There's all kinds of MLS and soccer lovin' going around this morning in our fine land. Devin
Barclay, now a rock star on Ohio State's campus, played parts of five seasons in MLS from
2001-2005. He suited up for Tampa Bay, San Jose, D.C. United and the Columbus Crew before hanging
up the cleats and--eventually--picking up some other cleats.
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Today, Wizards players and staff members and children from nearby New Stanley Elementary School
took part in a clean-up event at Ruby Park in KCK called "Greener Goals". As part of the event,
players and children painted a mural on a concrete wall under a bridge, picked up trash, painted
benches, painted lines on a basketball court and played soccer with one another.
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The majority of Wizards staffers will be out of the office for the next 3 hours or so as the entire
organization heads to Ruby Park in KCK for a park cleanup activity. Look for some pictures later
today and a video tomorrow or Thursday from the event. It should be a fun way to spend some time
together as an organization and make a difference for a local green space.
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Last week, a handful of Kansas City Wizards players accompanied some kids from local non-profit
Spofford on a shopping spree at a local Dick's Sporting Goods. The children were given $100 by DSG
to spend on items of their choice, and Wizards players Herculez Gomez, Chance Myers, Graham Zusi
and Roger Espinoza joined them to help in the shopping.
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A More Splendid Life, a football blog out of Canada, is looking for stories from footie fans that
have experience with MLS. Read the author's appeal below and shoot him an email with your favorite
MLS/soccer stories!
I would love it if you could send me (amoresplendidlife[at]gmail.com) a unique story or experience
with your time in Major League Soccer, even if it's only a few sentences, or even one sentence.
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No, this isn't a high school football blog, but this story is worth posting anywhere. Matt Ziesel,
a freshman high school student with Down's Syndrome at Benton High School in St. Joseph, MO, ran
for a touchdown last week in the final seconds of a 46-6 loss against their arch rivals Maryville.
Read Ryan Young's write-up of the play and the outpouring of emotion that has followed.
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Kori Quinn (middle) on the field with a pair of friends during warm-ups of our match Saturday. Read
more about her foundation.
In the last couple of years, we've posted a few of these "stories". We told you about Will Daniel
and last week's opponent Andy Williams. Earlier this year we told you about Miguel Jimenez and Kori
Quinn.
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An email received by a Wizards ticket guru Nahuel Rodriguez for a pop-in set up with Wizards
defender Matt Marquess last week:
Nahuel: I was great to meet you on Thursday (5/28) and I would like to thank you, Matt Marquess,
and the Kansas City Wizards for attending our special practice.
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The above pretty much tells the story; we just wanted to pass it along. We were extremely honored
to have Miguel out to the game last night. Hopefully he enjoyed the experience!
Coach Onalfo presented Miguel with some gear last night before the match.
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Onalfo after last year's late-season win over New England.
Some of you noticed in the notables from the April 23 match that Coach Onalfo was nearly in a very
serious car accident on his way to the stadium that night. For full details, check out this story
from Cole Young of the KC Star and this story from Curtis Kitchen of kcwizards.
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Remember the Claudio Lopez commercial for Time Warner Cable last year? Remember the young man in
that video with the dreadlocks? As of now, those dreadlocks are gone.
This week, Pembroke Hill raffled off the opportunity to cut off each of eleven year old A.J.
Cambric's 122 dreadlocks for charity.
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April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the Wizards have teamed up with the
Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault to help spread awareness for this important
cause. MOCSA will be at Sunday's match handing out teal awareness ribbons and collecting donations.
They also came out to the training center this week to speak with our players, who signed pledges
to be allies in the fight against sexual violence.
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Fans of the National Team show their support.
Matt Schofield of the KC Star checks in from Baghdad with a poignant front-page piece on soccer in
the war-torn country. He lays out the upcoming season of the Iraqi league and gives some details
about the fans and players who have fled or, unfortunately, died since the war began.
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Graphic borrowed from the KC Star.
