Eastern All-Stars Announced
Published on February 4, 2003 under Major Indoor Soccer League 2 (MISL 2) News Release
(Westport, Conn., February 4, 2003) â Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) Commissioner Steve Ryan has announced the selections for the League's Eastern Conference All-Star Team. The 2003 MISL All-Star Game will be played on Sunday, March 9, at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Kickoff is slated for 1:30 p.m. Central Time.
The Eastern Conference squad is comprised of players from the Baltimore Blast, Cleveland Force, Harrisburg Heat, and Philadelphia KiXX, and the Western Conference team, which will be announced on Wednesday, February 5, will feature players from the Dallas Sidekicks, Kansas City Comets, Milwaukee Wave, and San Diego Sockers.
The first-place Philadelphia KiXX and the third-place Harrisburg Heat boast five selections on the Eastern Conference team, headlined by five-time All-Star Peter Pappas, currently 15-4 with a 9.47 points against average. KiXX forward Joel Shanker, the Most Valuable Player of last season's All-Star Game, joins Pappas in the starting lineup for the East. Shanker leads the KiXX and is tied for 10th in the MISL with 54 points in 2002-â03.
The Conference's leading scorer, David Bascome of Harrisburg with 67 points, will start at forward, making his fourth All-Star appearance (though he was selected a fifth time and did not play due to injury). He will be accompanied by Heat teammate Genoni Martinez, the League's highest-scoring defender (61 points) and leading shot-blocker (61 rejections), in the first five for the East.
The East's starting lineup is rounded out by the incomparable Hector Marinaro, a six-time Most Valuable Player and nine-time All-Star selection, and two-time Defender of the Year Sean Bowers of the Baltimore Blast. Marinaro has scored 46 points in 15 games this season, and Bowers has tallied 29 points and 52 blocks (third in the MISL). Marinaro, the League's all-time leading scorer with 2,301 points, will tie Jamie Swanner for the most All-Star appearances (10) when he takes the field in Milwaukee. The 39-year-old Marinaro is the leading scorer in All-Star game history with 46 points.
Philadelphia, owners of the second-best defense in the League, will also be represented by defenders Glenn Carbonara (sixth All-Star Game) and Pat Morris (second selection).
KiXX forward Don D'Ambra, who earlier this season scored the 700th point of his career, has been voted into his first All-Star Game, creating an interesting decision. Because the head coaches of both the Eastern and Western Conference teams will be determined by the won-lost percentage of MISL teams through play on Sunday, February 16, and because Philadelphia is guaranteed to remain in first place at least through the 16th, D'Ambra would have been the East's head coach. The Philly native has decided to play for, not coach, the Eastern Conference side, meaning that the coach of the team with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference will guide the All-Star unit.
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Cleveland's Jim Larkin, the only goalkeeper in the League to start all of his team's games this season, will combine with Pappas in goal. Larkin joins Marinaro, John Ball, and Giuliano Oliviero as Force players selected to the midseason classic; Ball (the MVP of the 2001 Game in Buffalo) and Oliviero will both make their third All-Star appearance.
Along with Bascome and Martinez, Harrisburg defender Chris Morman (who made his first All-Star appearance last year) and midfielders Ato Leone (54 points, tied for 10th in the MISL) and Marco "Chikis" Lopez have been selected to play in the Game. Leone and Lopez, both of whom enjoyed numerous outstanding seasons in the now-defunct WISL, will both make their first MISL All-Star appearances.
Baltimore's lethal Denison Cabral, 15th in the League with 47 points, is the Blast's other selection. Cabral will make his fourth All-Star appearance.
As the League's showcase event, the 2003 MISL All-Star Weekend will feature three days of professional indoor soccer celebration, including an All-Star Press Conference and Luncheon, a Commissioner's Dinner for "Keith's Kids" (a charitable organization headed by Milwaukee coach Keith Tozer), a Youth Skills Competition, and an All-Star Skills Competition.
Major Indoor Soccer League 2 Stories from February 4, 2003
- Heat Sends Five Players to All-Star Game - Harrisburg Heat
- Four Players Selected to Represent Force in All-Star Game - Cleveland Force
- Eastern All-Stars Announced - MISL 2
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