Western Indoor Soccer League (WISL) Season Preview Part IV: Oly Town Artesians

Oly Town and Oly Pen Force opened the 2019-20 WISL season with a knock-down drag-out fight at the Oly-Pen Sports Center. The Force scored four times in the first quarter of an hour and it looked out of reach, early, for the Artesians, who hadn’t won since December 2017. However, Oly Town’s defense allowed only two more goals on the night and put on a show in the fourth quarter, matching Oly-Pen’s first quarter output, with four goals to steal the away win 9-6. The Artesians head to Snohomish next, to take on a Skyhawks team who are coming off a 3-6 away loss to last year’s champions Tacoma Stars Reserves. To get a better idea of what Oly Town Artesians are all about and how they’re approaching the rest of their season, we spoke with Brandon Sparks, the club’s General Manager.

Since its inception a few years ago, a few clubs have come and gone from the WISL, as a founding member, what do you do to ensure your participation each year?

The Oly Town Artesians were originally founded as an indoor team by myself and Tim Smith, the owner of Olympia Indoor Soccer, so we have long been committed to playing in the Western Indoor Soccer League. It doesn't take much to ensure our participation because it is such a fun version of the game to watch and, for me personally, it is the most fun season to produce because we get to do a lot more in game with music, contests, games and whatever we can do to put on a show. We generally have larger, more engaged crowds during our indoor season despite some challenges we have with our arena (our home for the past five seasons that is partially open to the elements, has no heat, and has the smallest field in the league and was supposed to be our temporary home when our first facility was forced to move) and a less than stellar record on the field.

It helps that we have control of our indoor field and have ownership that allows us to have field time. If you look at the history of the WISL, the majority of teams that have left have done so because of facility issues, not performance on the field or because they didn't like it. The Arlington Aviators and Wenatchee Fire had their indoor centers close; the Everett Arena never had a lot of available time and charged a mint for field time so Sporting Everett dropped out of the league. The building that housed our first facility was sold to a glass company and Olympia Indoor and a tennis center had to move. Luckily John Purtteman and The Evergreen State College had an arena field in The Pavilion that we could use and we loved our first season so much, we wanted to continue at all costs.

Oly Town Artesian supporters show up to cheer on their club, rain or shine, because while indoors that doesn’t matter! (photo: Oly Town Facebook)

Oly Town Artesians also field a team in the EPLWA, which means you get play against Bellingham United and Oly Pen Force outdoors too. Do you see the same players from their squads? Are the tactics similar enough that you know what to plan for? Or is Indoor and Outdoor totally different?

The tactics for indoor and outdoor are almost completely different, so while we see some of the same players, you can't really take much from performances between the two seasons. But player-wise, you do see a lot of the same faces, especially for Bellingham. We will see guys like Richard Henderson, Eleazar Galvan, Noe Betancourt Cruz and Uriel Herrera in both leagues and know what those guys can do. The Hammers have a lot of quality veteran players that stick around town year-round even after they graduate from Western Washington or Whatcom CC, so you see them during both seasons. They have built a fantastic club that players want to stick with and it shows with their results on the field.

Oly-Pen is a little different because their roster for outdoor is often very different than their indoor roster. They focus on younger collegiate players for their outdoor season and most of those players are not available or in the area for indoor. Their indoor team also used to draw from Kitsap Pumas players that came to the area and stuck around during the off season, but with the loss of the Pumas, those players aren't coming to town. Oly-Pen doesn't have a natural player pool - there are no colleges with soccer in Kitsap County (Tacoma is the closest city with collegiate soccer and it is 35 miles away), so their roster will likely be different than the group they had in the early years of the WISL. They also have a brand-new coach for the first time since they joined the WISL, indoor legend Dan Antoniuk, who I'm sure will put his own spin on that roster.

While they are not the same organization, a lot of the Tacoma Stars Reserves team also plays for Washington Premier in the EPLWA, so we see a ton of them in both seasons. And starting this season, the EPLWA will welcome Tacoma Narrows and a team from Everett, so we expect to see a lot more Narrows guys and Snohomish Skyhawks players year-round.

Speaking of indoor squads vs outdoor squads, do you have players who only play one season but maybe don't play both? Or do most of your outdoor players end up on your WISL team?

