Trainer’s Hands Keep Socker Footing Firm : Soccer: Bill Taylor’s handiwork was critical in getting the Sockers past the Baltimore Blast.

In a sport predicated on the use of feet, it was somewhat unusual the Sockers won their semifinal series against the Baltimore Blast because Bill Taylor lent them a pair of hands.

Taylor was responsible for getting the feet of defenders Kevin Crow, David Banks, Jimmy McGeough and Alex Golovnia ready to take a pounding Saturday. All four players reported to Taylor, the team trainer, Friday morning with ankles injured in the previous night’s victory. Crow had two sprains, the others had gimpy right ankles.

In less than 36 hours, the Sockers would play the Blast in Game 5, and Coach Ron Newman--left with only one healthy defender--would be depending on Taylor to put the other four back together.

“My initial reaction?” Taylor said. “You can’t print what my initial reaction was. But I had to try to get them ready.”

Banks presented the biggest challenge.

“(Friday) night I could barely walk,” Banks said. “Then I woke up (Saturday) morning and the ankle was very stiff. I couldn’t put any pressure on it.”

So Taylor turned his room at the Omni Inner Harbor Hotel into a physical therapy clinic; a clinic with no training tables, no ultra-sound machines, and only the barest of necessities.

“The facilities were a problem,” Taylor said. “I didn’t have everything that I have in San Diego.

“I had to use a lot of ice and a lot of manual therapy, which I think is a lot better, anyway--you can do a lot more with your hands than with machines.”

Sometimes soccer players insist on a human touch.

“When you tape a player, it’s a very personal thing,” Newman said. “A tape job on one player can be good for him, but for another player, well, he likes it a little different. A good trainer has to familiarize himself with the personalities of all the players.”

Taylor doesn’t have to be told about that.

“Each guy is different,” he said. “Some guys like their left foot taped before their right foot, and some guys insist on having their right foot taped before the left. It’s just superstition, but if you tape them out of sequence, they’ll flip. Quinny (Brian Quinn, now with the U.S. national team) was that way. If I taped his right ankle before his left, he’d make me cut it off and start all over again.”

Apparently he got it right Saturday night. Crow, Banks, McGeough and Golovnia all played, and largely because they did, the Sockers were able to come from behind twice and win the game and series.

Taylor’s job, however, was not done.

The Sockers planned to leave their hotel the next day at 6:40 a.m. Taylor woke up a bit before everyone else. He had to--he’s in charge of ordering wake-up calls for the players. He’s in charge of checking out. He’s in charge of returning the rental vans. He’s in charge of taking care of airline arrangements, getting seat assignments and handing out boarding passes.

“And I think we’ll keep him,” Newman said. “Because he gets us upgrades to first class.”

At least he does so for Newman and assistant coach Erich Geyer.

Taylor also has some power over the players, who insist they treat him as one of the guys.

“We have some fun with him,” Banks said. “We go back and forth, shouting and mimicking him. I don’t think any other trainer would put up with all we dish out to Bill.”

But when asked for some potentially embarrassing details to spice up the copy, players dummied up. It’s that power thing.

“We have to go through him to get our per diem,” Banks explained.

Taylor, who earned a master’s degree in sports medicine and physical therapy from San Diego State in 1982, has been with the Sockers for six years, which counts for some sort of longevity record in the MSL.

“My first four years with the team, we had a different trainer every year,” Crow said. “It’s a tough job, you don’t get any time off, and compared to other sports, he doesn’t have the most luxurious headquarters to work out of.”

The Sockers’ practice facility is a converted tennis court.

Now Taylor’s experience is beginning to show.

In 1990-91 the Sockers had by far the fewest injuries among eight MSL teams, they missed only 44 man-games during the 52-game season.

“That’s at least 50 days less then any other team,” Geyer said.

Of those 44, 16 were missed by one player, Branko Segota, who long has been criticized for a low threshold of pain and a hastiness to pull himself out of the lineup.

Segota also missed five playoff games, but two other injuries were of more concern. They occurred in Game 3 of the championship series against the Cleveland Crunch: Defender Ben Collins suffered two sprained ankles and feared he would miss the rest of the series.

“I thought I wasn’t going to be able to play,” Collins remembered. “I thought I couldn’t play at all, but Billy said, ‘Give me a chance.’ He worked with me all night. And because of me the next day he missed practice while he was still working on my ankles. I don’t know what he did or how he did it, but I was able to play the rest of the series without any pain.”

Not only that, but after the Sockers won Game 6 to clinch their ninth title, Collins was named the championship series’ Most Valuable Player.

This year the Sockers have had an even better record of keeping players fit, missing only 10 man-games during the 40-game schedule.

“People say we’re fortunate,” Geyer said. “But I don’t think we’re fortunate at all. I think it’s hard work on the part of Bill Taylor.”

The four defenders shouldn’t even remember their ankle injuries by the time the championship series begins late next week. But Taylor is working on another problem.

Collins missed the last seven games of the regular season after undergoing surgery to repair a tear in the lateral cartilage and to remove a loose piece of the articular cartilage in his left knee. After the surgery, Collins said he wouldn’t be able to play again until next season.

Now Collins is hoping to be ready for the opener of the championship series.

“I’m going to test Billy again and see if he’s any good with knees,” Collins said. “We already know he’s good with ankles.”

At any rate, Collins has learned to obey the trainer. In a practice one day during the 1989-90 season, Collins was nursing a strained quadriceps muscle and was on strict orders not to put any undue pressure on it--like winding up and taking a shot.

“But Steve Zungul was playing goalie,” Collins remembered. “And I thought, here’s a chance to kill (sting) Zungul, so I took a shot, but I made my injury much worse.

“Since then, the past two years I listen to Billy. Today he told me not to shoot, so I didn’t shoot. He told me not to cut, so I didn’t cut. Next Wednesday we’ll see if I can cut and shoot.”