by Zoran describes the relationship that he had with Hector Marinaro and Otto Orf, “It was the highlight of my career playing with both of them. Hector was my roommate for eleven years on the road. We became very close friends as we developed a bond both on and off the field. We began to understand each other so well on the field as well. He was such a smart player and was able to take full advantage of my skill.
He was one of the smartest players I ever played with, and the greatest finishers. Otto Orf is also a great guy, I have known him since my days playing in San Diego. He is a big time winner and loves to win, which is a great quality to have. We have been very close friends for all these years. I get to talk to Otto a lot as he is a good friend of mine.” Coach Bruce Miller shares his feelings about his star players starting with Hector Marinaro, “He was a fantastic player, an unbelievable competitor and leader. He was one of the best pure scorers I have ever seen with an unbelievable shot. He had a nose for the goal and was just a pure goal scorer.”
Bruce goes into detail about Zoran Karic, “Zoran is the most competitive guy I have ever coached. You don’t coach Zoran as he is a talent unto himself. He didn’t like to lose at anything, there could be two bucks on the line but it didn’t matter, he just wanted to win. He was very creative and when you combine that with his flaming desire to win he was incredible! His own teammates loved and hated him because he expected so much from himself he would go off on teammates. He wanted everybody to play at top level.
He was a winner and someone you wanted on your team. It didn’t matter if it was golf or just playing cards, he just wanted to win.” Lastly, Coach Miller relates his feelings about Otto Orf, “His large frame covered so much of the goal. He was an orthopedic mess because of how much he busted his butt to help the team win. He was the ultimate team guy as he went through any pain to help the team win. He was big and strong with a fiery temper to win. He had a strong personality with a character that I had to manage at times when needed.”
In Hector’s nineteen year career he won the league MVP seven times, which is more than any other person in any professional league. In May 2005, the MISL named their MVP award after Hector Marinaro. Hector reflects what made him such a great player for so many years as well as gives advice to future players, “I don’t consider myself the greatest of all time, I feel as though I played against and with players better than me. I just happened to play longer because some of them played outdoor soccer and some played in Europe. I think what my stats say is that I scored the most goals ever, but I still wouldn’t consider myself the greatest. It was a tremendous honor when the MISL announced their award after me; I never expected anything like that. It was special and really hit home with me and my family.
When I started playing I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but the first year in Cleveland really showed me that indoor soccer was the life that I wanted to lead. The message I would tell anyone is to never give up on your dreams. I was cut from the Force nine months after they signed me and it took me two years to get back into the league and I just never gave up. I would recommend that athletes never stop working on their game. Zoran Karic and I are considered great because we used to stay every day after practice and keep working harder.
We would stay after and take countless shots giving the goalkeepers extra practice. That is how we became good at our craft, with constant practice and hard work. I took pride at what I was doing at practice. I wanted to pick corners and do everything right.” Marinaro then explains his decision to retire, “Things were happening behind the scenes that no one knew about. I was on a guaranteed contract for a long time making well into the six figures. In 1999, the new ownership came and starting changing things around. In 2003, they offered me a new contract for only $25,000 after making six figures. They were trying to force me out like they did with Zoran Karic and Tommy Tanner.
They were trying to get rid of the whole core of the Crunch including changing the uniforms and team name. Most of the decisions they made killed soccer in this city. I signed for a cheap extension because I wanted to go out on my own terms and didn’t want them pushing me out. So I signed for $25,000 with a bunch of incentives. I simply did not want to be pushed out. When the season was over, the contract stated they would pay me to do summer camps. I had a wife and two kids and I needed to support them.
That is when they blew me off and didn’t let me do the summer camps and also did not pay me. It was later that summer when Chicago picked me in the expansion draft. The management team started to say they would do anything to get me back after stabbing me in the back. I was angry with them and said, “I wouldn’t play for Cleveland again.” I wasn’t about to move my family and everything, so I decided to retire. It was a forced retirement because of the new ownership wanted to go in a different direction for every aspect.
