BY KEITH NAMM
Of The Post and Courier Staff
BATTERY NOTES
The Battery opens its first training camp under new coach Chris Ramsey this weekend on Daniel Island with a roster of some 20 players and a heightened emphasis on defense.
Club president Nigel Cooper said the players are to come in by Thursday, have their medicals Friday and then train their focus on the upcoming A-League soccer season.
"I think everyone is feeling pretty good. We've amassed a good collection of players," Cooper said. "People are excited to be playing under a new coach. I'm sure they're a little nervous, wanting to impress the coach from the word go."
Ramsey takes over a club that is coming off a second-place conference finish but faltered in the first round of the playoffs.
"The biggest change we made is defensively," said Cooper, whose club's new backliners include former Ireland and English club standout Terry Phelan, current Jamaica captain Linval Dixon and past Canadian mainstay Mark Watson.
"Last year we gave up too many goals. You just have to look at the statistics, that the teams that win championships give up the least number of goals.
"Even though we scored a lot and had the leading goal-scorer in the league (Paul Conway), we still conceded too many goals."
FAMILIAR SILVERBACKS
Defender Gilbert Jean-Baptiste, all-league in each of his three years with the Battery, parted ways with Charleston and signed a three-year contract with the rival Atlanta Silverbacks.
Jean-Baptiste, a Canadian who plays for Haiti's national team, was joined in signing with Atlanta by defensive midfielder Alan Woods, a 2000 Battery performer who played last season for New England of Major League Soccer.
WILSON ON U.S. SQUAD
Battery defender John Wilson is one of 17 Americans picked for a joint USL-U.S. Amateur Soccer Association team headed to the U.K. to play the England National Game XI on March 20.
The U.S. players, who will wear national-team uniforms, will be led by A-League Richmond Kickers coach Leigh Cowlishaw and U.S. National Amateur Team and University of Tampa coach Keith Fulk. The match will be played at Broadhall Way, home to English Nationwide Conference club Stevenage Borough.
Among the other 12 USL (also including D3 and PDL) players named are two former Battery players: Rochester Rhinos midfielder Temoc Suarez and Richmond midfielder Mike Burke.
The opposition is made up of players from English Conference teams and is managed by John Owens, who won England's FA Trophy (1978) and two Alliance Premier Championships (1980, '81) with Moss Lane.
SUAREZ A RHINO
Suarez, an all-league pick for the Connecticut Wolves last year, has signed a three-year deal with reigning A-League champion Rochester. The 26-year-old from Bishop England High School had seven goals and five assists for the Wolves after leading the league in assists in 2000 with the Battery. Connecticut dropped down to USL's D3 league this year.
Also new to Rochester is Jamaican forward Greg Simmonds, who scored one goal in two Battery games last season while on loan from MLS' Miami Fusion.
U.S. OPEN CUP
In this year's U.S. Open Cup, the Battery's qualification process will consist of a home-and-home series with the Charlotte Eagles. The teams will play May 31 at Blackbaud Stadium and June 1 in Charlotte, and the matches will double as league matches.
The winner will be one of eight A-League teams to play in the second round.
Rochester and Richmond, as league playoff and regular-season champions, respectively, will be two of them.
The other six teams will be decided by six two-game, aggregate-score series among the other 12 American teams, including theBattery-Eagles games.
The tournament has a 32-team phase-in bracket, with the lower-division teams advancing to face higher-division teams as it progresses. MLS will have eight entries starting with Round 3, set for July 17.
