’s nice to see there lire those who still believe that way — even if a lot of them happen to be limn England, Yugoslavia and other ports of call instead of from Wiscon sin or North Carolina. What they have done is take the kport of soccer, put it through a grinder and come up with a differ ent sport that looks about as much like soccer as baseball does cricket. This was made necessary because Ihe traditional version of soccer was peating as much popularity among Americans as the measles. There was a widespread belief among the limited number of soccer enthusiasts in this country 20 years ago that once all the boys and girls vho were playing the game on (schoolgrounds grew up, they woidd pack the stadiums to watch other people play. p'hat turned out to be a myth. Soocer may touch of f wars and (civil disobedience in other parts of (the world. But thus far the great ma jority of U.S. citizens don’t have the Tiang of it yet. On SAT A SUN Sn«0««t s *0 r r44«y S«nKM CltUtn* M ILITT SOUtNCIN EATRES mow IE QIF cti pHTminifc! >714 | [IN THE MALL 764-0616J IISMOK THESE MAKE FINE GIFTS FOR ALL AGES IC1NEMA 315 COLLEGE N. S4E-6714 Craig Wasson Gregg Henry Melanie Griffith A Brian DaRalma Film "BODY DOUBLE” . WEEK KITES: 7:30 9:90 DILL MURRAY GHOSTBUSTERS coiuMai* me ronrt 11*1^1 VEEKMTES: 7:3010:00 DIANE KEATON THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL” (El WEEK KITES: 7:15 9:45 ^ SALLY FIELD HSU WEEK KITES 7:3010:00 BILL MURRAY 'THE RAZORS EDGE" \MAKEL! ien’s teii' ise, whicti ; despite a is team-p hey’ve pte ■. they los tried to coo . (Two m yards in discj©ckeys-i compoctdltct ^ reccxxN L lopes #occes. TDK THURSDAYS $2 19 For TDK SA 90’s High Bias Tapes Limit 20 D.J, Party System availabie for all occasions ve shown til t great cot ichemes.” ogs would ti irs, hut nn passing if ' 846-7048 4239 Wellborn 1 mile north of Kyle Field A SCHULWIAN THEATRES X f STARTS FRIDAY 1 NO SMALL AFFAIR M COUNTRY | ■rback sy , to the Pm s deraileda Cody Ci le. Carlson iaturday, 1 ke will l^ 1 * is. lit SHOW SAT. AND SON., ALL SEATS $ ~1^. —vv-MONDAY-KTAM FAMILY NICHT-SCH. 6 ^ll-TUESDAY-KTAM FAMILY NIGHT-ME III -MON.-WED. FOR ALL STUDENTS WITH eURRENT I.D. TO AAM-BLINN J.C.-BRYAN HIGH SCHOOL-A&M CONSOLIDATED ;ord, in »'• milding ation oflw SCHULMAN 6 ?002 I E 29th • 775-2463 TEACHERS s^reo 7:25 9:45 ANGELO MY LOVE 7:30 9:50 7:15 FIRST BORN 9:55 A SOLDIERS STORY s^o 7:25 9:45 AMERICAN DREAMER 7:20 9:40 | TERMINATOR 7:20 9:40 MANOR EAST III 823-8300 BLAME IT 7:20 ON THE NIGHT 9:40 7:15 ALL OF ME 9:35 TERROR IN 7:25 THE AISLES 9:45 Battalion Classifieds Call 845-2611 “It (indoor soccer) is a good product. People come out and watch it. We have sellouts. We have to assume that since the crowds have been so good in so many places that the game is a good one in its current form. — Dallas Sidekicks Coach Gordon Jago “Soccer, in its regular form, is a great participation sport in this country,” says Gordon Jago. “T he number of youngsters playing the game increases every year. But it has not proven to be a great spectator sport.” As a result, soccer was sent to the workshop. The size of the field was reduced, the number of players on the field was reduced, the size of the net was reduced, boards were put around the whole thing and a roof was put over the entire thing. Indoor soccer lias caught on in se lected pockets around the country — notably St. Louis, Kansas City, Wi chita, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Now it is trying its hand in Dallas, where competition for the sports dollar is fierce and the word “soccer” usually touches off little more than a yawn. Dallas’ Lamar Hunt may have founded the American Football League and may have been the key factor in creating the financial wind fall pro tennis players now enjoy, but when it came to soccer he knew when he was whipped. He got out of the sport four years ago after having tried to make a go of it for more than a decade. Jago is coaching the Dallas Side- kicks in the Major Indoor Soccer League. He is a native of London, but is now a citizen of the United States. He has seen the indoor game grow, having coached the Tampa Bay franchise to an MISL title. “It (indoor soccer) is a good prod uct,” Jago says. “People come out and watch it. We have sellouts. We have to assume that since the crowds have been so good in so many places that the game is a good one in its current form. “I still think the traditional game can succeed in this country. But it may take two more generations to do it.” One of the problems that has plagued the outdoor game still haunts the indoor version. More than half of the players hold cit izenship in a country other than the United States (the soccer hotbed of St. Louis leading the way with Amer ican players). But on the plus side there is a lot more scoring, the action is paced much faster and, in an attempt to spice things up, pyrotechnics and lasers draw wholesale use in the va rious arenas. The Dallas f ranchise is owned and operated by the same group that owns the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, who have enjoyed tremendous suc cess. Norm Sonju, president of both clubs, admits there was a selfish rea son for bringing the defunct New Jersey franchise to town. “We wanted to protect our invest ment in the Mavericks,” Sonju said. “We didn’t want another ownership coming in to fight us over dates and marketing at the arena. “But we did some research on the league and thought the MISL might be a good investment.” Sonju got to the heart of the mat ter. “The main thing,” he said, “is that it’s as American as apple pie.” Welsh's Cav fans thinking bowl bid United Press International CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — George Welsh, who is making Vir ginia fans delay their thoughts of basketball season with his Top 20 football team, was named UPFs Col lege Football Coach of the Week Wednesday. Welsh won the award for the Cav aliers’ 27-7 upset of tlien No. 9 West Virginia last Saturday. The victory propelled the Cava liers into the 19th spot in the UPI rankings and awakened bowl scouts to the progress Welsh has made in three years at a school where losing football teams were tolerated be cause basketball season always fol lowed. No more. The Cavaliers (6-1 -1) have not lost since a season-opening 55-0 drub bing by Clemson. With games re maining against Atlantic Coast Con ference foes North Carolina State, North Carolina and Maryland, Vir ginia has a shot at the ACC title and a bowl bid. Virginia is the only Divi sion I-A team to have never played in a bowl game. The Cavaliers were not expected to defeat the Mountaineers and cer tainly not on the road, where West Virginia had just defeated power houses Boston College and Penn State. But Virginia, with a week off, en tered the game mentally sharp and without injuries and caught West Virginia still relishing its first victory over Penn State since 1955. “We played outstanding defense in the second half, we controlled the football on offense with a strong running game and we neutralized their kicking game,” Welsh said. “I think they were down and that’s un derstandable. They had to play with a lot of emotion the past two weeks. “You need to play with emotion. You don’t want to be too high and you try not to be too low. But, if you play with emotion, you don’t let it get out of hand.” Welsh will never be accused of los ing emotional control. He has a col lege town that hasn’t seen this much success since the 1940s. He has bowl scouts coming to watch a team that has only had three winning seasons since 1952.