It was a disappointing ending to a great career after a lot of great times. The new management team of Paul Garofolo and Richard Dietrich ran the team into the ground. They pushed out Al Miller and the team was never the same. It was a sad situation because I felt we had done a lot to grow soccer in Cleveland and to watch it get run to the ground in just a couple short years was frustrating to take. In the end he was the one paying the bills and he was the one who had to suffer from poor decision making.”
Hector is now coaching soccer at John Carroll University. He distinguishes the differences between being a player and a coach and how he made the decision to coach, “Ali Kazamaini, who currently coaches at Cleveland State University and was a teammate of mine with the Crunch, was the previous coach here at John Carroll. He had heard through the rumor mill that I wanted to get into coaching and reached out to me when he left. He told the athletic director about me and we talked.
They offered me the position, which was perfect for me because it was something I wanted to do without having to move my family. My children and my wife were all born in Cleveland, so it was perfect because I didn’t want to move them around the country for a coaching job. I wanted my children to have the stability of growing up in the same neighborhood and going to same schools and getting to keep all their friends. I love coaching at this school because of the great friends and community in general.
The most rewarding thing about coaching is the quality of the kids. They are tremendous kids who want a good education first and foremost and play soccer secondly. The difficult thing at the NCAA level is that we can only have hands on for about three months. It is hard because we spend so much time getting close with them, and then it’s all over so quickly. It’s tough to sit around and not have the daily competitive challenges.” Hector described Otto as a great teammate and family man, many times putting his body on the line for the sake of the team. Hector went on to say Otto had an unbelievable arm and was an even better person.
Otto portrays what made him such a great goalie and soccer player, ”The drive and the will to win, I would also have to give my parents a ton of credit. My mother gave me creativity and my father installed the work ethic. Indoor soccer was beautiful that way because you could use the boards and try different things to deceive the defenders; it was my mother’s creativity that helped with this. My father’s work ethic installed in me helped when I played under Gary Hindley, who was a perfectionist. Once you look at those things as a positive, then you become a better player because of it. I worked hard playing back-up for years so once I got the chance to start, I was not going to let any game pass me by without giving it my best. It was enjoying and playing as hard as I could every minute, which is probably why I limp around so much now. The broken toes, fingers and concussions were well worth it.”
Hands on Soccer? Orf is now part of a program called “Hands On Sports” as the directory. He describes how he got involved in the project, “Hands On Soccer” started as a goalkeeper’s camp in the summer of 1994. It did well for a couple of years, so I expanded it to all aspects of the game because I thought it was important for kids to learn the fundamentals. We are still doing that today and it’s been a great 22 years of teaching children. With the shift of indoor soccer to futsal internationally, as well as now in the United States , has made the winter season mandated for futsal for academy teams across the country. This is our sixth year in Northeast Ohio working with kids in futsal. It is a great way to pass on the experiences and the knowledge that we have to the next generation of soccer players, so they can become much better than we ever were as kids.
Along with teaching, Otto is very active in the community and develops and helps host charity and other community events, “I was able to develop a golf outing at Aurora Country Club to help with a charity to help those with spina bifida, a disease my sister suffered from. We were able to donate the money to the hospital for those who suffered. After a few years of doing it, we were able to apply for our own 501c3 and now we are doing the inner city soccer initiative. I have been also lucky enough to work with Coach Sam Rutigliano’s foundation called “Coach Sam’s Inner Circle” for the last several years. It has given me the chance to teach kids in the inner city of Cleveland.
We are planning on opening up our futsal court in the inner city of Akron this coming spring. It is just one more way to spread the word of the international game of soccer. It is such a great game because it breaks downs so many barriers between cultures. Everything has now come full circle as I have been given the chance to spend some time with the kids. The best thing for me was being able to coach kids that I watched go on to become professionals. It feels amazing to know that we had a small part in their success”.
The conclusion can be found of the next page
