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SPORTS
Tradition of Beadling (Pa.) Soccer Club on display
Pennsylvania West Beadling player Casey Aunkst, red, vies with an East Pennsylvania Spirit United Gaels player during the U-12 Girls Championships Tuesday, July 7, 2009, at the Barboursville Soccer Complex.
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BARBOURSVILLE -- At the beginning of the US Youth Soccer Region I Championships, someone could get lost going through all the names of the 280 teams that came to Barboursville for the tournament.
Yet in most age groups, one common name could be found representing Pennsylvania-West.
That name is Beadling Soccer Club.
The Beadling teams, based in Bridgeville, Pa., have been in existence for 110 years and have a tradition for winning excellence. This year, the club brought nine teams to Barboursville as representatives of their state association.
For validation of Beadling's tradition, look no farther than club president Denny Kohlmyer, who has come up through the ranks and now runs one of the perennial contenders for Region I soccer.
"First of all, it never really started out to be this way, but my children are fourth-generation Beadling players," Kohlmyer said. "My grandfather played for Beadling in the early 1900s, my father was on the national championship team in 1954, myself and my brothers played for the club and my daughter Leslie won regionals when she was 13 and my son won when he was 19."
It has been the constant building of tradition that has kept Beadling as one of the powers of club soccer on the East Coast.
Beadling took 14 teams to the Pennsylvania-West State Cup, which is the qualifier for the Region I championships, this year. All 14 advanced to the semifinals of the State Cup while 10 moved into the championships. Of those 10, nine won State Cup championships and advanced to this week's tournament in Barboursville.
Kohlmyer said the key to building that tradition has been a strong foundation that begins early in a young player's soccer career.
The recent resurgence started back when Kohlmyer left his job in education to become a youth development director for the Pittsburgh Spirit, an indoor pro team.
"I had to look at what happened in our area and how we could compete on a regional level with some of the top clubs in the area, and that is to try to get the best kids into one program with the best coaches," Kohlmyer said. "The only way to compete is to try and develop the players at a relatively young level with very good coaches who don't have any egos or agendas. If you do that, then good things happen."
In addition to the coaches, Beadling's sense of community has sustained the club's success. In a day when club teams are recruiting from other states or even flying players in to play for their teams, Beadling has remained committed to its area talent, which has built a camaraderie around the various teams.
That camaraderie was evident Tuesday.
While watching Beadling's U-12 girls' team compete in Tuesday's championship, Kohlmyer was joined by dozens of fans along the sidelines -- all wearing Beadling gear and even one lady with a Beadling umbrella.
Some in attendance were supporters from other Beadling teams that had already been eliminated, but they remained in town to cheer on the younger girls' group.
"When you watch a game like this, you'll see all the other Beadling teams coming to watch," Kohlmyer said. "We build it as a family situation. It's a big fraternity."
It has not always been that way though.
As a club, Beadling has also been built from the ground up. Like West Virginia, Beadling started with a relatively small base to draw from, but has kept building through the years.
Kohlmyer said he knows how the West Virginia teams feel when trying to compete with the likes of the New York or New Jersey teams.
"We started out with a couple of teams and it progressed from there. Now we have probably 400 kids in our program," Kohlmyer said. "We know how difficult it can be because other associations have three and four times as many players as we do.
To put the region in perspective, West Virginia Soccer Association president Len Rogers said the Mountain State has a pool of 16,000 players in club soccer. Pennsylvania-West Soccer Association president Natalie Schwoeble said that her state association is actually one of the smaller associations in the region, and they have 50,000.
Rogers estimated that New Jersey has around 118,000 while the biggest in Region I is estimated around 180,000, although he could not recall who the largest association was.
Kohlmyer said hosting the US Youth Soccer Region I Championships will help increase the numbers and interest in the sport, but it alone will not build West Virginia into a contender.
It will take a combined effort on the part of the entire state to see soccer sustain and flourish in the Mountain State.
"You have to take small steps, but I think if West Virginia is to succeed then there are some very good coaches here to use," Kohlmyer said. "Now, you get those coaches coming back in and kids that have come through the college program will filter back in and start coaching.
"I'm a big believer in surrounding yourself with quality people. When you do that and people believe in the same cause you do, then things have a way of working out for the best."
