CANTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Detroit Waza Flo held tryouts at Canton High Velocity on Friday and Saturday nights, which gave new head coach Costea Decu a chance to assess the new and current talent and begin to assemble his 2014-2015 squad along with team owner and assistant coach/player Dominic Scicluna.
Decu is a former Romanian defender who has been with Waza Flo since the beginning. He was the co-head coach in the 2012-2013 season. This time he will be leading the team as the play in the MASL's inaugural season.
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Decu's previous stint as coach brought the team the US Open Cup championship and came close to winning the Ron Newman cup in the PASL finals. Not only did he help coach the team, he helped lead them on the field as well with 29 goals and 5 assists and was named to the PASL's All Pro First Team.
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In Romania, Decu played for a few teams in the Liga 1 league as well as in the First Division before coming to Detroit in the 1990s. He played on the original Detroit Rockers indoor team.
"It'll be tough," he said about the new league and schedule. "We play against five teams that we have never seen before from the MISL as well as last year's PASL champions, Chicago Mustangs, three times."
Decu is confident that his squad has a fighting chance at the MASL's championship this year and would not have taken on this position otherwise.
Scicluna, team owner and assistant coach, is also excited about the new league and Decu's new position.
"It was a no brainer," said Scicluna. "We fell short of our goal last season and I think Decu is our answer to get back on track."
Waza Flo's tryouts were held for their Pro team in the MASL as well as their Premier team. The Waza name is known to many around the country and the world, as mentioned on their Wikipedia page, "Waza" is both a Japanese word that means "good technique" and a Swahili word meaning "to think clearly."
The choice in naming Decu head coach not only embodies Waza's meaning, it also brought talent from Gambia, Italy, Chicago, Cincinnati, Akron, Florida and many other places besides from around Michigan.
Decu and Scicluna will be announcing their new MASL 2014-2015 team and are "excited about the level of new talent that we will be signing contracts with" this year.