Spring Break
Dreaming of future home games
David Cordill
Issue date: 8/25/08 Section: Sports
I always seem to be missing out on something.
In 1972, my Cub Scout group was scheduled to go watch the Royals play on Opening Day at the brand new Harry S. Truman Sports Complex.
My buddies from Pack 430 in Clinton, Mo. and I instead watched the game from the unspectacular confines of the dying Municipal Stadium. Due to several workers' strikes and other setbacks the baseball stadium's unveiling was delayed until the following year.
In 1996, I was to take over the coveted men's basketball beat for The Scout at Penn Valley Community College. I planned to return to the newspaper following Christmas break. Longtime Head Coach A. Fred Pohlman had an unlikely crew of overachievers that year, and I was chomping at the bit to get in on their run toward a possible postseason tournament berth.
Insufficient funding and an instructor's resignation, however, cancelled the newspaper's remaining production schedule. That season, Penn Valley won the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II National Championship.
And there were other misses too. On my eleventh birthday I had a root canal. As a server in various restaurants, I worked every Thanksgiving, Easter, and Mother's Day. I nearly missed last Christmas, as I battled a flu strain so bad it needed its own 1970's Blacksploitation theme music.
Now, as I embark on my fourth and final semester of covering men's soccer at UMKC, I have a sinking feeling I'm getting passed by again. I say this because I know if everything goes as planned; the Kangaroo footballers will have a real home in the 2009 season; and I won't be around to take pleasure in it, not as a sportswriter anyway.
Still, it couldn't happen to a more deserving program.
When I started at University News in 2005, the soccer team toiled in anonymity on a less-than-suitable soccer pitch within Swope Park. A supposed home venue for the Roos, the opposing team's fans would often outnumber the host's supporters.
In 1972, my Cub Scout group was scheduled to go watch the Royals play on Opening Day at the brand new Harry S. Truman Sports Complex.
My buddies from Pack 430 in Clinton, Mo. and I instead watched the game from the unspectacular confines of the dying Municipal Stadium. Due to several workers' strikes and other setbacks the baseball stadium's unveiling was delayed until the following year.
In 1996, I was to take over the coveted men's basketball beat for The Scout at Penn Valley Community College. I planned to return to the newspaper following Christmas break. Longtime Head Coach A. Fred Pohlman had an unlikely crew of overachievers that year, and I was chomping at the bit to get in on their run toward a possible postseason tournament berth.
Insufficient funding and an instructor's resignation, however, cancelled the newspaper's remaining production schedule. That season, Penn Valley won the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II National Championship.
And there were other misses too. On my eleventh birthday I had a root canal. As a server in various restaurants, I worked every Thanksgiving, Easter, and Mother's Day. I nearly missed last Christmas, as I battled a flu strain so bad it needed its own 1970's Blacksploitation theme music.
Now, as I embark on my fourth and final semester of covering men's soccer at UMKC, I have a sinking feeling I'm getting passed by again. I say this because I know if everything goes as planned; the Kangaroo footballers will have a real home in the 2009 season; and I won't be around to take pleasure in it, not as a sportswriter anyway.
Still, it couldn't happen to a more deserving program.
When I started at University News in 2005, the soccer team toiled in anonymity on a less-than-suitable soccer pitch within Swope Park. A supposed home venue for the Roos, the opposing team's fans would often outnumber the host's supporters.
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