Misl game

The MISL lost franchises nearly every season, and the instability seemed to wear on the public. Unable to generate much revenue from its television forays, the MISL found itself paying player salaries nearly equal to some major leagues but with revenue based almost entirely on ticket sales and sponsorhips. The indoor league outlasted the NASL and absorbed some of its teams, but after 14 seasons, a protracted salary war with a new indoor league ultimately spelled its demise.

I think we had probably about members. What was great about that job was that I made a lot of connections networking at the local PBS TV station and at some of the museums. So it was a good job. There was only one negative thing about that job. My boss is someone we would call a bully today. For some reason, she picked on me, she bullied me, and she made my life miserable.

She would embarrass me, humiliate me, and degrade me. Meredith What was the age difference between you and this boss? Mary Kopetskie She was only in her 30s and I was in my early 20s. She was a member of the Coolidge family —Calvin Coolidge. I needed to get out of there.

At the end of the year, I had only been working there six months, but I was miserable. I saw an ad for a brand new sports league that was forming. The league office was in Philadelphia and they were looking for a PR assistant, so I jumped on that. Pittsburgh Spirit were the sixth team Meredith Five out of six is not bad! I worked in the league office for three, three and a half years.

I really learned a lot. This was my dream job in sports and I was so qualified for this job. I was awful. But anyway, it really bothered me and I was really upset. I thought I blew it. When I went home, I made a decision to call him, tell him that I knew I had given a terrible interview, and asked him to give me another chance, and he did. He did have someone in mind for his first choice. But he said that because I had called him back and did another interview, I was the second choice. Well, as luck would have it, his first choice took another job and I was hired.

I worked for Earl Foreman, who was the Commissioner at the time. He recently passed away, but he was also responsible for bringing Julius Erving to the New York Nets. I worked with another man named Ed Tepper, who was one of my favorite people. Doug, of course, was the head of PR. We had a secretary, a receptionist, and I was the PR assistant. So we had a very small staff, but we were very close. We worked all hours. We worked very hard, but we were treated very well and that meant a lot as young professionals.

Same with being in a stretch limo for the first time. Oh, same with my first glass of champagne! Meredith Living the high life! Mary Kopetskie Yeah, it really was.

It was fabulous. But after being there for three and a half years, I was anxious to work for a specific team and not just the league office. By then we had expanded and I saw a job opening. I want to say we had at least 12 teams by that time. So, they had an opening and I took the train to Baltimore and interviewed.

Mary Kopetskie But I had all the qualifications. Again, we worked really hard. We worked nights, we worked weekends, we worked holidays. During the season, I traveled with the team. I was the only woman who traveled with the team. It was just great fun. The only rule was set by Coach Kenny Cooper — who really loved me, we had a great relationship! It was a tremendous job.

Meredith People talk even to this day. Even in soccer supporters communities, you have to be careful with even meeting a player at an event. Mary Kopetskie Yeah, we could socialize, but in a more official type of way. Meredith So, how long did you work for the Blast and what was your official position there? Mary Kopetskie I went to Baltimore in after working for the league office for about three years.

Meredith So you worked from the beginning of the league to the heyday of the league. What was a regular day like you in your public relations director position? Mary Kopetskie Well, it depends. On game days, we would get there fairly early. I would make sure that I had press credentials for everyone who requested them, both Baltimore media and the away media, would arrange any interviews that anyone wanted to have with us or our players before the game, and I would get the press box ready and make sure there were food and drinks —always beer for the press box.

I had a group of statisticians that I took care of. We would always update the statistics, as that was very important. The goalkeepers wanted to know what their goals-against average was, and, you know, all of that. If there was anything they or their team needed, I would help them. During the game, I was always running back and forth along the press box to see if anyone had any questions or if anyone needed anything.

Sometimes I would have to do radio blurbs because, while we were broadcast on a network, sometimes they needed me to recap the first half or the end of the game. So after the game, we would have post-game press conferences and interviews. They needed that and it was a really important part of my job. I had to send all of the stats out using something called a telex, which predated the fax machine. Meredith My millennial brain is blown! Mary Kopetskie Right?

So with the telex, I would have to type in certain information using certain codes and things— kind of its own shorthand. I would send a whole recap of the game across the wire to the other MISL teams and publications like the Associated Press. It was important information to get to the other teams, because the coaches, in particular, wanted to know what all the other teams were doing, who was scoring, how their goalkeepers were, etc.

Mary Kopetskie Yeah, in a sense, I really was. The media guide I was always very proud of, especially my covers. I was the first one to use actual photographs on the covers of media guides and they were very striking. People loved them. I would spend a lot of time over the summer putting together the media guide, including our prior year, what the upcoming year was going to look like, and game information like rosters and stats and features on that particular game.

The summer was nice because we worked so hard and would get every other Friday off, with just a slower pace. Once the season started, it was very frenetic from November to May, possibly early June. So it was a long season. Meredith That sounds like a lot. It sounds like you also accrued quite the skill set and had quite the pedigree from that time period. So we all know your MISL career took place in the early s. Did you ever experience any sexism from not only men but also other women within the league or The Blast?

Mary Kopetskie Yes. I made some good friends, both male and female, especially female friends, throughout MISL in other cities. But I have to say that, sometimes women can be the worst enemy of other women.

There were a couple of PR Directors who I felt were catty. They would throw you under the bus. They would backstab and spread rumors —that was very hurtful. I would just stop speaking to them and give them the cold shoulder. I would be civil professionally and do what I needed to do for them. But there was no warmth there. So, in retrospect, I think I would have called these women and peers of mine out on it, instead of giving them the cold shoulder. I would handle it a little differently today.

Meredith Aside from that, what forms of sexism or what sort of things were said to you by men? Obviously you held this high ranking position and were in charge of a lot of things, with the resume to back it up. What was your experience with sexism from men? Mary Kopetskie There was jealousy from men who wanted my job. People were always after my job and had a problem with a woman having the job when they felt that they could do it so much better as a man.

Meredith Spoiler alert: They still do! I did come across as sweet and demure. I had kind of a higher voice. I look very non-threatening. I was short. But once they saw what I could do, their opinion would change. I remember the first year in Baltimore, I had worked really quietly all summer in my office at this brand new job. I knew I had to do the media guide and the game program. Well, we had a staff meeting and Kenny would come to the staff meetings. She has worked quietly behind the scenes all summer.

She just came in every day did her job, never complained, never whined, and was a professional. Once people saw what I could do, they would give me credit for that. Meredith Did you experience guys hitting on you or not taking you seriously because you were a woman? Mary Kopetskie Yeah, that was pretty rampant.

If they saw me out with a player from another team, they would, you know, give me the business about it. Louis and Buffalo, mainly. So now we can get into the juiciness a little bit. Mary Kopetskie You could not talk about any of this at that time. There was a group of us who traveled with the team and we were very close and this included media personnel. I remember we were in a bar and we were having a drink.

My rule was that I would never get drunk unless it was a situation like we won the championship or we were at an All-Star Game. But other than that, normally after a game, I would not get drunk. I would have a beer or I would have a glass of wine but I tried to remain professional at all times. My coworker said he would walk me to the room and I was a little uncomfortable with that, but I never thought he would hit on me.

We get to my room, I opened the door and he pushed himself in, then proceeded to push me on the bed and started kissing me. I immediately told him no, to stop, and that I was not interested. It took a little bit to get him out of the room. Download 89 KB. Play in your browser. Write a comment Share your gamer memories, help others to run the game or comment anything you'd like.

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