Persistent rumors that a good many of the Bethlehem soccer players having severed their connection with the local team to join shipyard teams has resulted in a general denial by William Sheridan, manager of athletics at the local plant. These rumors were more pronounced in Philadelphia and in ship building plants, where soccer has been chosen as one of the chief winter sports. Mr. Sheridan states that this is incorrect, as all the players who appeared in the National and American cup finals, which earned them the championships of the country, are employed at the plant and that the team will remain intact. It is further known that of the players in last year's squad at least eight of them have signed an agreement to stay with the team, while the others have also signified their intention of doing likewise, although they have not yet signed.
It is also announced that the teams will again play in the National League the coming season besides joining and National and American cup tourneys, both of which are played on the lose and out plan. According to Manager Sheridan, there is little likelihood of any of the players being induced to leave Bethlehem to take up work in any of the shipbuilding plants especially as all the players were working on munitions and having been classified as such prevents them from being drafted. The Bethlehem management is also out to improve its team the coming season.
The management is not content to start the season with the same eleven which so handsomely won both the National and American cups, besides capturing the runner-up position to Paterson in the National League series. Manager Sheridan claims that Bethlehem already has its hooks out for several new players who are stars in their respective positions.
With such good prospects at Bethlehem, coupled with the fact that it is probable that the team will be even stronger than last season, soccer should hold its own the coming season despite present conditions. So confident is Bethlehem of presenting a strong eleven that negotiations are already being made for the purpose of playing the touring Belgium soccer team a game or a series of games for the championship of the United States, when the Belgians tour this country early in the fall.
By NONNEMACHER