While trophies and there have been plenty of them, including six MMSL titles – help encourage unpaid players to put the effort in, key to Christos long-term development has been a relationship with a local university.
UMBC stands for University of Maryland, Baltimore County but sometimes guys say this is University of Maryland, Baltimore Christos because literally if you graduate from UMBC, most guys come and play for Christos, said Haislip, who explained the handy role that key striker Pete Coringi III s father plays as head coach at UMBC.
We have that college locked down. If anyone graduates from that university and wants to continue playing Sunday-type ball they re going to come play for us.
Christos are able to draw on a large pool of around 40 players, but with no payment on offer full-time jobs are required and that inevitably makes it difficult for them to come together for group training.
Haislip, the playfully self-styled CEFIO – chief executive financial informational officer – due to his all-encompassing role, said: If I had to guess, we might ve trained one time in the last two or three years. With this core group of guys it s literally been one practice a year if that and that s not even a training session.
But Chris Wilson, the full-back who is the longest-serving member currently on the first team having joined in 2011, believes the tight-knit relationships between the players makes up for any lack of preparation.
It may well have been such spirit – a factor so important for Christos they have the word Brothers on their crest – that enabled them to shock professional side and 1995 US Open Cup champions Richmond Kickers in their second-round match on May 17.
FINAL: Kickers fall to in the
— Richmond Kickers (@RichmondKickers)
I don t think it s too terribly difficult because we all know each other and we all know each other s tendencies, which really helps, said Wilson.
I think as far as teams go we have a pretty good chemistry and we always say it, we d rather play away then play at home because we get to travel with our friends. It s much more enjoyable than playing at home and afterwards maybe hanging out.
For their next US Open Cup jaunt Christos will catch the last flight to Chicago out of Baltimore on Tuesday – a move designed to allow anyone who cannot get time off work to make the trip – and take on FC United the next day.
The players will travel back to Maryland on Thursday and that same day catch another plane to Cleveland to take part in the Hank Steinbrecher Cup, a competition that amounts to being an amateur Super Cup.
Inevitably there are hefty costs for such a schedule. While US Soccer offers reimbursement for expenses in the US Open Cup, clubs have to front the money themselves. In a bid to aid their burgeoning campaign, Christos set up a GoFundMe page that quickly hit its $7,500 target with the help of some national icons. New York Red Bulls midfielder Sacha Kljestan donated $500 dollars from his own pocket and retweeted a link to the fund-raising initiative, while former US international Taylor Twellman also provided greater publicity.
