Piper took his physical for the 2003/04 season on Friday (Sept 19) and had his first practices over the weekend of 20th/21st. "There are a lot of new bodies and we're a younger team this year," Piper said.

The Milwaukee Wave will host the MISL's pre-season tournament September 26-27 at their new arena. All nine of the MISL teams will be taking part with back-to-back games both days/evenings. The Tournament is to benefit Easter Seals.

Piper is currently training with/trying out for the A-League team owned by the Milwaukee Wave. He played in one of their pre-season games on April 26.

Piper signed a Major Indoor Soccer League professional contract with the Milwaukee Wave on March 6th, the last day before the roster freeze prior to the league's playoffs. Five games remained in the regular season. To see the MISL news release, click here. Piper played his first professional game against the Philadelphia KIXX, the last game before the playoffs.

He agreed to a one year contract which includes next season according to his agent.

Piper's first official public participation was at the March 15th Saturday afternoon game in Milwaukee against the home-state team he followed as a young boy, the Dallas Sidekicks. Piper was able to watch his favorite MISL legend, Tatu, in one of his last games ever as a player.

Our favorite player participated in a pre-game soccer clinic, signed autographs and had his picture taken with young fans. The announced attendance was just over 8,000 with Milwaukee winning 12-4, clinching the regular season title and home field advantage in the playoffs.

At this time, it looks as if Piper will play in several of the remaining regular season games. The first opportunity will be Sunday afternoon, March 16, in a game where the team will be wearing special green match jerseys in honor of St. Patrick's Day. The jerseys are to be auctioned off for charity after the game. The team's next game is a Friday night game in Milwaukee March 21 and a game in Philadelphia the next night, March 22.

 

Our favorite number 11 trained with the Rampage from about the first week of the season and represented the team at several different community soccer functions, including putting on a short soccer clinic by himself the weekend of the 18/19th of May. He played in a game against the Chicago Fire Reserve on Monday the 20th, scoring the first goal of the match and getting in about 50 minutes of playing time in a game that ended tied at 2-2. However, after spinning his wheels there for several weeks, his new sports agent told him to walk away from the team.(6/26/02) NOTE: The Rampage folded shortly into 2003, having won the A-League Championship in 2002.

No. 11 was invited back to participate in another preseason tryout with the Milwaukee Rampage, one of the premier teams in the USL A-League, the second division of U.S. soccer. The invitation came after a grueling week of two-a-day tryouts at the Rampage facilities the week of Dec. 17th. Approximately 20 players took part in the tryout and four were invited back for preseason training.(12/20/01)

At the same time, Piper received a letter from the coach of the Atlanta Silverbacks, another strong USL A-League team, inviting him to their invitation-only tryouts in February. Piper has also been invited to tryout with the Hampton Roads Mariners, a new A-League team in Virginia Beach, VA.

 Stint with Milwaukee Wave of MISL

Piper was invited to an invitation only tryout with the Milwaukee Wave of the new Major Indoor Soccer League. They are the defending champions. About 30 players were invited and Piper was asked to stay on for pre-season training, one of about nine players, including several NPSL veterans. Our favorite player had the opportunity to train under Coach Keith Tozer who is also the coach of the U. S. National Futsal Team and, according to those Piper talke with, runs the most complicated system in the MISL. "My head hurt thinking about everything while out there on the field," Piper said.

Pipe had the opportunity to play in a pre-season exhibition game against the Cleveland Crunch and played 3 of the 4 quarters. The Wave defeated the Crunch. The next evening the Wave again played the Crunch at a local arena and there were a reported 7,000 fans in attendance. Piper was later cut but feels the experience was a great one to have. Two players were kept, both NPSL veterans. (Aug./Sept. 2001)

 

Piper was working a "real" job at the UIS recreation facility the last part of 2001 until leaving to train in Milwaukee the last week of April or so.

 New Job

Piper was asked to coach a Springfield high school boy's JV soccer team in the fall of 2001 and he ahead and accepted the position. Piper also acted as an Assistant Coach for the boys' Varsity team.

Piper was back in Springfield by the end of July. The A-League rosters were a week away from being frozen by the time he returned, so that avenue was pretty much closed to him because of time considerations. The good part is that some A-League teams start tryouts only a month or two after the season ends.

 

Roommate

Piper's roommate while in Germany was Attila Birlik who spoke English and whom Piper was impressed. You can see Attila's homepage at http://atilla-birlik.de/index_html.

Atilla is represented by Rogon Sport Management.

Atilla Birlik, Pipe's roommate

Piper left for Nurenberg, Germany, by way of Paris, France, Thursday, July 12th, to train for several days with Turkish 1st Division team Antalyaspor. He's staying at the Holiday Inn Nuremberg and, ironically, at the Paris de Gaulle Holiday Inn on his return flight the 19th.

While waiting in the lobby of the Nurenberg hotel, Piper ran into Tony Sanneh of the U. S. National Team who plays for FC Nurenberg. He's also seen Franz Beckenbauer, famous German player of the past who is now the head of one of the top German teams, who is there along with several other former German National team players. They are there for some sort of testimonial game for a retiring German player.

