Saturday, July 8, 2006 | 7:41 a.m.
When the usual troupe gathers Sunday for its quadrennial pickup game, Roger Tabor doesn't expect to play like his hero, Dennis Bergkamp. Nor will Tabor try to duplicate the maneuver he executed nearly 30 years ago in a UNLV jersey.
His goal is to play one full half. Even if he logs less than 45 minutes, he knows walking will be a chore for a couple of days.
As many as 40 former Rebels, associates, family members and friends will convene early Sunday morning at Wasden Elementary School to celebrate another World Cup championship game between France and Italy.
When it comes to soccer in Las Vegas, Tabor doesn't tease. Sunday will be the rare occasion when he spends time between the lines during a game.
By trade, Tabor is a senior vice president who specializes in corporate retirement plans for a securities firm. By love, he spends considerable spare time improving soccer in Las Vegas.
"I certainly want to pay back to the community," he said of his efforts to sow the grass roots of the sport. "We've made a big difference."
He started the Downtown Las Vegas Soccer Club about a year and a half ago, offering children an alternative to the more cutthroat club teams - and coaches - in the area. One rival was amazed that the club's annual fee is about $100.
More than 400 boys and girls, from ages 4 to 18, stock the Downtown teams. The coaches are all volunteers.
"I've surrounded myself with ethical and passionate soccer people," Tabor said. "That's why it works."
" People do understand that he really is trying to do the best thing for the kids and the game," said new UNLV coach Mario Sanchez. "He's not trying to make a dollar off it."
Tabor has rounded up more volunteers - landscapers, welders, concrete workers, etc. - to refurbish and maintain soccer fields at Hyde Park Middle School and at Rex Bell, Vegas Verdes and Wasden elementary schools. Las Vegas officials provided $250,000 for the Hyde Park project. Mayor Oscar Goodman and City Council members Larry Brown and Lois Tarkanian have all been allies.
Last fall, when the Downtown Club ran the annual Mayor's Cup Tournament for the first time, it drew a record 185 teams.
This fall, the Mayor's Cup could attract a field of 275 teams, including 22 squads from Russia, Sweden, Canada and Mexico. Members of a dozen Rotary Clubs in the Las Vegas Valley will play host to the tourists.
The most emotional part, Tabor said, will be the TOPS (The Outreach Program for Soccer) games, played by young athletes with physical or mental disabilities and organized by tournament director Sherry Alexander. A few months after last year's game, Alexander received a touching letter from parents whose son, who had played in the game, had recently died.
"They were thanking us for doing it, that we had provided this opportunity for their son," Tabor said. "They said it was truly one of his happiest moments."
Tabor started playing in Catholic Youth Organization leagues in Las Vegas. After graduating from Bishop Gorman High in 1976, he matriculated to UNLV, where he served as captain under coach Vince Hart.
As a junior in 1978, he led the Rebels to a 3-1 victory at UC-San Diego by heading a corner kick into the back of the net to break a tie in overtime.
Tabor still speaks with Hart, who went 61-47-2 from 1976 to 1981.
"He was pretty demanding, and very, very direct," Tabor said. "I still call him 'Coach' when I see him."
Tabor just missed playing at UNLV with older brother Cliff and younger brother Glen. Cliff operates a convenience store in San Diego and has coached some standout youth teams, while Glen works for the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Tabor even takes his passion for soccer on vacation. Last December he took his wife, Amy, and their three sons - Trenton, 16; Colin, 13; and Griffin, 9 - to London to watch Arsenal during its last season at its famous stadium, Highbury.
"We were the first ones in and the last ones to leave," Tabor said. "I kid you not. We had all the ushers taking pictures of us with no one else in the stands."
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