June 15, 2006 W-League Hamilton Avalanche vs Toronto Lady Lynx (from Hamilton Spectator)
City's Lady Avalanche seeks market
Ron Albertson / the Hamilton Spectator
'We're a first-year team but great entertainment for kids and families'
By John Kernaghan
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jun 15, 2006)
The defining aspect of soccer in Canada is that it always seems to have a glorious future but suffers a so-so present, with the odd gust to great.
And most of those big winds have been whipped up by our women's teams.
They've done better internationally than the men in recent memory and the women's under-19 world championship in Edmonton in 2002 was a famous crowd-pleaser.
"I think there is a market here in Hamilton for women's soccer," said Hamilton Lady Avalanche owner Valdi Greco yesterday after his first-year United Soccer W-League team fell 4-0 to the visiting Toronto Lady Lynx.
That's a meaningful opinion when you're backing it up with your own money, but it's also a risk the construction company owner is willing to take.
And Greco can speak with a long local view of 40 years on the soccer scene.
He played for the Hamilton Steelers, one of the many attempts at getting the men's game to take root here. It hasn't at an elite level and Greco reckons those teams went wrong by failing to build a youth following.
That's why the Avalanche struck a deal to put almost 1,200 grade schoolers in the stands at Brian Timmis Field yesterday.
The separate school kids, high on pizza an d pop, provided a big buzz as a backdrop to an energetic effort by the home team.
The older and more experienced Lynx pounced on mistakes and the Avalanche failed to bury chances off Toronto faux due to tentative play.
"We've got seven 17-year-olds playing against an older, more established organization," explained coach Billy McKenna.
He said that gap in experience showed when Lynx players naturally followed through while his youngsters hesitated.
"Our goaltender makes a great save, they follow up to score. Their goaltender makes a great save, we stand and watch. Those are mistakes of youth."
The good news is that a handful of the Avalanche lineup will go off to big soccer programs at U.S. universities, meaning they'll return hardened by stiffer competition.
Nicole Mercer will be one of those. She finishes up this month at Westmount Secondary School, then heads in August to the University of North Carolina on a soccer scholarship.
She got a few games worth of hardening yesterday as the Lynx kept sustained pressure on the Avalanche goal, making some fine saves in her first start since a shoulder injury.
But Silvia Forbes solved her twice and the Lynx also had goals from Deana Everett and Amanda Cicchini as Hamilton's record dropped to 2-4.
Mercer, who plans to study business marketing, had a pitch for Hamiltonians.
"We're a first-year team but great entertainment for kids and families."
The next chance to see the Avalanche is 7 p.m. Saturday at Brian Timmis Field against the Vermont Lady Voltage.
jkernaghan@thespec.com
905-526-3422
.
.