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>>Alright, this is mainly for the girls because I know how much you love to here about how your favorite Wizard's player is also a really nice guy off the field! So this page is specifically for telling your stories of meeting a Kansas City Wizard's player. Send your story in (pictures to if you have them) to: KCWsoccer@yahoo.com (yes, this is a different email address than the other ones on this site because if I have allll the mail being sent to one email address...well then it might blow up.)

>>My Encounters
Turkey Bowl II 2001 (Chris Klein and Nick Garcia)- My first ever encounter with any Wizard's player was at the 2001 Turkey Bowl II (local charity football event.) Tony Meola was playing in it so myself and a few friends decided to go. We were sitting on the bleachers watching the game and I look down and see a guy sitting on a bench on the other side of the fence where the field was. I look over at my friends like "Hey, don't you recognise the back of that head?" (freaky, I know.) I'm like "It's Chris Klein!" so we casually go over and lean on the fence right next to where he was standing for the rest of the game. So the games over and himself and Nick Garcia (who had just walked over to Chris) are getting up to leave and I keep hitting my friend whispering "ask him, ASK HIM." and apparently Nick hears me and goes "Yeah, ask him. He won't bite!" so my friend asked if we could get a picture with them and of course they said yes. Awwwww. Unfortunatly the picture didn't turn out too well though. Sorry all.
 
2001 KCW X-Mas Party (Kerry Zavagnin and Tony Meola)- So the Wizard's season is over and my friend and I are totally missing the Wizard's so we go to the Christmas Party. We hear that Tony Meola was going to dress up as Santa which is an added bonus! So we walk in and somehow we get to talking with Kerry Zavagnin. It was a meaningless yet humerous conversation. He asks us if we have tried the cookies yet and we say no and he goes on about how "you could put as much icing on them as you want and how their so good"- sounds like Kerry maybe had a little TOO much sugar ;). So then we decide to go check out the whole Tony Meola as Santa deal. Everbody thinks hes an arrogant jerk but he truly is not. My friend and I got to sit on his lap and he gave us candy canes (hehe). He was so nice and when they held it last year (2002) he dressed up as Santa again and was also nice then! I asked if I could sit on his lap again and he said "sure, sweety!" He really is a nice guy and if you ever get the oppertunity to go to a Wizard's X-Mas party, GO!
 
>> Your Encounters
September 23, 2003 (Kerry Zavagnin at the Opera)-

Well, on Monday September 23rd 2002, I along with the rest of my senior class was attending the opera La Boheme at the Lyric Opera downtown. My friends and I were there an hour or so early, and we were just hanging out in the lobby. I see this guy, wearing black dress pants and a dark blue shirt (which made his blue eyes look even more blue). I tell my friend Katya to look at him b/c he is so hot. I am looking at him and thinking he looks so familiar, but where do I know him from? Then it hit me... that is Kerry Zavagnin. Well, at this point some guys from my class start showing up. I go up to my friend Jesse and I tell him to look over at that guy, Jesse looks, and I was like doesn't he play for the Wizards? Jesse was like no. Who would it be? I was like that is Kerry Zavagnin. Jesse was like yeah that is. So, Jesse and I were staring at him. Finally, after like 10 minutes we got up enough courage to go up to him and find out if it really was Kerry. I go up to him and ask him if he plays for the Wizards, and he was like yep. So we started talking and he signed the back of my ticket. A bunch of guys from my class came up and we were all talking to Kerry. Then During the intermission of the opera I walked downstairs w/ some of my friends and I saw Kerry just sitting there reading, so I go up to him and asked him if I could take a picture with him. He was like yeah... It was so awesome!! Kerry was so nice. Well, my friends and I decided that, that weekend we were going to go to the Wizards game (Play off game against LA). We made a poster that said, "Kerry remember us from the opera?" He came over and said hi. After the game we went to the arrowhead outlook thing (were the players come up). When Kerry came out we started talking and he asked us if we were going to come to the next game, and we were like yeah (they would only have a game if they won... which they didn't). He told us that he would give us shirts at the next game. He had a bottle of water with him and I asked him for it, so he tossed it up to me. Kerry was totally cool to all of us!! As we were leaving this car drives us and we turn and it is Dario and Igor. He lets Igor out and my two best friends start freaking out b/c they are Russian and they love Igor. So they ask him in Russian if we can take a picture with him, and then he signed posters and shirt and stuff for us. It was an awesome night!!!

 

- Story from Abbii. Thanks!

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left Katya, Igor, Me, Mayya

>> Brandon meets Kerry Zavagnin at UNC

I have a good story about Kerry from when he was at UNC. During my senior year at high school, I toured various colleges to get an idea of where I wanted to go to school. North Carolina was on the top of my list, so I spent a couple of days wandering around their campus. At one point, I spotted some guy with a hat from my high school In Michigan, 700 miles away. I recognized the hat-wearer to be none other than Kerry Zavagnin, the former first-chair trumpet-player from my high school band (its true Kerry was in band.) After I introduced myself, he was nice enough to ditch his friends and give my mom and me an insiders tour of the campus before heading off to soccer practice. It was especially cool given that Kerry is a legend at our high school (seriously, how many band kids grow up to be professional soccer players?) and that he didnt really know me.

>> Stephanie meets Tony Meola (and some others)
I went to a Wizards autograph session with my 17 year old cousion Ben who knows nothing about soccer. I was waiting in line for and autograph session and Ben and my 5 year old brother were playing foosball with some other little kid. I got bored standing in line so I went to join them. A few minutes later, I hear "Hey guys can I play?" and without looking up I said "yeah...sure!" but then I realised that I recognized that voice from somewhere so I looked up and it was TONY MEOLA who was playing with us! I was really shocked and was trying to keep my cool, Tony scored a goal on me (I was being the goalie...ironic?) and he said "Goalie isn't your thing, huh?" and I was like "hah...yeah I guess not!" Then later we found out that the other little kid playing with us was Tony's son! He's such a cutie. We also got to meet Tony's daughter and wife, they're cool too. Then about two years later, I caught Tony at another autograph session and I got a pictures tkane with him, he wasn't as nice as before but he was nice enough to let me take a picture with him! That night I also Dario Fabbro, Chris Klein, Preki, Davy Arnaud, Diego Gutierrez, Chris Brown and a whole bunch of other guys to sign my jersey. They're pretty dand cool. Later that night we were walking out to the parking lot and Bo Oshoniyi was behind us and saw our Minnesota license plater and he's like "Hey thanks for coming all this way for our game" and I talked to him for a while and he game me some autographs too, he's officially the coolect back up goalie I've ever met!