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Steelheaders' Christian Garcia (left) and Eric Storjohann put the pressure on Rush's Richie Evoy (a former member of the Steelheaders) during their scrimmage at Cascade Indoor Sports in Bend this past Saturday. The game ended in a 7-5 victory for the Steelheaders. The Steelheaders' first home game of the season is Saturday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m.
Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Building blocks
Young Steelheaders steal the spotlight from former players
By Katie Brauns / The Bulletin
Published: December 22. 2009 4:00AM PSTWhen the Central Oregon Steelheaders indoor soccer team first started out in 2003, they were older, more experienced, and eager to develop a strong local fan base.
Now, six years later, the Steelheaders look a lot different. The older players from that first-year team have retired their soccer jerseys and moved on to family and work. The crowds of spectators are smaller but as faithful as ever. Replacing the “old guys” are fresh, young faces, the majority of them Latino.
“This is a young team,” said Steelheaders coach Chris Rogers, 37, at a recent scrimmage on the team's home field at Cascade Indoor Sports in northeast Bend (formerly Central Oregon Indoor Soccer Center). “I look at these guys ... and think, they are two years away from being top one or two in the league.”
The Steelheaders belong to an amateur soccer league called the Premier Arena Soccer League, made up primarily of Washington teams.
“They will win their home games because of the support of the crowd,” added Rogers. “The bigger the crowd, the more emotion in the game, and that's what they thrive on in here.”
Rogers co-coaches with Kyle Steinbaugh.
The two are founders — along with John Willman, a previous proprietor of Central Oregon Indoor Soccer Center — and original players of the Steelheaders.
“I just don't want to see the Steelheaders thing die,” said Rogers, “because I was one of the people ... who started it and had fun with it and had a pretty good following.”
The Saturday evening scrimmage was a game between the Steelheaders and Rush, a one-night-only team made up of a few Steelheaders coaches and former players, as well as coaches with Oregon Rush Soccer, a developmental youth soccer program based in Bend.
The scrimmage was a fundraiser for the club's Sarah Mace Scholarship Fund, providing local boys and girls with the opportunity to play soccer.
The agile and impressively quick Steelheaders danced circles around the Rush team, winning 7-5. While the scrimmage was not exactly a balanced match, the Rush players had longevity on their side — and gravity against them.
“It's fast out there. I think we showed our age tonight,” said the 38-year-old Steinbaugh, who was a player/coach for the Steelheaders for three years but for the scrimmage represented Rush.
In case they had forgotten, the former Steelheaders players were reminded by the scrimmage why they “retired.” But they cannot forget their past success.
“We started out and did really well,” Rogers said of the early Steelheaders. “There was hardly a year the first five years that we didn't make the playoffs. And a couple years back (2006) we made the regional finals. ... We started late. We were already in our early 30s and most of the original Steelheaders just stopped playing last year.”
Indoor soccer never stops. The action is constant. There is no out of bounds on the 80-by-180-foot artificial-turf field at Cascade. The ball slaps up against the tempered glass and rolls quickly from player to player, often in a fraction of a second.
“It's a faster-paced game than outdoor (soccer),” said Steelheaders midfielder Mike Herzog, who scored three of his team's seven goals. “That's where the home-field advantage comes into play, because each team is used to their home field.”
This season, the Steelheaders have a new reason to please. For the first time in recent years, they will have all of their travel and meal expenses for away games paid for by the indoor soccer facility. Cascade Indoor Sports has been under new ownership since May.
Callie Geser, co-owner of Cascade Indoor Sports, said the indoor facility is currently looking for home-game sponsors.
“Whether we get the funding or not we are still going to cover the expenses,” said Geser, “because we still want the guys to get out and play, even if they can't afford it.
“The Steelheaders are a community team and we still wanted to make sure it was available for the community to come out and watch.”
The Steelheaders' first game of the season was Dec. 12 in Washington against the Tacoma Stars. The Central Oregon team lost 6-1.
“Tacoma is joining the pro league next year,” noted Rogers. “We played well. The real difference is that those guys have played together for a long time. We're young, and we are just kind of building for the future right now.”
Most of the members of the Steelheaders have full-time jobs, so they practice late at night. The players range in age from 18 to 30, and about 90 percent of them are new to the team but have been playing outdoor soccer their whole lives.
“These guys play with passion and emotion,” said Rogers. “And it's just about keeping that together.”
The Steelheaders will take on Washington's Snohomish Skyhawks in a home game on Jan. 9, starting at 7 p.m.
“The more fan support we can get, the better,” said Herzog. “The louder it is, the more exciting it is for everyone to play.”
Katie Brauns can be reached at 541-383-0393 or at kbrauns@bendbulletin.com.
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