| Sportsplex lets cold-weather athletes
get their game on in Kernstown By Jessica J. Burchard
The Winchester Star
Kernstown — The Winchester Impact rarely has to
worry about one of its games being canceled because of
weather.
The 17-member semi-professional soccer team plays all of
its games on an indoor turf field at the Sportsplex in
Kernstown.
On Sunday night, a crowd of 250 gathered inside the
Sportsplex to watch the competition.
Several spectators came to support specific players.
Elise Delmerico, 18, a senior at Handley High School,
came to watch Mike Koper, an Impact team member who also
serves as assistant varsity coach for Handley’s
soccer team.
She noted that indoor soccer is much more intense than
outdoor soccer.
"Indoor is really intense. It’s short sprints
and a lot of action," she said.
While outdoor soccer allows for more space between the
competing teams’ goals, indoor soccer has a short
distance between them, creating more direct contact among
players.
"The ball is just flying everywhere," Delmerico
said as she watched the game.
The Impact is just one team that participates in indoor
sports locally. The Sportsplex also contracts space to
Ironman Sports LLC for its competitions.
Ironman now handles the Impact and a professional inline
hockey team called the Winchester Generals.
Admission to the games is free for children under 8.
Tickets for children 9-13 are $3 each, and anyone 14 or
older pays $5.
Rodney Brown, co-owner of Ironman, sees the potential for
great growth for indoor sports.
"We live in an area where a lot of the sports come
to a stand-still in the cold weather," he said.
"Now, we don’t have to worry about it."
The Impact began its first season on Dec. 19 and played
its second soccer game on Sunday.
Each game has four 15-minute quarters. Brown estimates it
takes about 90 minutes to complete a game, but the
Sportsplex field is reserved for two hours.
"We always make time at the end of the game for fans
to come up and meet the players," Brown said. "At
the last game, about 200 people came up."
Shauna Rudolph of Winchester brought her family to Sunday’s
game so her 7-year-old son, Alec, could see his soccer
coach in action and talk to him after the game.
"He’s really into seeing his coach, Mike Ruddy,
play," Rudolph said.
Rudolph held Alec so he could watch the action through a
protective sheet of Plexiglass.
"I like it when Mike kicks," said Alec,
referring to his favorite part of the game.
For its second game, the Impact played against the
Fredericksburg Generals, which is among the most popular
teams in the indoor soccer league. The Generals have an
average attendance of 700 people per game.
"Soccer is much more popular than other indoor
sports," Brown said. "It has a higher hold in
the area than inline hockey."
***
Inline hockey games at the Sportsplex draw an average
crowd of about 100 people.
But Brown believes people will gradually become more
interested in the sport.
"Inline hockey is starting to gain popularity,"
he said. "In inline hockey, the quality of scoring
is increased."
Inline hockey has a player ratio of four-on-four, instead
of the standard five-on-five in ice hockey. Each inline
hockey team has 12 players.
Additionally, the inline hockey games go faster than ice
hockey.
Minor league inline hockey teams, comprised of players 16
and older, play two 10-minute halves.
Professional inline hockey teams, with players 18 and
older, play two 12-minute halves.
Both professional and minor league teams play double-headers
during indoor events.
The Winchester Generals played a double-header on
Saturday afternoon. Combined with the minor league
competitions, the four games took about three hours to
finish.
Besides being faster than regular hockey, "Inline
skating will bring in a different type of athlete,"
Brown said. "Someone who is into inline skating and
extreme sports."
In 2009, Brown hopes to add a youth team to his inline
hockey league.
"We just feel that youth who participate in sports
get to have opportunities other kids don’t," he
said. "Really, we’d like to have a strong
connection with kids."
***
For more information about Ironman Sports LLC, call
Rodney Brown at 540-435-6678.
On the Internet...
www.winchestergenerals.com
www.winchesterimpact.com
www.sportsplex.us
See original article at
Winchester Star
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