By MICHAEL MINNICH
WestVirginiaIllusion.com

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.--Marisa Kanela has been a fixture in the soccer community of north central West Virginia, first as an all-conference player at West Virginia University from 2001-2004 and then as a successful youth coach. Now she gets to combine the two as a player-coach for the first-year West Virginia Illusion.

“I’m extremely excited about it. I’ve been wanting to play for many summers now, and with my schedule and the amount of coaching that I do in my spare time, it made it very difficult,” said Kanela.

“With the W-League able to be here in Morgantown, it’s given me an opportunity to still coach my teams, do camps, and still get to play,” she said.

“I think it’s going to give us the backbone, especially for such a young and new team. I’m really going to count on Marisa to be a leader on and off the field. I think she’s going to surprise a lot of teams,” said head coach Joe Dorini, who played professionally for four years, including stints with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds and Carolina Dynamo.

She remembers when Dorini pitched the idea of having a W-League franchise in West Virginia to her and fellow WVU alum and Illusion teammate Christen “Suggie” Seaman early last summer.

“I got excited; he seemed like he had a bunch of good ideas,” she said. “We’ve helped him in every way we could...uniforms, logos, anything we could help him with because he sure has a lot on his plate. He’s taken a big responsibility and he’s made it work. He’s done a great job with that, so it’s been exciting.”

Kanela, who is still in graduate school at WVU, scored 28 goals in 85 matches for Nikki Izzo-Brown’s charges and, upon completion of her eligibility, stuck with the program as a manager. The transition from field to sideline hasn’t been tough.

“I love it. It was hard at first because you’re still part of the team and you’re still friends with a lot of girls on the team and you still have that bond and relationship with them. But I pretty much knew my entire life that I was going to be a coach, one way or the other,” she said.

“I noticed [her technical aspect] very quickly when she was just out playing around with some of the girls. After a couple of years now that she hasn’t been playing, it’s really still above and beyond what we’re seeing in college,” said Dorini. “When we came up with the idea for the team, she was actually the main prospect to be on it.”

Kanela played as a left midfielder, a central attacking midfielder, and as a forward for Izzo-Brown at WVU. Dorini has the similar responsibility of figuring out where she can do the most damage.

“That’s a tough question. Right now I see her as an outside midfielder, just the way she attacks down the flanks would be ideal for me. You never know,” he said.

And on the sidelines: “I think she brings a softer side with a lot of knowledge of the game, which will help me out a great deal with the girls,” Dorini said.

The team’s potential benefits for the soccer community in West Virginia are immense, Kanela says.

“I think it’s been fantastic for the kids to be able to have it. I think it’s an exciting time for not just the University, but I know Nikki loves having her student-athletes around for the summer to be able to prepare and use the facilities as much as possible and to be able to have a team they can play on instead of having to go home.”

“I think that’s a great bonus for us, and obviously bringing in players from other universities...to show them that this is a soccer community where we support everything that we do soccer-wise and not just for the University, but club, community, and youth level. It not only gets the club excited but the community excited.”

The Wantagh, N.Y. product also coaches U-18 and U-15 girls teams affiliated with the West Virginia United Soccer Club as well as “doing individual work with many kids,” Kanela laughed.

The Illusion could be a springboard for the future. Like many current and former college players, Kanela is excited about the potential of the new Women’s Professional Soccer league, which launches next April.

“If after this summer my body says, yeah, you can do it, then I’m all for it, and I would love every opportunity to continue to play. You’re only guaranteed a few years, and then after that there’s always coaching,” said Kanela.

“I’m going to see what they have to offer and see what the best situation is for me.”

The Illusion began play May 10 when they host the Charlotte Eagles at 5 p.m. Tickets for the game at Fairmont State University’s Duvall-Rosier Field will be sold for the special Opening Day price of $1.