Mon Valley United soccer teams to kick off season
with salute to the past
Mon Valley United's Over-30 and
Over-40 soccer teams will salute the past as they prepare to take
another step into the future Saturday in the annual Heritage Cup
game at 3 p.m. at Gallatin-Sunnyside Recreation Park.
The contest, according to John Pastor, player-coach of the
Over-40 club, serves as a springboard to another new season and as a
reminder of the rich heritage of adult soccer in the mid-Monongahela
Valley in general and Gallatin in particular.
"This will be the third straight year for the Heritage Cup
affair," Pastor said. "It's a fun thing for the guys on both teams,
but everyone takes it very serious when it comes to reflecting on
the history of soccer in this area."
History is one of the reasons Pastor and his brother, Greg
Pastor, player-manager of the Mon Valley United Over-30 team, chose
the Gallatin-Sunnyside field for their home games when the Over-30
squad was formed in 1997.
"It was an easy choice," Greg Pastor said. "For one thing, we're
based in Forward Township and the Gallatin field is in Forward
Township. There's such a rich heritage there. So many outstanding
teams and players have performed on that field over the years and
history is being perpetuated every time a game is played at
Gallatin."
John Pastor agreed. "The ambiance of the field and the area is
something special," he said. "You have a deep feeling of the
heritage that exists there every time you take the field. You can
almost sense the presence of those teams and players of the past in
the air."
The spirit of the 1942 Gallatin Tigers may weigh the heaviest on
the current crop of players. That talented crew won the U.S. Open
Cup championship with 2-1 and 4-2 victories over defending champion
Pawtucket, R.I., in the two-game title series.
"People still talk about that 1942 team in hallowed terms," John
Pastor said. "They were an outstanding team in every sense of the
word."
Significantly, the 1942 Tigers won the U.S. Open Cup just three
years after bowing to Fall River (Massachusetts) St. Michaels Soccer
Club 3-1 in the 1939 U.S. National Amateur Cup title game.
Lest anyone claim they are being parochial, the Pastor brothers
are quick to point out that a similar soccer heritage exists
throughout southwestern Pennsylvania.
"Just look up and down the Mon Valley," Greg Pastor said. "You
have Dunlevy and Roscoe and Hazel Kirk and Monongahela. Elsewhere,
there are Harmarville, Heidelberg and Beadling. The list goes on an
on. We've heard so many stories about the great teams and great
players who have come out of those areas."
The Pastors would like to see the Mon Valley United teams extend
that heritage into the future.
Among those joining John Pastor in carrying the torch for the
Over-40 Mad Dogs this year will be Bob Cotton, Billy Marsich, Rick
Glover (who also plays for the Over-30 team), Dave King, Eric
Montgomery, Bob Duritza, Don Fletcher, Paul Sasko, Eugene
Marraccini, Rod Irwin, Ivko Dimitric, Josef Michnick and Peter Hess.
"These guys make up the nucleus of the club," Pastor said. "I
like to have 16 to 18 players on the roster, so we'll probably add a
few more before we start the regular season."
Meanwhile, the Over-30 Straub Mon Valley United team is expected
to include player-coach Jeff Nartowicz, Greg Pastor, player-coach
Joe Krempasky, Dann Appolonia, Tim Cressman, Eric Naylor, Brett
Dolfi, Rick Glover, Eric Kessler, Dave Unico, Rick Boysen, Brian
Lowe, Ron Lupori, Darrin Lupori, Luke Paglia, Tim Jaki, Eric
Agostoni, Aran Madden and Brian Zura.
"We lost Ethan Mungai to a job transfer out of state and we have
some question marks because of injuries and other commitments for
the season opener," Nartowicz said. "We're talking to some
additional players, and we think we should be OK."
The Over-30 Straub's team will compete in newly named Western
Pennsylvania Adult Soccer Association (formerly the Greater
Pittsburgh Soccer League) this year and will open the regular season
April 4 against Peter Township. Meanwhile, the Over-40 club has been
elevated to the Premier Division of the Pittsburgh Masters League
and is scheduled to begin its season April 3.
None of the players, however, will be looking beyond the Heritage
Cup game on Saturday.
"It's become a ritual of spring," John Pastor said. "Although
some guys have played indoors during the winter, the game gives
everyone a chance to work out the kinks and get their bodies ready
for the outdoors. It's a springboard to the new season and it gives
the Over-40 players an opportunity to play to a higher level; that
is, against younger guys."
As they do, Pastor will be looking at the Over-30 players as a
symbol of the older team's future.
"Years ago, before the evolution of adult leagues for older
players, guys just continued playing no matter how old they were,"
he said. "You would be in your 30s and 40s and playing against
'kids' in their 20s. Now, with the advent of the Over-30, Over-40
and Over-50 programs, it levels the playing field; you're playing
against guys your own age and still having fun. Our idea is to keep
the Over-30 team together and move them into the next age group when
the time comes. That was the original idea when the Over-30 team was
formed and some of those players are now on the Over-40 team."
At the same time, Greg Pastor said, they'll continue to look for
younger players to keep the Over-30 system working and growing.
"We'd like to get to the point where we could have two teams in
the Over-30 league," he said. "There certainly are enough good
players out there to do that. It's a distinct possibility and
something we think the players would enjoy."