MISL Feature
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
By NICHOLAS MURRAY
Looking back, Missouri Comets coach Kim Roentved has great memories of the Major Indoor Soccer League of the 1980s and 1990s.
“It took a little while for the sport to be recognized but after four or five years and seeing all the stadiums filled up, whether it was Cleveland, Chicago, Tacoma, San Diego, Dallas, St. Louis, they were outdrawing NBA teams, they were outdrawing NHL teams,” Roentved said recently by phone. “Just being part of that experience, playing in front of 16, 18,000 people in those places, sometimes 21,000 up in Tacoma one time in a playoff game, it was just an incredible experience and I’ll never forget it.
“I guess in some way we’re trying to work our way back to those days; I think we are making headway now with more and more teams and solid ownerships, but I just can’t help thinking back to those days because they were some of the best days of my life.”
Roentved put together an illustrious playing career throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s. Selected three times as Defender of the Year and named as a member of the United States indoor “Stars of the Century” team in 1999, the Dane had a long and storied career that saw him play for the Wichita Wings and the Kansas City Comets and Attack.
Now, after taking time away from the professional game to start and oversee his own business, Roentved is back in the game with the Comets. While he remained a major fan of the sport, continuing to attend Comets and Sporting Kansas City games after his retirement as he remained in the Kansas City area, the only coaching Roentved was doing was of the teams his son and daughter played on. When he was approached about being the coach for the new version of the Comets franchise, though, the opportunity arrived at just the right time.
“I got into a position where I could be into it; I have some reliable people here and the company sometimes works better when I’m not here,” Roentved said, “so when the opportunity came up and it happened to be the Comets again, I got excited again. After a couple of meetings with the ownership group I felt it was a good time for me to give it another shot.”
After helping the side reach the MISL playoffs in its inaugural season, falling in a thrilling semifinal series to eventual champion the Milwaukee Wave, the 51-year-old is hoping to lead his side to greater success in its sophomore season.
“We certainly don’t want to dig ourselves into a hole like we did last season, but I like to split the season up into a third and a third and a third,” Roentved said. “If we can be around .500 after the first third I would expect us to progress and get better as the season goes on and give ourselves a chance to get in the mix for the playoffs, maybe get home field advantage for the first round and then take it from there.”
The Comets didn’t get off to an auspicious start last season. In fact, the side lost its first seven games, only to storm back and go 8-5 the rest of the way to take the No.3 seed in the playoffs. The way the side played after an early period of acclimatization to each other and his coaching style has Roentved optimistic about what might be able to be accomplished.
Bolstering that belief are the moves the club made earlier this week to re-sign All-Rookie team member Brian Harris to a new two-year contract and the addition of former Omaha Viper Ibrahim Kante to the squad. Roentved hopes to retain a number of players from last year’s side to build on the momentum they had at the end of last season.
“What I have right now is a plan to go with possibly 12 players that I want to bring back from last year’s team, the core of the team,” Roentved said, “and then possibly another two within the next three to four weeks and then leave a couple of roster spots open for possibly the tryouts. Even a blind bird finds some corn once in a while at those tryouts, so we’ll see how that goes, but I’m pretty confident we’ll be bringing 10, 11, 12 players back from last year.”
While the Wave and Baltimore Blast return, and the new additions to the league appear ready to put together strong opposition in their first seasons, Roentved is optimistic that with the right amount of good fortune his side can be fighting all the way for a championship.
“We’ve got to be realistic, we’re up against some good teams,” he said, “but we have also gotten better. … It’s just step by step, that’s what it comes down to, and if we can stay as injury free as possible, we had a few tough games last year, I certainly expect us to get better.”