BERMUDA'S Major Indoor Soccer League star, David Bascome, will once again be running his football camp for youngsters in the summer.

But there will be a difference.

For the first time Bascome, who last weekend won the MISL title with his team the Baltimore Blast, will be having female coaches join the group.

Noting that football is becoming more and more popular with Bermuda's young women and the fact that a number of them are on scholarships to North American universities, Bascome said it was time to include female pros in the camp.

So this summer Tammy Pearman, a former member of the US national team, and Jaclyn Raveia, a former pro with the WUSA League, will accompany Bascome to the island for the Bank of Bermuda Pro Soccer Camp which starts up at the beginning of July.

Bascome, who won his second MISL title last weekend with the Baltimore Blast when they defeated the St. Louis Steamers, said: "I realise that a lot of young girls are playing in Bermuda now and so for the first time I will be bringing in women pros. Both have played in the WUSA and one, Tammy Pearman, played for the US national team."

Bascome also noted that the WUSA will be starting up again in the near future. "One of my biggest things this year at the Bank of Bermuda Pro Soccer Clinic is getting the young girls in Bermuda playing. When I went to the Cayman Islands (last year) I set up a girls programme. I think more girls will come out to the camp this summer since we have women coaches coming down ? I think both Tammy and Jaclyn will attract the girls to come out and train with us. The girls will probably feel more comfortable with women coaches and they are also people they can look up to and relate to. It will help the development of football overall in Bermuda."

The first camp will be held from July 3-8 while the second camp ? the College Prospects programme ? will be held from July 10-17.

Normally the presentation for the first camp would be held after the day it finishes ? July 9 ? but Bascome noted: "We are going to have to move things around a bit since that is the day of the World Cup final. If we held it on July 9 I don't think anyone would come!"

Of last weekend's match against the St. Louis Steamers in the Savvis Arena in Missouri where the Blast won with a dramatic finish in front of 13,000 fans, Bascome said: "That field (St. Louis home field) is the biggest in the league and it takes some adjustment to get used to playing on it. That is why St. Louis only lost one game all year on it. I don't mind a bigger field but you have to train on it all the time to get used to it."

And this week he and his teammates have been celebrating. "We will probably be celebrating for the next week or two. They have a lot of stuff planned put for us. People call me every five minutes and want to go out!" he said.

One person who wasn't with the team at the match was their coach Tim Wittman who has been suspended for the next two seasons by the MISL for putting a game official in a chokehold.

Wittman was also fined an undisclosed amount following a review and investigation by MISL commissioner Steve Ryan.

Wittman put official Yader Reyes in a chokehold after Baltimore lost 8-6 to the California Cougars in Stockton, California, on March 18. A California player broke up the altercation, and Wittman was escorted off the field by his goalkeeper.

The suspension was just handed down before the Blast/Steamers final.

Wittman remained upset about how the league had treated him.

"Was I surprised? Absolutely," he said. "There's a reason they want me out. This is what has happened, and so be it. It's unfair ... and I think it's not right."

Wittman said he felt league officials discounted the reason for his anger, saying that he was simply a coach standing up for his belief that his team wasn't being treated right by the officials.

"I'd rather be broke and without a place to coach than cheat, lie or not have a backbone," Wittman said adding, "I'm with these guys 100 percent." Wittman coached the Blast to the MISL title in the 2003-04 season when Bascome won his first title.

Bascome said of the incident and coach Whitman: "He is always defending players. He has been going through the whole season dealing with officials. I will say he looks out for his players ? once he sees his players getting beat up and kicked over the field, he questions the refs. He can get aggressive and emotional."

But while Bascome respects the coach, he said: "I do not condone what he did and I know he feels bad. After that game he went to talk to the ref and the next minute there was a confrontation and he put his hands on the ref. You can't do that and he knows that as well."

Bascome said Wittman originally played for the Blast before coashing them. "He was one of the older players from the Blast. I played against him. That is how long I have been in this league!," said the Bermudian player. "He was the same as a player ? hard as nails. But I know he is happy for us (winning the title). After all it was he who put this groups together."

After Wittman was suspended defender Danny Kelly took over as interim player-coach.

Bascome said: "Danny is well known in Bermuda as he is one of the coaches I bring for the camp every summer and he will be coming back again this year."