Valentine’s Day Reunion Spoiled by Wizards Missing their Wives.

By: Michael | February 15th, 2007

After Tuesday’s scrimmage loss to RBNY, Kansas City gained a big boost yesterday when Jimmy Conrad, Eddie Johnson, and (last season’s scoring leader) Scott Sealy officially joined camp. Mr. Conrad once again provides kcwizards.theoffside.com with our lead quote: “It is nice to be back with the team and even nicer to see everyone is good spirits here at camp. Coach Onalfo always preaches the team aspect and how important it is to come together as one unit.” Isn’t that nice?

The day’s activities were dominated by a 6 on 6 mini-tournament, and I must admit the roster of the winning team surprised me a bit: Eric Kronberg, Ryan McMahen, Ryan Pore, Aaron Hohlbein, A.J. Godbolt and Willy Guadarrama. If the early reports coming from camp are any indication of what this season will hold, I think we may see Pore (4 starts last year) and perhaps even rookie Guadarrama (drafted out of Clemson) see some good time on the pitch. However, as I have made clear before on this blog, we are still in the pre-season and for many reasons, much of what happens now has a negligible effect on Opening Day.

What seemed to distract the Wizards, however, was the lack of female companionship on Valentine’s Day. Said Sasha Victorine: “Because we are in Florida away from our wives and girlfriends on Valentine’s Day, we have to work extra hard to make sure what we do is special… Being on the road makes it more difficult to celebrate Valentine’s Day, but we all are trying to make it special anyway.” I think it’s of note that there is more space on the official website dedicated to Sasha’s comments about a lonely V-Day than about Conrad, et al returning.

Sasha also made clear his good relationship with veteran roommate Kerry Zavagnin: “My mom cooked a great spaghetti dinner when I was growing up, so I made it for dinner the other night. Kerry helped me cook and I must say we played the husband and wife team quite well — but Kerry would be the wife, for sure.” Perhaps that takes a little of the sting off the lonely holiday.

The third guy in the room is new GK Kevin Hartman, who played for the LA Galaxy for 9 years before being traded to KC in the off-season. Sasha was a bit cryptic about their relationship, and there’s a troubling hint that he’s not quite be accepted by his Wizards teammates: “I’m rooming with Kerry and Kevin in a two bedroom apartment. At first, we were going to give Kevin first pick of the rooms since he is the oldest, but then we noticed the single bedroom didn’t have a TV — so Kevin was definitely forced to the single room.” Perhaps he’s simply the victim of the Sasha-Kerry relationship or (more likely) I’m making something out of nothing. But without much to worry about right now, I’m selecting Hartman’s age and transition to Kansas City to be today’s issue to fret about.

I’ve mentioned new faces at the Wiz here and there, but I promise, I’ll get around to the obligatory “What’s new this year” post soon. Until then, let’s all hope Hartman and company can find some love now that Conrad, Johnson, and Sealy are back with the Wizards.