re: New Gamecock Soccer Facilities

When Mark first got here I met him within the first couple of weeks ... he was dating, well "seeing," this pretty gal that worked for me at the time, Maureen Ahern from New York, or maybe New Jersey, I can't remember. Really pretty, tall, green eyed, lithe coed, played volleyball for us if I remember correctly. But through her I got to know him and have remained friends with him all of these years ... almost forty years, wow.

Anyways, at the time I remember talking to him about building a program here and he said we already had a good club system so he was going to build off of that - which he did in relatively short order. And he said, even then, that SC produced some good soccer talent even though it was just taking off back then really.

(Trivia: Ronnie Bass was an excellent college level elite soccer player but chose to play football. He had been raised as a military brat and was naturally athletic with good feet and he had learned overseas.)

But Mark was always pushing for better facilities and our program was always trying to give him better facilities ... glad to see it finally come to fruition.

I'm getting a tour of the new facility tomorrow. Looks like one of my Goddaughters is playing for Shelley this year ... at least that's the plan so far, as a walk on. She was well recruited but decided she just wanted to concentrate on school - but once she got here she changed her mind. I'm not sure how long it is going to last but for now anyways ...

The new building is finally up and running. It should be a great recruiting tool. Would really like to see Mark win the big one before he retires and I know Shelley honestly believes she can win a National Championship here.