We have a small core group of players that play both indoor and outdoor. Nate Boatright, in particular, has been with both teams since our very first season and our goalkeeper, JJ Olson, is another guy that has been with both teams for a long time. There is a fair amount of crossover and we would love to have both teams together all year long in the same way that Bellingham does, but we also rely on a lot of college players for both seasons, so we get guys for outdoor that leave for college during the indoor season and indoor players that go home for the summer and aren't available for the outdoor season.

Oly Town heads up to play Shohomish Sky to face the Ginger Jesus himself, John Troka. (photo: Oly Town Facebook)

Bellingham and Tacoma Stars Reserves seem to have the league figured out - how do you break up their stranglehold on the title?

That is the million-dollar question. Honestly, we are all chasing those two squads. We had a rough season on the field last year but nearly knocked off Bellingham in the last game of the season, so anything is possible. You look at those two teams and you will see consistency. They retain players really well through the years, fold in new, talented players when necessary, and just keep on rolling. We seem to constantly have to train new players to play the indoor game, and it takes a long time to get them up to speed. So, while the Stars Reserves and Bellingham are working on the nuances of the game with their experienced indoor players, we are teaching the basics year in and year out. Even really talented players need time to figure the indoor game out. It isn't as simple as it looks.

And, to be bluntly honest, we need a new facility. I think that we have a really great situation with three colleges in our area all with soccer programs, we should be able to draw more of them out to play indoor with us and hopefully have them stick with us through college and beyond. But while The Pavilion is a fun place to see a game, it is not a selling point for players. The Bellingham Sportsplex is great. The Tacoma Soccer Center is great. Oly-Pen Sports is great. The Snohomish Soccer Dome is a little worn, but it is warm and has other amenities that we don't have. We have been in our "temporary" home in a converted play shed on the campus of The Evergreen State College for five seasons now. Until we have a facility that measures up to the other facilities in the league, we are always going to start a little behind.

Honestly, Oly Town is known for dropping some pretty cool swag, aside from some swashbuckling indoor soccer, what do we have to look forward to in the merch department this year?

We don't have much new merch planned for this indoor season, but I would expect new gear for our outdoor season. But I'm always doing new designs and I love getting stickers printed. We lead the league in stickers, for sure, and I'm always willing to get them out to people. Fans from around the country can drop me a message and we are happy to send a couple out.

- Joshua Duder

Masters of design; Oly Town’s Brandon Sparks regularly comes up with amazing new stickers and graphics to promote the club from Olympia, Washington.

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Western Indoor Soccer League (WISL) Preview Part II: Tacoma Stars Reserves

Two-time WISL league winners Tacoma Stars Reserves kick off the defense of their most recent title on Saturday, November 16th at home in the Tacoma Soccer Center (TSC). Visitors Snohomish Skyhawks look to exact some revenge after being outscored 26 to 7 over three matches, including a playoff semifinal which sent the Skyhawks home for the year. Historically, TSC has been quite good to Stars Reserves, who won the league’s inaugural season back in 2014-15 by going undefeated, including exhibition matches against out-of-league competition. In fact, Tacoma Stars Reserves carry a legacy of winning with them and represent the larger Stars programs which has existed, through a couple different iterations, since 1983.

Whether they were playing in the Premier Arena Soccer League, the Professional Arena Soccer League, the Major Arena Soccer League or the Western Indoor Soccer League, the Tacoma Stars have a pedigree of being, if not competitive, then at least very entertaining and have always drawn large crowds to matches. Currently, the Stars first team plays in the MASL while the Stars Reserves competes in the WISL. In looking forward to their first match of 2019-20, I reached out to John Crouch, the Commissioner of the Western Indoor Soccer League and VP of Operations for EPLWA, to tell us more about their rich history, systems of play, what similarities indoor has to the outdoor game, and how players can transition from the reserves to the first team.

The Tacoma Stars are one of the most recognizable indoor soccer teams, perhaps ever - how do you leverage that in a modern soccer landscape which includes the Timbers and Sounders? How do you continue to draw sizable crowds?

We run the WISL Tacoma Stars Reserve team (TSR) so we leverage the location of the iconic Tacoma Soccer Center and the grassroots environment and fun, fast paced game. A lot of the players are staples in the community and draw fans themselves. On the pro side, it's all about the excitement of the game, lots of goals, and always the kids love the fun in game activities like ball toss, jumbotron dance cams, etc. The pro game also is a great place for groups to do outings or celebrate accomplishments. The Tacoma Stars pro team has strong ties with local youth soccer teams that love to come watch the Stars. There is something to be said for the hometown hero and what that player can draw for the fanbase. The Tacoma Stars pro team would draw much stronger crowds if there were a venue to play in Tacoma proper and people could get to games easily.

