I was driving home last night from a friends around 11:00 PM and as I was turning onto Gude Drive about 10 police cars flew by me. I was heading home and didnt have any plans so I followed the cops and they went to Rockville Sportsplex. When I got there there was about 20 police cars and ambulance and a firetruck. There was a bunch of people gathered at Arc Ice and someone told me someone got shot at a fight at the Sportsplex. There was I think 4 people cuffed up. Im not 100% sure if anyone got shot/stabbed but there was a whole lot of law enforcement there for a regular "soccer fight" Anyway sorry to those people who dont know where Rockville is or simply dont care. Just curious to see if anyone knows what really did happen..The incident occured Sat Night.
DC United practiced there alot during the offseason last year. Wow. IM shocked to hear about that. They dont tolerate fights and end games once one breaks out. Sad...
If anyone has any updates, I'd sure like to see them. My wife, my son, a bunch of my friends, and I play there on various nights. Saturdays are a mixed youth league/1st division high-octane Testostorone night. There's no announcement on their website. Thanks. dadman
I played there last night after the superbowl and it was quiet. I would have asked about this but I didn't read the post until now.
I just called and inquired. A helpful young woman "who was not there Saturday night" says that a fight broke out between two teams, and that there may have been some arrests, but she didn't know how many. One of the teams has been banned from the facility. Having seen first hand how the Soccerplex management cracks down on physical altercations, I wouldn't be surprised if they summoned the police. They try to provide a safe environment; having watched some other leagues playing, all I can say is that some people take it WAAY to seriously. Now, if they would just get the college-level players out of the coed div 3 rec league, I'd be happy... dadman
Heh. Remember Friday nights up at the Corner Kick? Nothing worse than teams getting there three hours before the game and getting tanked before they got on the field.
The Corner Kick. Where I suffered my first major soccer injury. The ref was too busy watching the game on the other field to notice his "friend", that happened to be playing on the other team, hit me from behind. Now, I'm not what you would call a small guy, but this a-hole hit me so hard it knocked the wind out of me. Do you know how hard that is to do from behind? Anyways, two days later and I'm in the hospital with a ruptured disk. 8 weeks of rehab later and I was finally able to kick a ball, after having lost all the strength in my right leg. It's two and half years later and I'm back to having one of the most powerful shots in our league, but I don't think I ever really got the whole "zip" back on it really. I have friends who play at the Rockville Sportsplex now. I sure hope that this problem team doesn't try to come up here to the Frederick Sportsplex. We've got some nice teams up here, and really no problems with stuff like this happening. I admit, I do miss the post match ale at the Corner Kick though.
Despite having played at the Corner Kick before it even opened, and continuing every summer through '95 with friends, I still haven't seen anything as bad as the Fairfax Sportsplex in terms of refereeing -- at least in terms of favoritism. In terms of fights, I think that Corner Kick still beat all though. I can remember seeing some unbelievable fights there that I haven't seen anywhere else (and I've played in just about every indoor facility in this area from Corner Kick to Woodbridge to Manassas -- though I haven't gone as far north as Frederick). Then again, you see equivalent fights in the outdoor leagues around here -- and from my experience it's the Montgomery County Rec Department's league that beats all in this regard, with what seemed to be at least 1-2 teams getting kicked out per season even in the highest divisions, so maybe it really something that will persist at the Rockville venue.
Couldn't agree more. Although the ref we usually get in our league seems to be warming up to my team somewhat, so all of a sudden it's not as big of a problem.
The folks in Rockville don't let things slide (I guess they don't worry about loss of beer sales), and do a pretty good job policing repeat or outrageous offenders. Aside from team bans, they enforce player bans from the facility, as well as fines to the player and team. They've got more invested in keeping the place "family friendly" than filling in the Saturday night adult leagues. Not that all the refs are saints (or even consistently 20-20 without corrective lenses), but most do a good job coaching to the skill level of the division. And though I do have a soft spot in my head for the lthreadbare throw-rug-on-concrete airplane hanger that was the Corner Kick, I think Rockville will keep on top of it at least as well as the hockey rink next door. dadman
Not sure how "family friendly" a Go-Go show at $20 a pop on a Monday night at 11:30 PM is. Most of the people I saw walking through that door last night as I left were high schoolers. I don't know how you can rent out your space for a show that will draw mainly teenagers, have the doors open at 11:00 PM ON A SCHOOL NIGHT and call or promote yourselves as "family friendly" Just my two cents. this is my first session there and it was just a surreal scene last night.
agree with there 100% .... if the referees would at least pay attention to the match as opposed to talking with coaches or playing pocket pool - they might actually be able to call a fair game -
Sounds like a wild scene. However, last night wasn't a school night--Montogomery County High Schools are out Monday and today for teacher work days (I know, because my 15-year-old has been rubbing it in). dadman
One of these parties was being held when I was suppose to play pick up soccer about a week ago...Do they dance on the soccer fields?
