Utica may have become a hockey town over the past two weeks as the International Ice Hockey Federation Women's World Championship was held at the Adirondack Bank Center, but it also had a moment for professional soccer Thursday night.
Three members of the Utica City Football Club, midfielder/forward Gordie Garson, goalkeeper Julian Rodriguez, and midfielder Ricardo Orozco, along with Garson's 8-year-old son Enid, attended the Subaru World Tour. They faced off in a foosball game at Championship Village.
The village is set inside and outside the former Audilicious building and features an indoor German-style beer garden, a variety of indoor and outdoor sports-based games and challenges, live music, and a Ferris wheel.
When asked which is harder, soccer or foosball, Gerson and Rodriguez said soccer. Enid, who is already a soccer player herself, agreed.
Gerson had gone outside earlier to guard the goal net the soccer club had installed in the village so visitors could aim through the hole between the canvas goalkeeper's legs. He interacted with the children taking pictures one after another.
The soccer players found time to get into the hockey spirit and watched a game between Team USA and Finland. They even made an “iconic” wave during the match, they said.
“It was fun to come here, watch the games and be a regular supporter,” Rodriguez said.
Gerson said soccer and hockey are very similar, including the atmosphere of the crowd during games. “I feel like the fans that root for the (Utica) Comets will also root for us,” he added.
super fan
Gaetano Morreale, 30, took shots at hockey puck after hockey puck Thursday night, trying to land the puck in an open clothes dryer. An outdoor village activity called the Laundry Shoot Challenge featured a top-loading washing machine next to a dryer.
Morreale, who was killing time before the Japan-U.S. game later that night, admitted the challenge was much more difficult than he expected. Before the tournament, the East Utica resident considered himself a hockey fan, mostly rooting for his alma mater, the Utica College Pioneers.
But after watching the first two games of the tournament, he realized that his interest in hockey had increased to a new level, and he started asking all kinds of questions about power plays, penalty strikes, and other complex games. he said.
Morreale dressed up for that night's game wearing a Team USA jersey and flag-patterned red, white and blue face paint. “He wanted to be on Team USA,” he said. “The other day I gave my all for the Finnish team.”
In that game, he painted his face to look like the Finnish flag and chose Finland. Because he spent several months in Finland and found the country to be a T-shaped fit for his personality. He also painted his face to look like the German flag at another game, rooting for Finland. Morreale said he came to Germany because his grandmother's family has German roots and he is interested in German culture.
Earlier that day, a Finn had seen him cheering for Finland among a crowd of American fans and presented him with a Finland pin, which he wore on his hat.
“I felt like my soul was happy,” Morreale said.
curling and hockey
New Hartford resident Chris Schaefer and his wife stood by a giant curling table set up by the village's Utica Curling Club, waiting for their daughter to join them for an evening game. .
Their location was a coincidence, but Schaefer once tried curling for a season and found it great.
“This is a very social sport and a social activity,” he said. “The sport itself is very strategic and very difficult. It requires a delicate touch.”
Schaefer, who grew up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, admitted that she had never heard of curling until she moved to upstate New York.
But he said he and his family are also hockey fans and watch hockey all the time. He originally loved hockey, and his daughter Erica also took up hockey. “This has made me 10x (a fan),” he said.
Erika was a senior in college and was playing on the Utica University team. She broke her fibula at 4:30 p.m. on February 12, three games before the playoffs. Her orthopedic boot is still on her foot, and she said her hockey career is over.
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She watched part of the 2017 Women's World Championship in Detroit and said she was inspired by the competition. “It made her want to play harder,” Erika Schaefer said.
She said she's excited to now be able to watch the tournament she grew up playing in her own backyard.
Praise for Utica
Chris and Gretchen Coffey of Cazenovia used the time before Thursday night's hockey game to throw darts at a gaming machine in the indoor portion of the village. They said they had the same game at home.
The couple, who call themselves hockey fans, said they just wanted to see what was going on in Utica. Chris Coffey, who played ice hockey at the State University of New York at Canton during his college days, said he attended a prep school with the girls who went on to compete in the Olympics.
“It’s really beautiful,” he said of the Utica setup. “They did a great job…we said they should have come earlier.”
Gretchen Coffey said it was the couple's first trip to Utica in years (they are Syracuse Crunch and Colgate University Raiders fans) and that the town around Banks Center is “definitely on the upswing.”
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Subaru World Championship Village offers games, beer garden, food and fun