News came out yesterday that Jim Stowers III is looking to develop a 350-acre biomedical research
campus catty-corner from The Trials in Southeast Kansas City. Added up, that's nearly 800 acres of
new development for a part of the city that has been sorely lacking good news in recent years.
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Kori is on the far right with the green jacket as a helper holds up the Wizards memorabilia.
In January, Head Coach Curt Onalfo took a trip to Children's Mercy Hospital to visit with a young
soccer player named Kori who is battling Ewing's Sarcoma. Kori's club soccer team, Viati, held a
fundraiser over the weekend that included some signed Wizards memorabilia.
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Kori is on the far right with the green jacket as a helper holds up the Wizards memorabilia.
In January, Head Coach Curt Onalfo took a trip to Children's Mercy Hospital to visit with a young
soccer player named Kori who is battling Ewing's Sarcoma. Kori's club soccer team, Viati, held a
fundraiser over the weekend that included some signed Wizards memorabilia.
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Head to about the 4 minute mark and watch as Richard Jata of Campbell University delivers his
speech at the MLS SuperDraft. Jata was on hand for the draft but ended up sliding all the way down
to pick 58, second from the last pick. He still got up and spoke. And it was hilarious--and kinda
touching too.
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In the time of the Best XI and year-end recap, we decided to look back at the first year of
existence for Hillcrest Road. I tried putting together a Best XI, but frankly, there were too many
favorites, so I decided to do a Best 22. I know no one really does this, but it's like two teams
starting against one another.
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Zavagnin after his final regular-season home match in KC colors.
Long-time Wizards holding midfielder Kerry Zavagnin hung up his boots following the loss against
Columbus in November. Now he has officially re-joined the organization as an assistant coach.
Welcome back Kerry. We're happy you're staying.
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The United States Soccer Foundation is hosting its annual holiday auction to raise funds for their
wonderful programs (which last year included helping fund community events at Field 3 at our
gorgeous Swope Park Training Center). Click here to bid on the jerseys. There are autographed
Wizards jerseys from 2007 and 2008 available, as well as jerseys from other MLS clubs and several
top clubs from around the world.
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Wizards midfielders Davy Arnaud and Lance Watson grew up in the town of Nederland, Texas in the
Southeastern part of the state that was most devastated by Hurricane Ike in mid-September. A former
youth coach of both Arnaud and Watson named Brian Arendale had his house completed destroyed in the
storm.
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So it took us a bit to get this loaded on YouTube, with our upcoming playoff game and all, but here
it is: The Kerry Zavagnin tribute played on the video screen at CommunityAmerica Ballpark before
our home finale. Saturday will be Kerry's last home match ever in a Wizards uniform. If he plays in
a postseason game this year, he'll break a tie with Nick Garcia for the most playoff games played
in team history.
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So a Wizards staffer bought two of our fun Monkey dolls with a Wizards shirt and gave it to some
friends of the Wizards family last week. The kids loved it so much that they made the following
card and sent it to staffer:
How was the representation put together by the youngsters? You be the judge.
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Peter Vermes chatted with Martin Rogers of Yahoo! Sports last week, and the article came out late
last night. Rogers used the chat as a platform for discussing some of the big-money investors to
join the League in the last couple of years such as Neal Patterson, Cliff Illig and the rest of
OnGoal. Rogers also calls PV the most wanted man in MLS and references job offers from LA and
Seattle.
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Just wanted to throw up a few pictures of the group from Kansas School for the Deaf that came out
to the scrimmage yesterday. The little ones were adorable and had a very good time, as our guys
were gracious as always and signed many autographs. Hillcrest himself even spent a few minutes
playing a fun game of keep away with the youngsters, whose mom's signed many a
"thank-you" after it was over.
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It seems that headlines of athletes and other stars screwing up are often above the fold but praise
of good efforts are buried near the back of the paper. Here's a story from a few weeks back from a
mother of an autistic child who participated in a clinic put on by Jimmy Conrad, Kerry Zavagnin,
Davy Arnaud and Ryan McMahen.
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