Confused. Where did this allegation come from? And is this the stripper go-go, or the DC music of the same name (which, oddly enough, was the epicenter of similar violence in the 1980s when places like the Ibix were havens for hooliganism).
Ah, good times, good times. Cornerkick was awful some nights. Main reason I stopped playing was due to the almost constant threat of a fight... Especially the late games, where some teams had enough to time to get good and liquored up. As far as outdoor goes, I quite the Mid-MD League following this season. * After a playoff game where both my team and the opponents squared off and held a nice post-match brawl. Only reason no one was seriously hurt was that they couldn't decide if they wanted to beat up each other or the refs or both. One dude ran to his car mid-melee and opened his trunk. I thought for sure he was getting his "gatt," but it turned out just to be a baseball bat. Whew. What a relief. * This followed a game earlier that season where a guy deliberately broke another guy's ankle with a tackle from behind. Most vicioius and pre-meditated tihnk I've ever seen. Broken ankle dude's team beat the crap out of the perp. The ambulance and para's almost couldn't load him into the vehicle due to the ongoing mini-riot. Playing WISL ever since, and I've never seen anything close to that. A few skirmishes, but nothing teammates and ref couldn't diffuse pretty easily.
Oh how I miss the nice folks in Maryland... Nothing like that down here in North Carolina. We have 3 indoor facilities in the Raleigh area, and I've never seen one fight in 10 years playing here.
ahhh...the Corner Kick. What a rotten, infested, smelly, leaky, dangerous facility. I played a few games there a while back and couldn't believe how much $$$ people paid to be subjected to that experience. The ref's were hardly ever watching their own game, most of the players were unskilled hacks and the playing surface could end your career all by itself. But what memories.... Over here in Western NC, we have a glorious facility, but I will have to admit to some altercations. Usually it is just small fist fights between a coupleopf players. We did have someone threatening opponents with a knife after one match, which is why there is a police officer present for every night there are adult teams playing. We haven't had any problems since then, which was probably four years ago. How does the commercial go, "If it wasn't for sport...."
This is the chocolate city jazz. And I'm just reporting what I saw monday night. A previous poster had stated that the Rockville sportsplex takes fights very seriously and wants to promote a family friendly atmosphere hence the large police presence for whatever happened last Thursday (Which I wholeheartedly support). I was simply presenting what I considered an example that ran counter to a family friendly establishment. An 11:30 pm show, no matter what kind, on a weeknight just doesn't seem family friendly to me. Now, apparently Mont. Co. didn't have school on Tues. so it's not as egregious, but still, these kids must not have any curfews. Of course, how many families are present after a full night of men's league games. No real need to present yourself as family friendly then. I'm not sure what my point is anymore, if there is any. I'll just close with this: Rockville Sportsplex is a business. Renting out space and keeping the space occupied close to 24 hours - good for business. Fights in games leads to a bad rep. ala Corner Kick - bad for business.
I play at Rockville on Sunday nights (adult-coed Div. 3) and I have to say that so far I've been impressed with the sportsplex. I think the ref's are decent for the most part and most of the people in the league are respectfull, while still being competitive. I don't know maybe Sunday nights have a different vibe than Saturday nights. We have more than a few late night games and a few of my team members bring thier families along to the games and we never had any problem. I haven't seen anything even close to a fight so far (Then again I've only played ther for one season). If a fight did breakout I'm glad to hear that the managment brought in the cops to stop it. I'd be a lot more concerned if I heard that fights happened all the time and the managment didn't do anything about it. Haven't seen any police reports yet- I checked washington post and also the Gazzette (http://www.gazette.net/policereports/)- I would like to know more about what happened.
Here's a little more unofficial info, as I spoke with a fellow who was there that night (playing on a different field). He says some players of the more competitive men's leagues on Fridaynights tend to get "liquored up" before coming to late games, and that fueled a boil-over on the field. He's no angel himself, having served a 6-month suspention for leaving the players box when somebody shoved his dad on the field (that was enough to get him tossed), but he said he'd never seen anything like the melee that broke out. Management called the cops, the entire team was banned from the facility, and the police were "talking earnestly" with some of the combatants when he left. Definitely out of the ordinary for the SportsPlex. dadman
I play at the sportsplex at times. But its only when me and my friends get together and reserve a field or for actual league games. There are some very classless people who go there and playing with the wrong crowd could turn out to be very dangerous.
Played our last game at the Fairfax place yesterday. No biased reffing, and none was needed as we won 18-7 with no subs. Can't argue with my 8 goals and 5 assists. Also, 17 g and 14 a in my last 4 games. It's too bad they don't have Indoor Soccer as college sport I guess.