It started innocently a year ago in November.
Dave Talbot was at an Olean Soccer Club function, beaming with pride that his son, Dylan, a standout for Allegany-Limestone, had been named to the Times Herald’s Big 30 All-Star soccer team.
An enthused Talbot, vice president of the OSC, asked Kris Linderman, “When is the game?”
He was taken back when the group’s president responded, “There isn’t one.”
“Well,” Talbot maintained, “we should put one on.”
Thus were sown the seeds of the New York/Pennsylvania Corporate Cup Soccer Showcase which ultimately joined the Big 30 All-Star Football Game and Big 30 All-Star Basketball Games as independently-produced events featuring the top athletes, from both sides of the state line, in their respective sports.
“We thought it would be easy, a breeze … nothing to it,” Linderman said.
Except, of course, that wasn’t true.
They had to deal with scholastic agencies on each side of the border – the New York State Public High School Athletic Association and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association – to make sure, above all else, that players’ eligibility wouldn’t be affected.
They wanted the game to be open to participants in grades 9-12 and while, with a May playing date, it would have no effect on seniors, they needed hopefuls in the other three grades to be protected.
“We had to jump through a lot of hoops before we got the situation we wanted,” Linderman admitted.
The timeline was tight as the game was booked for the evening of May 20 at St. Bonaventure’s Marra Athletic Complex and tryouts were set for January to be followed by practices.
“We had schools to contact, tryout locations to set, coaching staffs to assemble and teams to pick,” Linderman said.
And there was another concern.
“We didn’t know whether it would succeed,” Talbot conceded. “I started doing some math and figured that if every player (two teams of 22) brought four people, we would get between 150 and 200 at the game.”
There was also another problem.
The game needed some seed money to even get started.
Linderman and Talbot enlisted Mike Tominez of MF Tominez Promotions, which has done such an impressive job of upgrading the Big 30 All-Star Football Game program, and soon Community Bank, Worth W. Smith, Orthodontists Associates of Western New York, Mazza Sheet Metal/Mechanical Services and Ruffner Woodworking offered their support.
“That was huge,” Talbot admitted, “they put their eggs in that basket pretty much sight unseen with no idea what would happen.”
Soon enough rosters were formed as some 80 players tried out for 44 spots. Meanwhile, on-site food services were booked and merchandise was created.
But, other than those two revenue sources, plus the sponsors, Linderman and Talbot didn’t have a prime revenue stream.
“We couldn’t charge admission,” said Linderman, a postman and soccer referee. “The facility at Bona is an open area, so trying to sell tickets didn’t make sense. We finally decided to put out barrels for people to make donations.”
One element out of the two founders’ control was the weather … and it cooperated.
The game was played on a relatively mild sunny night, but that was merely a pleasant surprise.
The real shocker was in the stands.
A crowd of some 500 fans showed up.
“To say that we were surprised was an understatement,” Linderman admitted. “We thought we’d have 100 to 200 people, mostly friends and relatives.
“But the turnout was really more than we expected … far better than we anticipated. And they were buying shirts with the game’s logo and putting money in our barrels.”
Talbot, a night manager at BJ’s Wholesale and a youth hockey coach, remembered looking up into the stands and at the packed hillside and wondering, “What have we done?
“We’re not used to seeing big crowds, especially for boys games. It was very humbling.”
So was the ancillary viewership.
“We were able to broadcast the game on Facebook Live,” Linderman said. “Over 1,000 people watched as it was going on … which was awesome. And now, the number of views has grown to over 2,400.”
The game was an unexpected success, New York winning, 1-0, and even before it ended, this year’s date was announced and that the site would be at Pitt-Bradford and include a girls game.
“Given the time frame,” Linderman pointed out, “we couldn’t do a girls game the first year … there was so much work involved.
“But we also knew, if the boys game succeeded, the girls game would be a no-brainer. When you go to boys soccer games around here, crowds tend to be small. But, girls games always draw better … more family and friends, it’s just a different atmosphere.”
Thus, the first NY/PA Corporate Cup Soccer Showcase girls game will be played on May 19 at 4 p.m., three hours after the start of the boys contest at Pitt-Bradford’s natural turf facility.
“Nothing against the Big 30 (Football) Game, but I always wondered why it didn’t alternate between Bradford and Olean,” Talbot said. “We felt it was important to have the games in both states and Pitt-Bradford could not have been more welcoming … in fact (UPB) was waiting for us to call. What’s really neat is that the games will be played on different surfaces, artificial turf at St. Bonaventure and natural grass at Pitt-Bradford.”
The other key is that player response has been encouraging.
This year, 41 boys tried out for New York’s 22 spots and there were 34 NY girls, 32 Pennsylvania boys and 26 PA girls bidding to make teams.
And though in this year’s game, both Linderman and Talbot each have two sons playing for New York, they have nothing to do with the selection process.
“I would have loved to have both my sons play last year, but only Dylan made it, Bryant didn’t,” Talbot said. “Same with Kris, Zack (who scored the game’s only goal) was picked, but Max wasn’t.
“We leave (choosing teams) to the coaches. The only thing we help with is making sure they have the right number of players to compete for the positions in their schemes. Other than that, at tryouts, I tell people the only job Kris and I have is handing out cigars and kissing babies.”
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
