This is just a fun thing, sort of like that game The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon where you associate one actor with another and another in different movies to build a "link" between them...but this is different. Piper has been associated with a number of people involved in the MLS..sometimes by a degree of separation, sometimes not:
Pre-season training with Milwaukee Wave United--Pipe is currently training /trying out with Wave United, which also owns the MISL Wave, in Milwaukee.
Piper has been signed by the Milwaukee Wave of the MILS and has been training since August with fellow Texan Johnny Torres (see below) who was in the MLS for some time. Also, Craig Scheer, a fellow UIS graduate and former teammate, is playing with the Baltimore Blast of the MISL (see below). Several of the Wave are current or former A-League players and one of his teammates is Johnny Torres (see below)
Piper trained with the Milwaukee Rampage of the A-League.
Piper participated in a week-long tryout with the Milwaukee Rampage of the A-League the week of Dec. 17th, and was able to play Digital Takawira of Zimbabwe, a player Piper has been following for some time. Piper was invited to return to the Rampage's during the regular seson. Digital, a former A-League MVP, played 103 games over four seasons with Kansas City Wizards, scoring 28 goals and 19 assists.
New: Digital signed with the Milwaukee Wave United after the Rampage closed shop early in 2003.
Digital Takawira
New!
Speaking of Tryouts, Piper may just run into another player who he's had contact with and who played with the MLS, Judah Cooks, who signed with the Atlanta Silverbacks of the A-League for 2002 and formerly of D.C. United. Piper has been intvited to tryout with the Silverbacks during February. Our number 11 played with Cooks when he was invited to live and train with the U. S. U-17 National Team when they were in San Antonio training for a week before their tour of Cuba while Piper was in high school.
Judah Cooks
Because of his ACL injury, Piper has been connected to the MLS in new ways...through his surgery and recovery. Dr. Preston Wolin of Chicago, who repaired Pipe's left ACL in late November, had previously reconstructed former Chicago Fire forward Josh Wolff's left ACL and just recently (1/11/2001) performed surgery on the left knee of the former Fire's Bulgarian playmaker Hristo Stoitchkov in his capacity as the Fire's Team Physician.
Stoitchkov
Wolff
Dr. Wolin
NEW: Wolff is now with the Kansas City Wizards and Stoitchkov is with D.C. United for the 2003 season.
Piper played several seasons on club Div. 1 teams and South Texas State ODP teams with recent MLS D. C. United forward Mike Burke. Burke, who was drafted 41st overall in the 2000 MLS Superdraft. started several games for D.C. but was cut June 2nd and then picked up by the Dallas Burn and played two games for them and then was cut June 30th.
Latest News (12/01) Mike Burke has signed a 3 year contract the team announced in the past couple of weeks. The team finished 1st in the Regular season, gaining more points than any other team in the league in 2001.
He is now with the A-League Richmond Kickers, along with two other former San Antonio players. Burke first played with the Charleston Battery where he was named A-League Rookie of the Year. Piper and Burke would most often start together. Their mothers drove together to see them in their first Region III ODP camp in Mississippi. Head of South Texas coaching then was Dave Simeone, now a Staff Coach of U. S. Women's Soccer Program. Most recently, Burke played with the Cleveland Crunch of the indoor NPSL league the winter of 2000-2001.
Piper was named the San Antonio Express-News Soccer Player of the Year as was fellow San Antonian Jimmy Glenn who had a stint with the Dallas Burn and who has been with the A-League's Rochester Ragin' Rhinos for several seasons.
Glenn and Rochester had contract problems prior to the 2001 season and he is no longer with them. In the USL off season Glenn played in the NPSL indoor league. NEW: Glenn seems to have retired as a player and is living in the Dallas area as far as we know.
Jimmy Glenn the last we heard was living in Dallas.
A 2000 MLS rookie who Piper played against in the NAIA the past few years, including the 1999 National semi-final, was midfielder Dominic Schell of the MLS Columbus Crew.
Schell is playing with the El Paso Patriots for the 2002 season after having played for the Nashville Metros in 2001.
NEW: Schell's contract with the Pats was not renewed for 2003. He is currently trying to hook up with another A-League team this spring.
Peter Fuller, Schell's coach at Mobile, was Piper's ODP coach two years at the Region III Camp.
