Feature Stories

Midfielders: Wichita Wings Player Profiles (Part 2)

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Get up to speed on the Wings forwards and goalkeepers by reading the first set of profiles in this 3-part series by clicking on Part 1

Mehrshad Ahmadi – “Mehrsh”

Midfielder – #49 — Age 23 – 5’9, 165 lbs – Hometown: Herat, Afghanistan

Wings experience: None

Ahmadi comes to the Wings as the leading scorer in the MASL2 last season. His ability to get goals is unparalleled in this league. What are you best at on the pitch? “Scoring.”

Other professional experience: New Mexico Runners (MASL2)

Favorite soccer team: Real Madrid

His best sport (other than soccer): Football

Message to the Orange Army: “Get ready for the best entertainment in the history of the Wings!!”

Favorite all-time Wing: Roger Downing

Most embarrassing moment: “Missing an open goal.”

Favorite music: Sad music                           

Secret talent: “Giving good advice.”

Favorite food: Rice and chicken

Dream car: Corvette       

Celebrity crush: Scarlett Johansen

Craziest experience: “I was run over by a car.”

Dream vacation: New Zealand

Taylor Henry

Midfielder — #13 – Age 29 – 6’0 – Hometown: Wichita

Wings experience: 4 years

Taylor Henry is a threat to score and to help his teammates do so as well. Two years ago, he was second on the team in assists.

Feature Stories

Wichita Wings Player Profiles: Head Coach, Forwards, and Goalkeepers (Part 1)

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Players for the Wichita Wings range from the relatively short (5’6 ft tall) to the positively basketball player-sized (6’6). They weigh in at a sprightly 145 lbs, all the way up to a sturdy 245 lbs. Ten of them identify as defenders, 10 more as midfielders, four as forwards, and four as goalkeepers. The oldest is 38, while the youngest is only 20. More than half of them (18) hail from right here in Wichita.

Feature Stories

Wings Soccer On The Hunt For a Title

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You can find all kinds of characters at the Wichita Wings indoor soccer open tryouts. Kevin Ten Eyck represents the Grizzled Veteran. “Back for another year, huh?” I say to him. At 36, the team captain is long in the tooth for a game that tears up your joints. But he says he feels great.

Feature Stories

Wings Soccer Tryouts Attract Talent

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It is Day Two of tryouts for the Wichita Wings. Veteran Wings defender Kevin Ten Eyck squares up to a young player on the sideline and delivers his message succinctly:

“You cannot play. If you do not mark your man, you cannot play. Do you understand?”

The man nods and responds affirmatively. He better.

Feature Stories

Omar Gomez, 1980s Wings Soccer Star, Dies at 66

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Omar “El Indio” Gomez, a prolific goal-scoring forward who played for the Wichita Wings soccer team in three separate stints in the 1980s and early ’90s, died Tuesday in Argentina at the age of 66, after a long hospitalization for COVID-19 and pneumonia. “That’s sad news. He was a great guy and player,” said former Wings teammate Kevin Kewley. Gomez burst onto the local soccer scene in the middle of the Wings’ inaugural season in January 1980. Despite his late start, he would lead the Wings in goals scored that season.

Featured in Category

A WICHITA STORY: The English Connection Returns

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The Wichita Wings and England have a long and storied
tradition. Names like Andy Chapman, Kevin Kewley, Roy Turner, and Norman Piper
echoed across Wichita playgrounds through the 1980s and 90s. Thanks to Kieran
Laking, in the 40th anniversary season of Wichita’s storied indoor
soccer team, local schoolkids once again have the opportunity to imitate an Englishman
on the pitch. A defender on the field, the 24-year-old hails from Hartlepool,
England, a hard-scrabble city of just under 100,000 people on the coast of the
North Sea. Laking cut his teeth playing for Hartlepool FC in his hometown.