Tampa Catholic High School Soccer Team    

1976 Season             I was a player on that first soccer team and soccer first came to TC during the 1975-1976 school year in the form of a club. Mike Foley and Richard Rambau got with the band director Robert Kotter and started the soccer club. Tampa Catholic had 2 teams, the "A" team and the "B" team, both played in the Tampa Bay Rowdies Youth Soccer League facing other Under 19 clubs. The "A" team was very competitive and finished with 10 wins and 2 losses. The team traveled to Cape Coral for the first round of the State Cup Soccer Tournament. TC lost that very first playoff game 2-1 in a very hard fought contest.             Just like the Tampa Bay Rowdies, we had a "loan" player John Midkiff from Chamberlain. Chamberlain did not have a soccer team yet and he wanted to play, he was a very good midfielder. You can see John in the yearbook listed as "John Beale". I do not think he bought a TC yearbook ! Nick Dimaggio would have had kittens if he knew, but we were a club and our only "funding" from the school was 2 "plastic" soccer balls like you use in PE.             The team needed soccer goals, soccer goals are 8 feet tall and 24 feet wide - these are not easy to come by! Thanks to Tony Ekonomou's father and a teacher Mike Rabaut, they got 24 foot metal beams and built us 2 goals for the Tampa Catholic field. We bought nets from a soccer supply store and these served us for the next 3 years.             Our first game as the Tampa Catholic Soccer Team was at Clearwater High School stadium, it was a Saturday and it was the opening festivities for the Tampa Bay Area Youth Soccer Organization. TC played the Tampa Bay Rowdies in a 30 minute exhibition game. This was Rodney Marsh's first game with the Rowdies, he had just arrived in town from England and ended up playing TC. I remember him making Mike Foley look foolish as he tried to "defend" the "Clowned Prince of Soccer" the only clown was Mike! The Rowdies were nice to us limiting shots to about 20 yards, goal keeper Richard Reinhart made several diving saves earning him praise from Rowdies coach Eddie Fimmani. Of course the Rowdies could have eaten our lunch but they and us both played hard and TC "won" the game when Mike "do it" Hewitt of the Rowdies made a diving block of a Jose Lapentti shot and Richard Rambau headed in the rebound. I really believe the Rowdies wanted a 0 to 0 tie.             The first year Tampa Catholic Soccer team wore uniforms of green "mesh" collared jerseies with white numbers on the back, a white logo on the left chest, a white cuff on both sleeves and a white insert at the neck. Shorts were white and the socks were white "soccer" socks with 2 green stripes at the top. Most players wore black Adidas, Puma or Pony cleats. Reinhart in goal started the season with a white jersey with red stripes, white shorts and white socks. This did not work when the red faded and he relaced it with a "real" goalies outfit of light blue jersey, black "padded" shorts and matching blue "soccer" socks.            Tampa Catholic 1975 - 1976 "A" Soccer Team Number Name Position Year Capt 1 Richard Reinhart Goalkeeper So   2 Mike Foley Defender Sr Capt 3 Eugene Broda Defender So   4 Alberto Alverez Defender Fr   5 Richard Piascik Defender So   6 Pat McCarren Midfield Jr   7 Robert Aries Midfield So   8 Matt Dalyrumple Midfield So   9 Richard Rambau Midfield Sr Capt 10 Jose "PePee" Lapentti Forward Sr   11 Tony Ekonomou Forward Jr   12 Paul Malek Forward Jr   13 John Midkiff Midfield So     Mr. Robert Kotter, moderator and head coach 1977 Season             The 1977 season found us with a new coach, Martin Van Hoek or Martinnnnnnnneeeeee as we would call him! We lost 3 seniors and 2 sophomores - Richard Pisacik did not play soccer and no more "loan" players from Chamberlain! We had 6 returning starters from the prior year as well as 2 others that got a lot of playing time. We were torn up right up the middle, losing our sweeper, center defender, center midfield and center forward.                Tampa Catholic 1976 -1977 Soccer Team   Number Name Position Year Capt. 1 Richard Reinhart Goal keeper Jr.   2 Lou Perdomo Defender So.   3 Eugene Broda Defender Jr. Capt. 4 Alberto Alvarez Defender So.   5 Mike Krumbholz Defender Sr.   6 Pat McCarron Midfield Sr.   7 Robert Arias Midfield Jr.   8 Matt Dalrymple Midfield Jr.   9 Kevin McCarron Forward Jr.   10 Terry Redding Forward Jr.   11 Tony Ekonomou Forward Sr. Capt. 12 Paul Malek Forward Sr.   13 Jeff Kliner Midfield Fr.   14 Jeff Miller Forward Sr.   15 Joe Reinhart Midfield Fr.   1978 Season             Summer of the 1978 season, which would have been 1977 found several of the Tampa Catholic players playing "on loan" for different clubs around Tampa. TC did not have a summer program and I played with Matt Dalyrumple for Plant High School. I wore # 20 and played defender and goal keeper. We played four games in a "March of Dimes" tournament. Several other players played for other clubs around the city.             The 1978 season found us with our first international star - Hank "the Swede" Lindstrom. Hank was an exchange student from Sweden, he was more of a hockey player but when put up against Americans even a "so so" Swedish soccer player was a star! And he was a star! Hank kicked 50 yard field goals in practice with little trouble - at this time most coaches did not trust "soccer style" kickers and we had a holder who released the ball early ...... hence we did not kick many in games. He could play soccer also!             1978 was also still a transition time for high school soccer; many players felt they could do better with "club" teams. TC lost at least 4 starters to "club" teams, most notable were starting goalkeeper Richard "Sahabone" Reinhart, starting midfielder Matt “Dinky” Dalyrumple and future TC star Anthony Aries. With these players and several others that did not play Tampa Catholic would have had a state champion team.             The 1978 soccer team found 11 new names on the roster with 6 starters from the prior year AWOL or on to college!             As for uniforms the team went back to green mesh jersies with a 3 button collar, we had the same white crest on the left side and white numbers on the back. We wore white shorts with green edges and green "TV" numbers on the leg. We wore white "soccer" socks with green stripes. As a goalie I wore either a black jersey with my regular shorts and socks or I would wear the light blue "goalie" jersey with the black padded shorts and matching blue socks. If I had to go in the field I had my white shorts underneath and changed the jersey. The 2 backup keepers wore yellow jerseys with green numbers, green shorts and green and yellow socks. Most players wore Adidas World Cup II cleats or Adidas "Gerd Mueller" cleats.            Tampa Catholic 1977 - 1978 Soccer Team   Number Name Position Year Capt. 1 John Canning Goal keeper Fr.   2 Mike Busciglio Defender Fr.   3 Eugene Broda Defender Sr. Capt. 4 Alberto Alvarez Defender Jr.   5 Anthony Caruso Defender Sr.   6 Hank Lindstrom Midfield Sr.   7 Robert Arias Midfield Sr.   8 Mark Cuffe Midfield So.   9 Kevin McCarron Forward Sr.   10 Terry Redding Forward Sr. Capt. 11 Rueben Siano Forward Sr.   12 Donald Bryant Forward Fr.   13 Armando Ramirez Midfield So.   14 Frank Costa Forward Fr.   15 Danny Allen Forward Fr.   16 Mike Franzese Defender So.