Over 50 and still kicking
By Jerry Reid CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Proving that age is no deterrent to enthusiasm, Bernie Rosellen crushes a header towards the goal.

Soccer Moms wear the ball badge on the back of their kid-haulers throughout Chesterfield County and the world at large. It's a known fact that area kids have all the opportunities to play soccer they can handle, but that wasn't always so for soccer buffs past their prime.

In its 25th season, CASA (Chesterfield Area Soccer Association) has overseen the rise of a six-team league of seasoned citizens from age 50 to 70-plus. And this mixed bag of nationalities, ages and talent levels is more than ready to romp up and down county soccer fields.

Teammates Bernie Rosellen and Tony Ventura are typical of the global nature of soccer. Rosellen was born in Germany, while Ventura hails from Southern Italy. How they arrived in Chesterfield, playing together, is truly a story of the love of the game.

"I was 14 when I came and went to school here," Ventura, from the southern mountains near Salerno, recalled. "I served in the Army, became a citizen, and I really enjoy being here. I moved to Richmond in 2000."

Jerry Reid/Chesterfield Observer Teammates Bernie Rosellen (left) and Tony Ventura are part of the international flavor of CASA's Over 50 soccer league.

Ventura played in Italy as a child, but didn't get to continue the sport as often as he liked once in the States. "There wasn't that much soccer except for my town in [Garfield,] New Jersey. We played in parks, played at some schools…we did have some games there," he remembered.

Much later, while living in Tarboro, N.C., Ventura and some friends managed to put together an adult traveling league, playing Sunday games

When he arrived in Chesterfield, the opportunities to organize, find good officials and play were easier to come by. Having fun was, and still is, the key for Ventura.

Rosellen arrived stateside in 1957 with his parents from Germany. He started with the awareness of the sport very early. "I remember my father putting a soccer ball in my crib when I was very little. As a youngster, through second grade, that's all I did. We played wherever a spot was available to us because there was still some rubble left over from the war [WWII]," he recalled.

"When I came to the U.S., I knew nothing about baseball or any of the other sports. I didn't watch television in Germany. To me it was a total adventure…the first thing I wanted to do to be like everyone else, I wanted to play soccer. But I didn't even know the word for it here; I called it football," he said. "It wasn't until I graduated from college and moved to Denver, Colorado (from Rutherford, N.J.)… I was 23 years old and got on a team there, and I've been playing ever since," he said.

Rosellen started a whole league, juniors and adults, in Corning, N.Y. before moving to the county. His philosophy was to find a place to play soccer, or make it happen if it wasn't available.

Ventura and Rosellen couldn't be happier with their CASA Over 50 league in Chesterfield. They play at Robious Middle School on Sundays, and it is a family picnic affair with camaraderie galore.

"When I first came in 2000, there was an Over 45 league. That's all there was," Ventura said. Then, according to him, as the players aged a little, the idea for a solid league appropriate for their group jelled. It is a labor of love for the approximately 90 men playing.

"If all the leaders of the world would come out and play soccer, we probably wouldn't have wars," stated Rosellen, with an affirmative nod from Ventura.

"No matter what conflicts there may be, when we get here on the soccer field nobody cares whether you're Greek, Irish, German, Polish… nobody cares. It's how well you play, how you play with others and how much you can eat," he said with a laugh.

For information on a variety of soccer programs through CASA or joining the Over 50 league, go to www.casasoccer.com or call Bernie Rosellen at 363-3449.