CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Today is actually an off day for the Battery as far as practice is concerned. Charleston has a game tonight at 6 p.m. ET against the San Jose Earthquakes, the Battery's second in the Carolina Challenge Cup round-robin format, so the players will spend most of the day doing whatever it is that players do, before checking in an hour before game time.
As for me, I get to rest my feet for tomorrow and tie up some loose ends at work and do the laundry (my hotel only does dry-cleaning and I bet you all thought us ESPN-types were high rollers), before I head over to watch the game from the Battery bench.
So far, the players have made me feel extremely welcome, they're a loose bunch and very friendly. On the field, I've been impressed with three of their newcomers. One is Pato Aguilera, who rumor has it is related to Jaime Moreno (I'll confirm that with him at some point), a Bolivian midfielder who has a lot of skill, and has bounced around on the fringes of MLS the last few years. Another nice-looking player is Dominic Cianciarulo, a skillful little midfielder from Furman who shows good technical skill, vision and the ability to keep the ball in heavy traffic. Finally, David Kenga, a striker who's still in school at Winthrop, and who scored against the Red Bulls over the weekend, looks to be a natural finisher.
After practice ended yesterday, the team made a visit to the Medical University of South Carolina Children's Hospital. It's part of a new partnership the Battery has with MUSC, which will serve as the sports medicine provider for the team, and one that will hopefully provide a more inclusive approach to player health, including nutrition counseling and access to sports psychologists and neurologists.
As a result, the team will also make periodic appearances at the hospital as part of a slew of charitable activities the Battery undertake regularly. It's part of the team ethos. As director of soccer Andrew Bell said, "We never say no, and we're also very proactive in looking for events to get involved in."
At the hospital, players mingled with the children and played with them. Defender John Wilson sat down and produced two works of art. The first could be described as a postmodern montage of expressive symbolism, or it could be described with the "What the heck is that?" school of thought his teammates offered. Wilson's second masterpiece was more readily identifiable -- a Clemson Tiger paw print in honor of his alma matter. When I quizzed him about who was the BMOC in his day, Wilson said it was probably the NFL's Trevor Pryce. "I've never seen a man that big move that fast," said Wilson of Pryce.
The value of such a visit is immeasurable. "A lot of times when children are hospitalized, they are really recognized for such negative things, they're getting attention for their illness, for their surgery," said Tara Simpson, a childlife specialist at MUSC. "When we bring special events, like a sports team, it recognizes them in a positive way ... it's a really neat thing that normalizes their hospital experience and minimalizes the stress factor for the children and helps healing."
For the players, it was their first visit to the hospital and many were moved, with forward Ian Fuller volunteering to return for more than just the officially scheduled events.
"It was good to see some of the children at the hospital and interact with them and I think the main purpose is to come in and distract them of being in a hospital, play with them and get their minds off why they're here," said defender Kevin Nylen. "It's an environment they're not used to ... so all of us are enjoying playing board games with them, painting, building blocks, [it] just lets them be a kid."
Jen Chang
