By CHRIS HAACK
Special to Daily News

(Second of three parts)

The Blossomland Soccer League starts its seventh season of adult premier play on Sunday.

Here are previews of each team:

Tornados
The Tornados were the Blossomland Soccer League’s “feel good” story of 2009. After barely qualifying for the BSL tournament with a disappointing 3-6-3 regular season, the Tornados won three one-goal games – equaling their regular season victory total – to capture the Blossomland Cup.

The Tornados achieved their surprising success by getting balanced scoring from Ryan Mitchell, Bulgarian Grigor Petkov, and Zambian Chaiwa Chende, who all return. Coach Tony Catanzarite is proud of how his club stepped up in the absence on Andy Low, who transferred to the Wolverines before the 2009 season.

“We only scored one more goal than our opponents last year, but we scored them at the right time in the right games. We didn’t have one single star. Everyone worked together to achieve something that no one thought possible.  We will need to pull together again in 2010 to make up for a pre-season injury to Hector Rodriguez that has put him out for the year.”

The Tornados are trying to ensure future success by forming a “farm club.” The Tornados have established a reserve team, the Cyclones, who will play in the second division.

Both the Tornados and their “B” team, the Cyclones, will play their home games at Niles Ballard Elementary School.

The Tornados started the season when they faced first division returnee Real Dowagiac on Sunday.

St. Stephens Villains
After going “0-for” in 2008 and being relegated to the second division, the St. Stephens Villains made a complete turn-around in 2009. After losing the first game of the season to Real Dowagiac, St. Stephens reeled off 11 straight wins before losing to the first division Wolverines in Cup play.

The Villains’ sterling 11-2-0 mark earned them a promotion back to the first division, where they had played their first three seasons in the league.

In 2009 the Villains scored 54 more goals and allowed 20 fewer goals than they did in 2008 (their 58 total goals were the fourth best ever in Blossomland history and that count likely would have been higher except for a forfeit victory over lowly Red Arrow FC).

Coach Aaron Soule led the scoring with eight markers, while his brothers Ryan and Jud added six and five respectively. Wes Barker and Adam Hess also scored seven goals each for SSV in 2009.

The Villains’ average scoreline last season was an impressive 4.46-1.08.

St. Stephens helped kick-off the Blossomland season on Sunday when they travelled to Niles to take on the Wolverines in a rematch of their 2009 season-ending contest.

Real Dowagiac
A year in the second division proved rejuvenating for Real Dowagiac as the team rebounded from a 1-6-1 record in 2008 to post a 9-3-1 mark in 2009.

Real played regular season champion St. Joe Kickers Premier in the first round of the BSL Cup and were only defeated after extra time.

The Hernandez family will again be featured prominently:  Alejandro, Ishmael, Octavio, Rodolfo and Samuel.

The Hernandezes account for over ten percent of all the goals ever scored in Blossomland Soccer League history (208). Octavio Hernandez is the league’s all-time scoring leader with 62 goals. His brother Alejandro is close behind with 53, followed by Ishmael and Rodolfo with 41 and 40 goals respectively (Samuel chips in with a dozen goals of his own). Jesus Zaleta returns in goal for Real and Coach Samuel Hernandez has added former Dowagiac High School star Brian Edgerly to the roster.

Real (a Spanish word meaning “royal”) is primarily a Hispanic side, with Mexico the home country for 16 of the team’s 19 players.
Real Dowagiac plans to use the newly-renovated St. Joe Kickers “B” Field for home games. They opened the 2010 season against the Tornados at Niles Ballard on Sunday.