The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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November 5, 2009

Prep soccer

Soccer volunteers: The real heroes

By Dave Morrison

Heroes will be made today and Saturday at the YMCA’s Youth Soccer Complex during the state high school soccer tournament.

But there are already heroes in the midst.

The behind-the-scenes volunteers are the real heroes of the weekend.

Some might be easy to spot — host parents on the sideline, making sure the needs of each of the 16 teams are met. Some may not — packing goody bags for the team members or making sure the officials have a hot cup of coffee when they come off the field.

“This tournament would not run as smoothly as it does if not for the volunteers,” said Dave Laraba, who has run the tournament with the Secondary School Activities Commission since it came to Beckley.

“They are too numerous to mention. But I can’t tell you how appreciative and thankful we are to have them. It really does seem like a total community effort.”

Susan Serge is one such hero.

During the regular season, she serves as Woodrow Wilson’s “team mom.” Her son Tony is a member of the Woodrow Wilson soccer team which faces Fairmont Senior in a Class AAA semifinal at 11:30 a.m. today.

By the time the state tournament rolls around, she is clearly one of the tournament’s moms.

“When the tournament first came here, I was always worried about getting to Wal-Mart and dealing with all the restaurants,” Laraba said. “She takes care of all that. She handles the hospitality, you gentlemen in the Fourth Estate (the media) and the VIPs.”

“Being a part of it is fulfilling,” Serge said. “I will dedicate myself to making it better. It’s such a good thing for the area economy. I like soccer and it gives me a chance to use my organizational skills.”

She is the first to say it does take a village, not a block of the town, to make the tournament run.

“If I didn’t have people I could pick up the phone and call and know that they would come through, it would never run as efficiently as it does,” she said. “But that’s all it takes.”

She said folks like Greg and Valerie Lytton, Karen and Randy Moore, Mike and Bonnie Jarrell and Cathy Lynch have been in the fray for several weeks now, making sure the tournament will once again be a smash success.

And if you noticed that most of the folks are married couples, that’s because “once you get the husband or the wife, you’ve usually got both,” she said.

And that includes her husband Mark, who has coached soccer and also worked at the YMCA. And her son has been a volunteer official for YMCA youth games.

Laraba said Lynch has continued to volunteer her services to the tournament even though she no longer has children on the Woodrow Wilson soccer team.

Not everything is perfect. But it’s close.

“Occasionally a few of the parent sponsors have heard grumbling, but that’s usually from a team that has lost,” Serge said. “For the most part, everything has always been positive.”

As for remaining neutral, well, there’s only so much a volunteer can do, Serge said.

“My son plays for Woodrow, so, ‘Go Eagles!”’

— E-mail:

demorrison@register-herald.com

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