‘Overwhelmed by the support’: Wichita Wings off to 3-0 start after rousing home opener
Cars were backed up on the 77th Street exit off Interstate 135, as hundreds of fans stood out in the rain last Saturday night at Hartman Arena, all wanting to catch a glimpse of the home debut of the new iteration of the Wichita Wings.
After a failed attempt nearly a decade ago, these owners promised this indoor soccer team would be the Wings of old. And they made good on their promise as around 4,000 fans decked out in orange watched the Wings, dressed in retro orange uniforms, hammer the Colorado Rumble 13-0 and improve to 3-0 this season.
The entire night was like hopping in a time portal for Blake Shumaker, one of the owners who helped revive the Wings. This was exactly what he had envisioned earlier this year when he worked so hard to bring indoor soccer back to Wichita.
“Saturday was so special to us because it felt like the Wings of the ’80s and early ‘90s,” Shumaker said. “The atmosphere was very retro and electric. You saw fans you ran into in the ‘80s and ‘90s. You saw a kid wearing orange warm-ups from 1981 that his dad used to wear. It was special to us because that let us know that Wichita is going to support it. We put a lot of effort into recreating the culture and paying homage and we were overwhelmed by the support.”
Instead of foreigners headlining the team like the glory days, this version of the Wings has a more local flavor with familiar names to the Wichita soccer scene.
Bryan Perez, who played for the Wings previously in two different stints, is the team’s maestro in the middle and has a team-high six assists. Leading scorer David Lucio, who scored the game-winning goal to deliver a state championship to Wichita Northwest in 2011, has netted seven goals. Veterans like Kevin Ten Eyck (Maize), Brent Hobson (Valley Center), Alex Moseley (Maize) and Matt Sherrod (Maize) have meshed well with talent like recent Eisenhower grad Ethan Doud.
The indoor game features five field players for each team and free subs like hockey, meaning the game never stops. It creates a frenetic pace with goal-scoring opportunities every minute, evident by the Wings’ league-leading 11.0 goals per game.
“Our guys work their butts off and I think fans are really going to like watching them play this season,” Wings coach Roger Downing said. “If there’s a turnover, we get four or five guys behind the ball immediately and work hard to get it back. It’s aggressive, it’s physical, it’s extremely fast-paced. If people have never been to an indoor game, I would really recommend coming out and watching us play. It’s a lot of fun.”
Shumaker said the ownership group made it a priority to ensure that the roster was stocked with the proper talent to compete for a championship in the first season of play.
The Wings are one of two undefeated teams in the Major Arena Soccer League 2 with a plus-22 goal differential. They return to action 7 p.m. Saturday at Hartman Arena against the 2-2 Amarillo Bombers. Single-game tickets on Ticketmaster.com start at $13.
“We’re one of the best teams in the league, no doubt about it,” Shumaker said. “We have the resources and the understanding of what we’re looking for. Basically, this is a combination of the B-52s, the Wings and FC Wichita. We’ve made so many strides since the last version of the Wings and players have developed that it’s been an easy transition.”
This story was originally published December 31, 2019 at 9:15 AM with the headline "‘Overwhelmed by the support’: Wichita Wings off to 3-0 start after rousing home opener."
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