Upon his arrival in Germany on Friday (their time), he hooked up with the team and ended up trainning with them that evening...after having been "on the road" since 5:00 a.m. Thursday. Trainning consisted of drills and, at the end, a number of sprints. By 11 p.m. Piper was exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep. Next trainning session was to be at 10:00 a.m. Saturday. 

Piper is set to play several games against German teams. Antalyaspor is a mid-table team located in Antalya on Turkey's southern Mediterranean Sea coast. It is a very popular tourist destination with a population of just over 1 million.

The team's logo.

"Old City" Resort

If you want to learn and see more about Antalya, click here. http://www.mersina.com/Turkey/Mediterranean/Antalya

 

Want to see where Antalya is? Or Nuremberg? Click this: Map.

After page comes up, click "map" in far upper left corner. Then click "World Atlas" on left side column of new screen. Then type in either "Turkey" or "Germany". They have very good maps.

We'll have more when he comes back.

Piper played his first tournament since his operation in December this past weekend. He played four games in two days (June 23-24) in a large state-wide tournament with a team of players about his age. They made it to the final where they were beaten by a men's team that was in better shape than the college kids on Piper's team.

On Monday (June 25th) he went to his regular Frappier session where he had a very tough workout. They had warned him on Friday to "take it easy over the weekend" because they were going to work him extra hard on Monday. Guess playing four games is his idea of taking it easy.

Piper said Monday night that he was really worn out from the weekend and the rigourous workout he'd had that morning with the Frappier trainers. However, he said that his knee "felt better than before (the injury)".

 

That is what Dr. Wolin told Piper Monday (June 4th). And that everything is looking perfect. So, the next move, which the doctor is helping out with, is to find a team to start out with. Should hear something this week.

While there, Piper ran into Chicago Fire player Andrew Lewis who was in for an appointment.

Andrew Lewis of the Chicago Fire

 

Burn Fun: Piper and his girl friend Becky (left) drove down from Springfield, Illinois, to see Paul Broome (right) play in the season-opener of the Dallas Burn. They are pictured, along with Broome's girl friend Keesha Robinson, who came in from New York City, after the game before they went out for a "night on the town." Unfortunately, the Burn lost to Tampa Bay 4-2 but it was a beautiful evening for a game and approximately 15,400 fans showed up.

Latest News: Piper attended an all-day conference in late March that will prepare him for taking the test for his national certificate in June.

Piper has been hitting the books quite hard in his efforts to become a nationally certified Strength and Conditioning coach/trainer. The study package includes a large textbook, video and audio tapes. He is doing this as a self-study project instead of taking a course.

Pipe is working at the UIS gym and has recently conducted some mini-workshops on weight lifting. Piper is also taking a college computer course this semester.

Latest News: Piper has been seeing steady progress in his rehab, including "tests" to see how progress is going. For instance, he's now bending his knee to 135 degrees of the 145 the doctor is looking for. He's now running 20 mph on the treadmill and 13 mph backwards. He did 15 before the accident. Piper is also doing some jumps and cutting and feels pretty good about it. He's even played some basketball. In some tests his left knee is actually as good as the right. Yeah for Pipe!

In his third post-op Chicago visit the first week of March, he ran into new Chicago Fire player Sergi Daniv, a former Dallas Burn player, at Athletico Limited. They talked "shop", including their mutual friend Paul Broome of the Burn.

Sergi Daniv

 

 

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Piper Finishes College Career with 121 Points.

42 goals, 37 assists

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Albuquerque News Article features Piper.

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Piper was rewarded for his efforts at the 1999 NAIA National Championship in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by being named to the14 player All-Tournament Team. He was the only American named of the four forwards who also included a Dane, German and Kenyan. Only three Americans were named to the entire team.

Our #11 scored four goals in three games, including both goals in a 2-1 second round defeat of arch rival Life University: the opening goal and the winner with less than 4 minutes remaining in the 2nd sudden-death OT. He finished the season with 21 goals and 15 assists for, we think, better than 50 points which would put him in the top 10-15 NAIA forwards in the country. UIS ended 1999 with a record of 17-5-2 and 20-5-2 with exhibition pre-season games.

He had the equalizer goal against No. 1 seeded and ranked Mobile just 1 minute and 10 seconds after Mobile scored. The game ended 2-1 with Mobile scoring in the 2nd OT.

Foreign Influence:

Piper Lee was interviewed by the Albuquerque newspaper (see story) after the Life game and asked what he thought about the "foreign influence" clearly visible on the rosters of the teams involved in the championship. Piper said, to paraphrase: I feel it improves my game having to play against such talented, older foreign players.

More than 80% of the defenders Piper faced in the games against Life and Mobile were foreign. Of course, on the flip side of the coin, the UIS defenders and keeper Rob Fox had to face substantial attacks from mostly foreign players, including several who have played for their national sides.

 

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Last updated 9/21/2003

Background: Late news and background information on Piper Lee, a former soccer player at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Piper Lee went to the NAIA National Men's Soccer Tournament all four years he played at UIS and was named the NAIA Great Lakes Region Player of the Week twice in 1999 and was also named to the NAIA Men's National Soccer Championship Tournament All-Tournament Team as a forward. Lee scored four goals during the tournament. Piper Lee is from Comfort and Boerne, Texas near San Antonio where he went to Texas Military Institute, graduating in 1995. He is a Shawnee member of the Cherokee Nation and was born in Ponca City, Oklahoma.