The soccer history of Roger Hintz

I was introduced to the sport of competitive soccer at the beginning of my sophomore year of college at Indiana Central University (now known as The University of Indianapolis). Thinking this would be good conditioning for the spring track season, I discovered a whole new world. There was an announcement and sign-up sheet in the spring of 1981 for anyone interested in trying a new sport at the university. During my summer vacation, I was contacted and given directions of where to meet.

Joseph Tugurian was our coach and mentor. Mr. Tugurian had played on the Turkish National team at World Cup level several years before. As our coach, he brought dreams and aspirations to a fledgling program that has developed into a solid NCAA Division II sport. After a few weeks of training and conditioning, and a lot of learning, we were preparing for our first game when someone on the team asked the coach, 'How do we start a soccer game?' Most of us had never watched, let alone played in, a competitive game of soccer, so this was seen as a serious question. With a quick explanation, we were ready to go. Our first game was a little less than competitive, but Joe Young managed to score the first goal in school history and we enjoyed the chance to give it a go. The season may not have produced a lot of wins but there were several highlights including our first victory in only the fifth game, and our international exhibition against a team from The University College of Cork, Ireland (Still the only international soccer match in our school's history).

ROSTER Joseph Turgurian - Head Coach # Name Yr 1 Harold 'Hurk' Cooper Fr. 2 Mike Blair Sr. 4 Keith Ward So. 5 Joe Oliphanti Jr. 6 Brad Beaver So. 7 Ben Arndt Jr. 8 Joe Young Sr. 9 Ali El-Messousi (Captain) Fr. 10 Anthony Ryan Sr. 11 Roger Hintz So. 12 Phil Lynch So. 13 Sandy Zehr Jr. 14 Mark Scott So. 15 Todd Van Deman Fr. 16 Phil Crawford Jr. 18 Kenton Brett Jr. ## Allan Crane (transfer) Fr. ## Haluk Bilgen (transfer) Fr.

Front Row (L to R): Allan Crane, Sandy Zehr, 'Hurk' Cooper, Joe Young, Ben Arndt, Mike Blair, Kenton Brett, Phil Crawford, Anthony Ryan     Back Row: Coach Tugurian, Roger Hintz, Brad Beaver, Ali El-Messousi, Todd Van Deman, Joe Oliphanti, Phil Lynch, Mark Scott, Keith Ward, Haluk Bilgen

1981 (3-9-0)     9/15 IUPU-FW 1-6 L 9/19 @ Ky. Wesleyan 1-9 L 9/22 Marion College 2-3 L 9/27? U. C. Cork (Ireland)* 0-4 L 10/3? Vincennes 2-1 W 10/8? IUPUI 3-0 W 10/15 @Indiana Tech FW 1-8 L 10/17 @Rose Hulman 3-1 W 10/21 Grace College 0-4 L 10/24 Ky. Wesleyan 0-3 L 10/28 @ Bellarmine 2-4 L 10/31 @ Ball State 0-9 L 11/6 Bellarmine 1-4 L *Int'l Exhibition Match

Unfortunately, I only played college-level soccer the one year as I had to get a job to pay for college expenses. My next foray into the world of futbol came many years later in Memphis, Tennessee when I was asked if I was interested in playing Sunday morning pickup games with a bunch of guys from the office. Those guys, I found out rather quickly, were mostly from Greece, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, and the US East Coast and had played since childhood. Still it was fun and it elevated my game a lot. After a few months, we had an opportunity to play in an over-30 league in Germantown, TN. Unfortunately, the league didn't have room for another team, so we had to be split up amongst the existing teams. we still played the weekend pickup games and also fielded a team for a couple of indoor, winter leagues.

Once my playing days were done (blown out knee!!!), I began coaching youth soccer. I started as a parent/assistant coach for my daughter Kenda's teams, and also served as head coach for a few recreational teams in the Noblesville United Soccer Club.

	SOCCER RELATED WEB LINKS St. Theodore Guerin Catholic High School's Women's Soccer Program North Central Recreational Soccer League FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) US Youth Soccer Region II Indiana Youth Soccer Association Central Indiana Youth Soccer Hamilton County Special Olympics

Return to my home page index. Copyright © 2009-2012 Roger I. Hintz, Jr. This page was created on Monday, October 26, 2009. Most recent revision: Thursday, January 05, 2012 7:20 PM EST.

Noblesville United Soccer Club 8600 East 196th Street Noblesville, IN 46062 317-773-9248