Piper played against Schell's high school during the state championships on two occassions and beat Bishop Lynch High School of Dallas. Schell won the state championship in 1996, the year after Piper graduated from Texas Military Institute in San Antonio.
Schell was the only recent NAIA player in the MLS in 2000 except for Ivan McKinley of the New England Revolution, who played for Boca Raton when it was in the NAIA. Schell was the only NAIA player drafted by MLS in 2000. There are quite a few NAIA players in the A-League.
Another connection to the A-League and the NAIA is former University of Illinois at Springfield teammate Craig Scheer who played his 3rd year in the league in 2000. The former UIS midfielder originally signed with the Cincinnati Riverhawks but has spent his second two years with the Hershey Wildcats, playing in 27 games in '99.
NEW! Scheer is playing in the Major Indoor Soccoer League (MISL) with the Baltimore Blast in 2003 and we've seen him a couple of times on Fox Sports World's broadcasts. Now there are two former UIS players in the MISL! PIPER'S MILWAUKEE WAVE AND SCHEER'S BLAST MET IN THE 2003 3-GAME CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES. THE BLAST WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE THIRD GAME AT MILWAUKEE BEFORE NEARLY 13,000 FANS.
Craig Scheer
Piper played against former MLS New England Revolution forward Johnny Torres during his ODP years because Torres was with the North Texas' ODP program. Torres is playing with the Minnesota Thunder of the A-League in 2002 and played for the Milwaukee Wave of the MISL in the 2001-2002 season.
NEW: Torres was Piper's teammate at the Wave in the 2002-2003 MISL season and bought drinks for Piper after Pipe played in his first ever professional game which was in Philadelphia against the KIXX.
Johnny Torres formerly of the New England Revs.
Our #11 trained with Daniel Hernandez , current member of the New York /New Jersey Metrostars, when Piper was at Southern Methodist University. Piper also played against Hernandez in ODP since Hernandez was a member of North Texas' side.
Latest News: Daniel Hernandez was traded to the New England Revolution approximately 5/24/02 in the largest trade in MLS history. This was a shock since he'd been acting as Captain in many of the games of the new season. NEW: Hernandez is still with the Revs in '03.
Daniel Hernandez , traded to the New England Revs in late May, 2002.
Latest News: Paul Broome is a married man now. The wedding took place shortly after the 2001 MLS season.
Piper trained with and became a friend of current MLS Dallas Burn player Paul Broome while at Southern Methodist University. They are still in contact on regular basis and Piper has gone to several of his games in Dallas and Chicago where he also met Burn keeper Matt Jordan who was Paul's "road trip" roommate.
Paul is getting lots of playing time and started virtually every game in the 2002 season. NEW: Broome is still at Dallas doing his thing.
Paul Broome of the Dallas Burn
Piper was coached a season by former MLS Tampa Bay Mutiny player Marco Ferruzzi in San Antonio while with the Generals Soccer Club, the same club where Mike Burke played soccer with Piper.
Marco Ferruzzi former MVP of the Richmond Kickers
New: Ferruzzi signed with the Minnesota Thunder just prior to their pre-season training for the 2003 season.
Ferruzzi signed with the Kickers for 2002 and had an MVP year. Team resigned 15 players, including Mike Burke. Ferruzzi was the only starter not to have signed his 2002 contract close to season opening. However, even though it looked "bad", Furruzzi has resigned with the team and has been seen on tv acting as Captain.
Furruzzi joined the MLS, being drafted 6th in the Supplemental Draft in '97 and played 18 games for Tampa, getting two assists. He is still with the A-League's Richmond Kickers where Mike Burke is currently playing. Ferruzzi was voted team MVP in '99.
Also with the Kicker's is former San Antonio club player Chris Brown, who went to American Univ. and has had brief stints with Dallas and Tampa Bay.
Piper played with Steve Farrer, brother of Dallas Burn defender Richard Ferrar, while with the 1996 Austin Lone Stars PDL team.
While also with the Lone Stars, Pipe played with Jacob Thomas who is now with German 3rd Div. team Eintracht Braunschweig. Jacob signed a new contract with the team in the Spring of '01.
Jacob Thomas of Eintracht Braunschweig.
Piper was coached by Joe Eck, brother of former Dallas Burn defender Ted Eck, for four seasons at the University of Illinois at Springfield where he's been an assistant for several years. In 2002 he took over the head coaching job at UIS. Piper met Ted Eck at school while he was visiting his brother.
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