Mike Martel figured his team was done for the summer.
In late May, the Buffalo and District Soccer League canceled its 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, wiping out Olean 1854 FC’s third year in the high-level amateur circuit before it even had a chance to take the field.
Martel notified his players and packed away the uniforms. He resigned himself to the fact that Olean’s debut season in the Championship Division — the BDSL’s second-highest level — would have to wait until 2021.
There was no soccer to be played … until he received a text from Matt Fidurko, the Olean Oilers’ director of operations who’s now in charge of marketing, graphic design and social media for Sahlen’s Sports Park in Elma.
Fidurko notified Martel that since moderate-risk sports, such as soccer, were allowed to be played again, Sahlen’s was in the process of putting together a couple of eight-week leagues that could be staged on its two brand-new turf fields adjacent to its state-of-the-art multi-sport indoor facility.
“They said they’d really like Olean to be a part of it,” Martel, 1854 FC’s manager, said. “I put it out to the guys and just said, ‘Hey, they’re going to start (an eight-week summer league), if you guys want to use the 1854 name, I’ll help with whatever I can … you guys just go play if there are enough of you who are interested.’”
Pete Coate, Olean’s player/coach, took the reins and rounded up a work-in-progress roster of 15-20, most of whom would have suited up in the BDSL season. Martel unpacked the team’s sky blue kits. And Olean’s place in the nine-team Adult Division of the “Sahlen’s Cup” was cemented.
“I said, ‘Great, go for it,’” Martel responded when Coate notified him of their team’s overwhelming interest. “So they’re in.”
AFTER A rained-out Week 1, Olean played its first game last Saturday against FC Quake, a former BDSL 1st Division rival. And this one ended in much the same fashion as its first two seasons in the Buffalo-based circuit:
With an 1854 FC triumph.
Coty Winchell (Belfast), Zack Linderman (Olean) and new additions Colton Swanson (Bradford) and Caleb Holmes (Cuba-Rushford), all four of whom were Big 30 all-stars, each scored to give Olean a 4-1 victory in its first action since topping Lykan United, 1-0, for the 1st Division title last August.
1854, then, now sits 1-0 in a division that features many of the same players, team names and logos from the league that had no choice but to pull the plug on its 2020 season given the conditions at the time. Including that figure, it’s now 23-2-4 since its inception in 2018, with two regular-season titles and a 2019 playoff championship.
The “Sahlen’s Cup” has given Martel’s bunch an unexpected opportunity to take the field this summer. It’s provided many of those players an outlet to become active again when almost all had been idle, at least from a competition standpoint, for the last four months. It’s also given Olean a chance to add some “new blood” and hold what amounts to an early tryout for the 2021 campaign.
A BLEND of local and imported players in 2018 and ‘19, 1854’s roster, at least for the summer, has essentially become a Who’s Who list of former Big 30 standouts, including former multi-sport star Carl Holmes (Cuba-Rushford), Devin Kinney (Hinsdale), Cameron Larabee (Cuba-Rushford), Tyler Landries (Genesee Valley), TJ Magro (Olean), Brandon Morrow (Portville) and former Allegany-Limestone star goalkeeper Conner Golley, who owns the Western New York shutout record.
That would seem to bode well for Olean, which has twice been promoted since joining the BDSL, heading into next summer.
“(Pete’s) got some new players that haven’t played with us before, which is nice for us because we’re getting some new blood into the team mixed with some of the old players,” Martel noted. “We’ll get some new guys that are interested so we can keep building on what we’ve laid out so far.”
Olean returns to action this Saturday against Dutch United FC at Sahlen’s Sports Park at 4 p.m. Its season will conclude on Wednesday, Aug. 26, under the lights against Bermuda Triangle FC (7:30 p.m.).
In a spring and summer full of canceled seasons and uncertain futures, Martel, Coate and 1854 FC were happy to be able to salvage something.
“(Caleb) texted me this week and said, ‘I just want to thank you for starting this whole thing. Pete had me playing this past week and I loved it,’” Martel pointed out. “Hopefully we just picked up a good player.”
He added: “It’s going to help bridge that gap. It’s providing (our young players) with an opportunity to play with some of the guys and get to know them and play in a competitive environment. Hopefully that will carry over into next season when the BDSL will hopefully be up and running again.”