Tacoma Soccer Center is home to both Stars Reserves as well as in town rival Tacoma Narrows FC.

Are you able to briefly describe the technical and tactical differences between arena soccer and full pitch soccer? Do the players transition well between the two, or are there certain players who manage one very well but the other, not so much?

Well first off, the walls and the size of the field in indoor are both limitations and tactic changers. Defending it's easier to mark players out or drop in and defend in a zone to disallow the penetration of the attack. Attacking can be different as well with strong service out of the back and sometimes almost blindly playing the ball into a target forward that can collect the ball, hold up and distribute or just be dangerous himself. Indoor formations are typically 2-2-1 (sometimes referred to as a 'house' formation with the target being the peak of the house shape) as employed by the Stars or 2-1-2. Comparatively, outdoor relies heavily on a lot of play in the middle of the field and players will for the most part occupy certain regions on the field where an indoor player could find himself anywhere around the field and usually making runs into the MF but not occupying it to open space for play to move into the area. This is a key difference.

Tacoma Stars pro have Nick Perera one of the best target forwards in the league so he is heavily utilized as described above. A good goalkeeper is key in indoor as they will see sometimes as many as 20+ shots a game and he must be able to play with his feet. Outdoor players don't always transition directly into indoor, defending techniques and making runs to create space or open passing lanes is a different style than outdoor. Indoor players sub, a lot, sometimes they will go as little as 1 hard minute on the field and sub with their line partner.

Tacoma Stars Reserves set up in a 2-2-1 “House”

I wouldn't say that one type of player manages indoor better than outdoor, but certain characteristics are key in indoor that might not be the same in outdoor. A defender can't hide from handling the ball in tight spaces and must be good with his feet as he will handle the ball often and will be needed to attack. Target forwards are key to many teams’ successes and require a specific type of forward. 2nd Forward or MF positions in indoor usually will be a player that has a lot of pace and wants to attack the goal facing it.

Passing in small spaces with creative running to open up space or passing lanes can create opportunities or overloads that lead to goals. Backdoor goals are very prevalent in indoor and a sign of good movement and usage of strong and creative tactics. Indoor teams at times will set a goal of scoring first or winning one quarter at a time, indoor is a game of runs and scoring first and keep the inertia is key as a game can be lost quickly and goals come fast. Like outdoor, scoring on set pieces is key and drawing up tricky plays to do this (like basketball) is always fun and great for the spectators. Indoor offers power plays where a team will have to send a player to the penalty box, these are key moments for the offense to take advantage of the 5 v 4 and teams that are strong in these situations also are using all advantages to win.

Winners in 2014-15 & 2018-19, Tacoma Stars Reserves aim to win the WISL title again in 2020.

After coming off a WISL championship, how do you balance which players make that squad versus ending up on the MASL team? Is it largely the same guys, is there guaranteed rotation, or are certain guys who never see one or the other squad? How does it work?

We hope that top level players in the WISL Stars Reserves squad will move on to the MASL Pro team, in fact we hope that top players on any WISL team will move on to support the Stars Pro. We believe we may see more of this with Perera's stronger engagement into the WISL team and with the 2 teams really forming a true 1st-Reserve team relationship, something that didn't happen much with previous management at the helm of the pro team.

Which players should we look out for in 2019-20? Will JJ Schmeck be back on the reserves to add to his 13 goals from last year or has he earned a call up?

JJ was training with the Pro team last year along with a few others. I don't have much inside knowledge to who is moving where but I'd say Eddie Na, Adrian Correa, Logan Jones, JJ Schmeck, Danny Minniti, Nate Ford and TSR captain Micah Wenzel have the best chance to move and support the pros this year off the top of my head. What Nick and Stars owner Lane Smith are doing to capitalize and integrate on the strength of the TSR side is going to be exciting for the upcoming MASL 2019-20 season around here. Fans would love to see nothing more than to see their local favorites playing in the big arena. Stars pro management see opportunity in developing young players because the culture of indoor (thanks to a long lineage dating back to the 80's of Tacoma Stars) is so strong and thriving!

