41 TEAMS ARE IN CITY FOR SOCCER TOURNAMENT

Jean Aslinger isn't afraid to be called a soccer mom, although she isn't quite sure where the phrase came from.

"It was probably someone who wanted to sell some T-shirts," she said.

T-shirts extolling girl players' prowess and soccer glory were on offer with other soccer paraphernalia Saturday during the first day of the City of Roses Soccer Tournament. It has brought 41 teams representing five states to Cape Girardeau this weekend.

Games continue today at Shawnee Park for players between 10 and 14 years old.

The growth of soccer and the tournament has been a natural process, encouraged by word of mouth and the equity of the sport for children of all shapes and sizes, said Alice Temm, director of the 15th annual tournament.

More teams would have come if not for Southeast Missouri State University's family weekend, Temm said.

"We'd have about 20 to 25 more teams, but we just don't have enough hotel rooms to go around," she said.

Teams are lodging as far away as Perryville and Sikeston to make the tournament, Temm said.

Aslinger, who lives in Cape Girardeau, has traveled with her three daughters to regional tournaments for about 20 years. That's when soccer made its arrival here, she said.

"The parents were the ones spreading grass seed and cleaning up the fields then," she said.

Aslinger's husband, Howard, coached two girls teams on Saturday. The number of tournament opportunities is almost endless now, he said.

"If you wanted to attend them all, you could go to tournaments from the end of April through the first of December every weekend," he said.

When his daughters played, soccer trips to Evansville, Ind., Clarksville, Tenn., and Springfield were regular, he said.

Tom Gunning of St. Louis brought his 13-year-old daughter to Cape Girardeau with her NORCO team. When he wasn't helping other fathers put up their NORCO sun canopy, he was shagging soccer balls while the girls practiced.

Temm has seen more girls giving their time to teams. The success of the U.S. women's national team has contributed to about a 10 percent increase this year in girl's teams at the tournament, she said. They make up 20 of the 41 teams.

But Gunning's daughter's main soccer motivator was male.

"She probably started because her brother plays," he said.

The costs of playing on private clubs keeps some people away, Gunning said. Club soccer teams in St. Louis average $375 to $500 a year in fees for each player, he said.

During the tournament, five girls in white jerseys sold raffle tickets to other children's parents as they sat in folding chairs around the soccer fields. That's how many teams support themselves, Gunning said.

Jim Lata, who brought his 13-year-old son from Columbia, said he and other parents organize four bingo games a year for their team.

"That's how were paying to build our new fields," he said.

With three tournaments a year and three practices a week, counting up hours spent on soccer is hard, Lata said.

But he wouldn't mind being labeled a soccer dad.

"That's just about what I am," he said.