Locals, cruise ship crew, visitors, unite for soccer game in Haines

(Rashah McChesney/Chilkat Valley News)

By Rashah McChesney

Chilkat Valley News

Forty people representing at least a dozen nationalities came together to play soccer in Haines on Saturday. 

People who showed up to play said it’s common to find people pulling together a soccer game a couple of times a week in the summers, but Saturday’s crowd was the largest anyone remembered seeing. 

The game, scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m., started as something of a rematch between locals and a dozen crew members from the Ritz-Carlton ship Luminara, which was in port from noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday.  

Sicilian Fabio D’agosta, who is a general manager with the company, said it is the third time crew from the ship has disembarked in Haines to spend time playing soccer.  

“Today, of course, the weather was much better so the presence is much higher,” said D’agosta, as he squinted in the midday heat. It reached 74 degrees at the Haines airport on Saturday. 

So far, Haines is the only place the Luminara’s crew has been able to arrange such an event. 

“We found a really good community,” he said. “We’ve connected with nice people.” 

It also helps that the high school soccer field is close to the dock. 

 “In all honesty, we don’t have much time because we’re working,” D’agosta said.

The last time crew from the ship showed up they had a strong showing against the locals who could make it out mid-afternoon. This time, they incorporated a few locals into their crew. 

“But we still won,” D’agosta said, laughing.  

They’ve had some help coordinating games from Haines’ Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska port manager Leslie Ross. 

Ross said she has been helping arrange games between crew and locals for about nine years. 

“It’s random,” she said. “It depends on if the ship wants to do it. Usually on the ship I deal with the crew. They’ll reach out and ask if they can go somewhere when they’re off and play soccer and basketball.” 

In addition to the ship’s crew and locals, about a dozen other players showed up from various corners of the continent. 

Canadians Jack Tennant, Matthew Moreau and Justin Miller joined in to play for about an hour before they headed off to explore Haines. The three are from Edmonton, Alberta. 

Tennant said he found out about the game while walking around town on Friday. The group is on a road trip. They were supposed to go kayaking on Saturday, but those plans had been cancelled so they had a day to explore the town. 

On Friday, Tennant and the group had been walking around Haines when they stumbled across a group of people playing spike ball — think of it as a cross between volleyball and foursquare — who invited them to soccer. Then, they ran into one of the women from that group again during Saturday’s farmer’s market. 

“She gave me a sticker and said, ‘come play,’” he said. So the three showed up to check it out.  

Tennant and Moreau said they’d played on the same soccer team for 10 years, Justin Miller played for a few years as well. 

“We love soccer,” Moreau said. 

Tennant said it’s not the first time they’ve found their way into a soccer game with strangers. While on a trip to Peru, Tennant said he and Moreau had played a couple of times with a group in Aguas Calientes. 

A group of 16-year-old boys from Michigan on the tail end of a weeks-long trip with the YMCA also made their way to the pitch. They shed layers in the heat, and because most didn’t have any gear, they shed their socks and played barefoot too. 

When asked who was responsible for the consistent soccer games in Haines, Zack Hawks and other locals sitting along the sidelines credited Joe Parnell, or “Coach Joe Parnell.” 

Michael George has also been coordinating games more often this year. George said his efforts to bring more soccer to Haines have been to help challenge younger players, like his son Yoa, who is playing with Juneau’s team.  

This summer the games have been happening on Mondays and Thursdays. Then, in the winter, they play indoors in the school gym. 

Hawks has been dropping into games for years. 

“I like the community and being able to play soccer again. I haven’t played since high school,” he said. “I was never very good and I haven’t really gotten any better, but neither has anyone else, so that’s kind of the perk of it. And it’s good exercise. ” 

Hawks said games will regularly have visitors who are in town for one reason or another. This is his first time playing with crew from the cruise ship. 

“It was really fun to play with other people. Out-of-town folk. Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, referring to a digital flier, that appears to be AI-generated, for Saturday’s game that referred to the game as “ladies and gentleman versus local residents.”  Ross said she’d been sent that flier and shared it on social media so that more people would know about the game. 

As the students from Michigan walked off of the field, Klukwan resident Tommy Thompson ran up with a case of water bottles to share. 

That culture of sharing, regardless of where someone is from or what they bring to the game, is something that seemed pervasive: from the water, to the mini-oranges shared along the sidelines, to cleats. 

Hawks, who was wearing the same cleats he wore to play in high school, had a few extra pairs sent up some time ago and has given them to other regular players. 

“I think we just want as many people who want to play, to play. And, it’s less fun when people are barefoot and I feel like I’m going to step on their feet,” he said. 

Crew from the Luminara will be back on Monday, August 10. Ross said they’ll be looking for a match then too. 

• This article originally appeared in the Chilkat Valley News.