- Joshua Duder

Snohomish Skyhawks, fellow co-founder of the WISL, look to bare their talons against last year’s champs, Tacoma Stars Reserves in Week-One action. Then they play host to Oly-Town Artesians for their second league fixture of the season.

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Western Indoor Soccer League (WISL) Season Preview Part I: Bellingham United

The Western Indoor Soccer League (WISL) was founded in 2014 and began play that fall, with five teams: Tacoma Stars, Wenatchee Fire, Olytown Artesians, Arlington Aviators, and of course, Bellingham United. A few teams have come and gone in that time, but since the league’s founding, Bellingham United have never finished below second and have earned the three stars above their badge by winning the league back-to-back-to-back from 2015-2017. The Hammers kick off the WISL season by hosting a rematch of last year’s hotly contested semifinal against Tacoma Narrows FC. Narrows FC finished 3rd in the table but lost away to Bellingham 9:3 away at the Bellingham Sports Complex and look to put the Hammers back in the toolbox on Saturday, November 9th, 7:35 pm kickoff.

We’ve previously taken a moment to get to know more about Bellingham United’s outdoor team but to find out more about any plans the Hammers might have on exacting revenge against Tacoma Stars Reserves and winning back their title, we spoke with star forward and indoor expert Richard Henderson.

Was there a Bellingham United Indoor team prior to WISL?

Yes, they were the Rapids before that and played in Canadian league. We have always been competitive in whichever league we have played in. There has been a progression in the team from earlier days especially in the area of organization and tactics as opposed to just having good players playing indoor soccer.

Before there were the Hammers, Bellingham rocked red and fought in a Canadian indoor soccer system.

Do you largely field the same squad as the outdoor side?

There is a core group of players who play both but with the summer attracting college players from out of state and Canada who may be around for only the summer the indoor squad is more consistent year to year. The indoor team has been playing consistently with a similar squad for about 5 years. However, currently I would say we are at the biggest change as some of our veteran players are challenged with family commitments, increased responsibility at jobs etc and our younger players have gained enough experience to be ready to play.

Who should we keep an eye out for?

There are plenty of returning players, some we will talk about next but new this year who will be worth watching is Spencer Wolfe is local but just returned to the community from being on the East side of the state at Whitworth and Gonzaga respectively. Also, Christian Rotter at WWU will be joining us after the WWU season finishes and they both played outdoor this year and were effective. I hope they can learn quickly and provide some depth to the first team roster.

Richard Henderson, player-coach for the Bellingham United, circles the Hammers up for a chat

Richard Henderson, Uriel Herrera and Christian Caro all seemed essential last year, will they all be returning?

Yes, (Richard, me) I will be playing again as well as coaching and hoping to be effective on the field to help our team reach its goals. Uriel and Christian will likely be returning but both have aspirations of playing professionally which is great so if they get an offer, they may go for that. However, that is what we want at BUFC providing a platform for the best players in the area to play and learn in a highly challenging but highly supportive environment. We three provided the majority of the goals last year but the good thing they were all different kinds of goals and we are all offensive threats in our own way. Moreover, we have other players who can chip in offensively Nick Cashmere, Chris Jepson, Connor Moe and others so it is pleasing that if we three are getting marked tightly or off our game we have other players who can provide goals.

How is training for Indoor different than outdoor? Do you focus on fitness, touch, explosiveness?

It is very different, an ex-teammate of mine who coaches in the MASL described high level indoor as a combination of basketball and hockey and he is correct in terms of the tactical set up and pace of the game. We do a lot of situational simulation e.g. we are up or down on a certain number of fouls and play out at high intensity what we would want to try in do in that situation. With the season being as short as it is and occurring over the winter and thanksgiving break it is not set up well for gaining fitness and technical improvement. The players are expected to come in fit and ready to play as there is not much time to develop playing principles and team chemistry as well as the very different tactical applications. The biggest hurdle is training new players to indoor, learning the game and the strategy. In my opinion it takes 20 games to have a good understanding of the game in general.

Tacoma Narrows FC (The first tentacle-badged club in Tacoma) takes on three-time WISL Champions and 2019 runners-up Bellingham United in Week-One, then hosts two-time Champion and last year’s league winner, Tacoma Stars Reserves, in a Week-Two Tacoma Derby.

- Joshua Duder

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