HSU Insider

World Cup Games at Hardin-Simmons Make For Some Zany Ball Games

• By Janlyn Echols Thaxton
• Posted July 15, 2009 9:32 AM
• 0 Comments

Ryan Shaughnessy is well over six feet tall, athletic, and sports a red, white, and blue lei around his neck. The lei is easily explained since he is the coach for the USA soccer team competing for the World Cup bragging rights.

In fact, he is one of some 24 coaches helping this year with what has become an annual summer event at Hardin-Simmons University.

Shaughnessy is a 2006 HSU graduate and has played professional soccer in Belgium for several years. That is also why he doesn't seem to mind wearing his shoulder-length hair in two braids tied with yarn. Ryan says one of the USA players did the special "do" as part of his costume for the World Cup.

HSU Women's Soccer Coach, Marcus Wood, is the organizer of the camp. He says World Cup Night is the highlight of the four-day event. "It's the part of the camp that all of the players look forward too."

Campers live in dorms from Wednesday through Saturday while working on dribbling, passing, and other drills to hone their skills. Students, ages 7 through 18 come from all over the state to participate. "One camper even came from as far away as Durango, Colorado," says Wood.

There's no doubt about this night's festive atmosphere. Campers devote the day to preparing for the big event. Players participate in a mock draft as they are divided into teams representing real teams who play in the real World Cup. Then players paint their faces, their hair, and their T-shirts to represent the country for which they are playing.

Thirteen-year-old Joshua has been coming to the camp for four years. He is excited to be playing for Italy and has painted a white T-shirt with red and green stripes. Ryan says the Wylie seventh-grader showed up the first day wearing a jersey with an Italian player's name on the back. "We just started calling him 'Totti,'" says Shaughnessy. "He's a funny kid. On the first day I told him he didn't have to call me 'sir.' He told me he didn't call me 'sir' he called me 'son.' So Josh became 'Totti' and I became 'son,'" Ryan says with a laugh.

Among the unique T-shirts and hairdos, there is also a range of festive costumes. Eight-year-old Mandy of Wylie was selected to play for Egypt, an especially festive team. Coach Brent Camp did not seem to mind wearing a pyramid for his costume. Camp is an assistant soccer coach at HSU and also the head girl's coach at Abilene High School.

This is the first year two sisters from Weatherford have attended the camp. Seven-year-old Maysi sits with a group of friends on the sidelines as she watches two teams battle it out. She is also wearing a T-shirt bearing red and green stripes. Not to be confused with Italy, Maysi has been drafted to the Mexico team. "It's pretty cool, the way they do this, and being on a college campus is fun," she remarks.


Maysi's eight-year-old sister, Morgan, has been playing soccer since she was three. She wears a T-shirt with a large red dot on the front representing Japan. Morgan is eager to tell what she got to do for the tournament. "The first chance I got, I asked Coach Wood if I could sing the national anthem during the opening ceremony. Then I sang a little bit and he said 'You're hired!'" Not standing far away, Coach Chris O'Brien comments on the singing. He says of the national anthem, "That was pretty awesome. Morgan is a good singer!"

Opening ceremonies is another one of the elements that makes World Cup so much fun. O'Brien, a star soccer player for HSU and a criminal justice major, explains that teams paint the flag of the country they represent. "Then painted flags, T-shirts, costumes, and all parade from Anderson dorm to the playing fields." Campers wave to the crowd of parents gathering for the event.

Morgan's and Maysi's mom is on hand for the tournament. She says the girls are having a lot of fun at the camp. Lori Richards says, "Maysi and Morgan will probably come back next year since they have made so many new friends."

Among their friends are several Abilene girls: Madelyn goes to College Heights Elementary, Kacee goes to Jackson, and Mandy goes to Wylie. All have been drafted by Egypt's Coach Camp, who wears the pyramid they made for him. In fact, Camp wears the pyramid even while he coaches throughout the tournament.

The World Cup event goes to just past midnight with Mexico winning the bragging rights for the younger player division. Ryan's USA players, one of the ten teams in the high school division, got the shutout from England.

Both teams receive trophies for the wins, only to turn around and break both of them. Coach O'Brien says, "That's okay. That's the tradition." Shaughnessy adds, "We break the trophies with one piece going to each player on the team. The trophies are old ones. The point is, each player gets to take home a little piece of the bragging rights."