FEATURE: Cleveland Crunch Set to Reunite for 25th Anniversary

Twenty-five years ago, the Cleveland Crunch brought Cleveland a championship in the world of indoor soccer. The 1993-94 Crunch side, after suffering heartbreak in the 1992-93 finals, came back and took the National Soccer Professional League Championship all for themselves. Now, in 2019, the team will be reunited yet again for a great cause.

The 25^th Anniversary Reunion Game will be taking place on April 26^th at Goodyear Hall in Akron. Doors open at 5:30 PM and the game will start at 7:30 PM, and the proceeds will benefit Max Cure Foundation and the Hands On Sports Foundation. You can find the event on FaceBook located here.

The stars of the team will be out on the evening, as some key players are excited to note. Hector Marinaro, one of the stars of not just the Crunch, but the history of indoor soccer, said, “[Rich] Ryerson’s coming in from Las Vegas, Tommy Tanner coming in from Syracuse, you know, the guys we just don’t see on a regular basis, it’s just going to be a lot of fun.”

The Crunch celebrate their championship victory -- what would
be the first of three for the club in the 1990s. (Photo Credit: Otto Orf)

The ride to the championship itself that season was an incredible journey. Otto Orf detailed some of what made it so special, including the heartbreak of the season before, “My first year as a starter was the year before in the 1992-93 season…and we went to the finals against Kansas City. Each team won their home games and we lost in the final game of the championship series.” It was a gutting moment, but it served as added motivation for Orf, who said, “It was all about getting back to the finals and actually winning it.”

While those who remember the team certainly know who the players were, they may not know them as actual people. Hector Marinaro was a seven-time MVP of the league and eventually had the award named after him. Before this, though, even before coming to the U.S. to play, he played in his native Canada. Then Cleveland sent a scout to look at him. “That was back in 1983,” he said. “I was eighteen years old and I was playing at the semi-professional level in Toronto, Canada.” He made the move, eventually left for a brief period to Minnesota, then LA, but he would return in 1989. The rest is, quite literally, history.

Starting goalkeeper Otto Orf has a different story of getting into soccer. “I started off being a hockey goalie in Buffalo, New York, and then I went to college to play baseball as a pitcher, and so I had a good arm,” Orf told ISN. Like Marinaro, it took him a brief time to settle down in Cleveland before finally making the move in 1989. Aiding in the success of the Crunch was the longevity of the time key players played together. “We had a great group of guys, we had a core…[that was] kept together for a long time,” Orf noted. Indeed, both he and Marinaro were just two of the key players for that stretch. With players like Andy Schmetzer, Tommy Tanner, and Zoran Karic sticking together for ten-plus years, it is no wonder the team would go on to win another pair of national championships.

The road to the first championship was a long one that gave plenty of thrills. The Crunch finished second in the six-team American Division with a record of 23-17, and would top the Buffalo Blizzard in the first round in three games. It would take another three games to top the Harrisburg Heat after their shocking win over top-seed Baltimore Spirit in the first round needing just two dominating wins. Despite a close first game, Cleveland would run away with two and three, winning the second by five goals, and the third by eleven. Then would come the big one. St. Louis Ambush, the top team in the National Division, awaited them. Game one would be held in St. Louis.

The series did not start off in a positive manner. Orf tells the story, “We went to their building to play the first game, and I think in the first quarter, it was 12-1 or 12-2, we were getting destroyed and I let in a couple long shots, and I got pulled. That night, interviews after the game with the press and the newspapers the next day, that was probably the turning point of my career,” he would claim. Indeed, the Crunch were beaten handily by the Ambush with a score of 26-6 in favor of the home side. Game two was the next day, and Cleveland came back with a 21-14 win. Orf expressed why this was a pivotal moment in his career, as he said, “The decision had to be made by the coach [to] come back to me…I think that’s when my confidence level changed completely.”

Game three went the way of the Crunch, and game four would go down in every single Crunch player’s memory as a game for the ages. Describing it as a “privilege”, Marinaro would score the game-winning double-overtime goal that granted the Crunch their championship. “I didn’t realize that…in the double-overtime game, we were outshot in the two overtime periods 15-to-1,” Orf said about the heart-in-mouth nature of the overtimes. Of course, it is all about the one that goes in, though.

Team photo of the 1993-94 Crunch championship side.
(Photo Credit: Otto Orf)

“That is by far the best memory of my career,” Marinaro said of the winner. “It was a tremendous atmosphere, and to finally raise that trophy at home…was something I’ll never forget.” After the game, said Orf, “[I] just kinda laid down in exhaustion.” Not the least because, as Orf noted, he would tear his hamstring in the first overtime period trying to keep a ball out of the net. The pain, though, was worth it as the championship could be raised in front of the Cleveland faithful.

Despite the two to follow, this one was especially meaningful. “I think all three of them have great memories, but that first one was really special,” said Marinaro. For Orf, it served as what he called a “rite of passage” into becoming one of the game’s finest goalkeepers. For Marinaro, he describes the feeling, “I had been a pro already for ten years and hadn’t won a championship. So to finally get that monkey off my back was a great feeling. Everybody got along, we had a lot of fun.” Each player on the championship winning side had something to prove. For these two legends of the sport, it just meant that the championship itself would mean that much more.

Of course, when thinking about reunions of successful sporting teams, no discussion is complete without a proper glimpse at ‘where are they now?’. Marinaro has taken up the post of head coach at John Carroll University, a Division III school in local University Heights, Ohio. “Cleveland’s just a great city,” Marinaro says of still being based locally. “Being from Toronto, I’m used to a bigger city, but, you know, my wife’s from here, my kids were born here.” He continues onward with praise of the city, saying, “Cleveland always felt like home to me and it’s one of the reasons I came back here in ’89. It’s a great place to raise a family, a great place to live…I just love living here.”

Orf, while still playing indoor soccer, would also eventually join the U.S. Futsal team. He was named keeper of the CONCACAF Tournament to qualify the U.S. for the 1996 Futsal World Cup, which he took part in. That, ultimately, played a massive role in his current career status. He is a Regional Director for U.S. Youth Futsal and serves as the director/owner of Heart and Sole Futsal Academy. These are just two of his posts in the futsal world, as he remains plenty active in the sport. Like Marinaro, he remains in the area.

Of the event itself, it serves as a great time and reason to get the original band back together. Given the nature of location, there are players like Marinaro, Orf, and Karic who still live in the region. However, especially with players from out-of-the-region coming in, this will be an opportunity for the former players to get back together for a fun evening. “There’s a lot of great memories and just to see all those guys and get everybody together again is going to be a lot of fun,” said Marinaro. Orf joked, “I don’t know how high-quality the gameplay is going to be but I know we’re all going to have a blast.” Regardless of gameplay level, the excitement and entertainment of seeing one of the most exciting and outstanding teams in American indoor soccer history is sure to make for a fantastic evening in Akron this April.

Special thanks to Otto Orf for the pictures, as well as Orf and Hector Marinaro for their correspondence on this piece. You can follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for all things soccer (primarily Liverpool and AFC Ann Arbor) related, as well as college basketball (primarily Michigan).