Former Canterbury and Indiana University standout Phil Presser returned to Fort Wayne as assistant coach of Wisconsin, whose Badgers tied Loyola 1-1.

Presser, who graduated from Canterbury in 1999 and from IU in 2003, became an assistant at Wisconsin in March.

“What it is, is Fort Wayne is starting to realize what a special game this is around here,” Presser said at the edge of the Hefner Soccer Complex. “All the old guys – the soccer people around Fort Wayne, from Terry Stefankiewicz to Greg Mauk to Rollie Clemens to the boys at the Sports Club – this is their recognition for that.

“The coaches that come here from the Big Ten and from around the region are absolutely amazed that Fort Wayne can have something like this shindig go on, and for me to be from here – for me to see my city get recognized – I’m obviously very proud of that.”

Room to grow

With all Big Ten schools with varsity soccer programs scheduled to play in the festival this weekend, what’s next for 2011 and beyond?

“There’s always room to grow,” festival board member Todd Walter said. “I can’t think of a time when we’ve said, ‘Man, we can’t put any more people in here or we can’t do this or this is getting out of hand.’ Right now we don’t have a ceiling.”

Five matches were played Friday, with four to be played today, beginning at 5 p.m., and four more set for Sunday, beginning at 11 a.m.

“It’s been ages since we’ve had a weekend with three good days,” Walter said. “You can always count on Typhoon Terry coming in for at least one day during the festival. We’re excited to see this weekend what we can draw with the weather we’re going to have and the first time with the Big Ten. This will be a good gauge for us to see what we’re capable of doing down the road.”

Roundup

CINCINNATI CHRISTIAN 1, TRINE 0: Valerie Maslyn’s first-half goal stood up in Cincinnati Christian’s victory

LOYOLA 1, WISCONSIN 1: With less than eight minutes left in the match, senior captain Aaron Nichols scored the tying goal for Wisconsin. Junior Scott Waggoner scored Loyola’s only goal in the first half.

INDIANA TECH 1, SAINT FRANCIS 0: Sam Talbot’s goal in the 96th minute lifted Tech.

stwarden@jg.net