It was just like any other post game.

David Bascome stood on the turf at the outdated - by modern US standards - Farm Arena, that is home to the Harrisburg Heat, patiently signing autographs, posing for pictures and chatting amiably with adoring fans, mostly children. After all, this is what is expected of professional athletes.

Yet hidden beneath the smiles and hugs were raging fires of disappointment and disillusion, not to mention very real concerns regarding the future of his playing career.

A 10-34 season that resulted in a last place finish and absence from the play-offs, following one where the team won the American Conference, were the main cause for Bascome's disappointment.

A failure to lure top players to bolster the line-up around the likes of 2000-2001 league Most Valuable Player Gino DiFlorio and runner-up Bascome, as well as no clear plans by team ownership for the future of the franchise within the confines of the Major Indoor Soccer League brought disillusion.

A Monday morning date with the team surgeon, Dr. Rex Herbert, to repair a torn ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) in the right knee of the 32-year-old midfielder fuelled doubts as to whether Bascome might ever be able to perform at the high standard to which he has become accustomed - although the player was adamant that he would be able to return to previous form if not beyond.

Long after the fans disappeared and Heat team-mates had vacated the premises, Bascome sat on the dugout bench, one with which he has become painfully familiar since tearing up his knee in late February, reflecting upon a season that at once presented dreams of splendour, but played out into a nightmare he would rather forget.

Indeed last Sunday's match represented a microcosm of the year that was, with the Heat playing hard and being competitive, only to come up on the short end of a 12-14 scoreline to fellow basement dwellers Cleveland Crunch, giving them a final 10-34 season record.

"It's been very disappointing, coming up short's been the whole thing all season," said Bascome, who has doubled as an assistant to head coach Richard Chinapoo. "It's been frustrating as a player, and even as an assistant coach dealing with other things.

"But to keep it real, we just didn't have enough good players, and can't afford good players.Because of our small market we could only afford to pay the top four or five guys and it's not going to happen and this franchise won't last if that continues to be the case."

Indeed, after 11 years in the league and having achieved various individual goals - Bascome has been an All-Star, an All-Pro and possesses many scoring records with the Heat - one elusive goal yet remains, that of a championship.

"It gets frustrating watching these other teams perform well and be able to possess eight to 12 top players among their roster and starting line-ups that have been on all-star and championship teams, because, as a player, I'm at that point where I do want to win a championship," he said. "This year I had to change my motivation, in that a championship would not be the final outcome . . . I had to be realistic."

Such became the frustration that the former Bermuda international at one time requested the team trade him to another club where the prospects of a title were more than mere fantasy.

"Did I ask for a trade? Yes, I did, in so many words I told them that I could not deal with it," explained Bascome, who admitted that a title with any other side would not carry the same emotional feeling as one captured with his current team-mates. "There was one point, with nine games left in the season, that I did go into the office and had kind of had had enough and didn't know where to turn.

"Personally, I felt my game was okay, but this is a team game. And no matter what I feel I might be doing, the team was still losing and I didn't know what it was going to take (to turn it around) and didn't understand what the franchise was looking to do.

"Were they looking to win a championship? I don't know. And that was what concerned me, because when you go into a season with six good players, while the rest are average and below average . . . it's not going to work, and they can't tell me that that was a championship calibre team they were putting on the field."

Bascome ultimately received assurance from one of the team's owners that the team were on a progressive path and that he should "hang in there".

However, after 10 years with the club and no championship ring or banner to show for his tenure, Bascome is not so sure of patience actually being a virtue to which he must further pay adherence.

Still, he remains somewhat at the mercy of club management, having signed a one-year contract prior to the just completed season, with the club holding an option for next season.

That is if there is a next season for Harrisburg, considering the team's inability to draw a large enough fan base to satisfy quotas set out by the newly restructured league, while playing in the dilapidated confines of Farm Arena, which, while good for the livestock and animal shows it is famous for, falls well short of that needed for a professional ball club, especially in an era of the multi-million dollar purpose-built facility.

With three, possibly four, teams set to be added to the league next season, Harrisburg may become a burden the MISL no longer feels a need to bear, which could mean Bascome heading into a dispersal draft, a prospect with which he is none too enamoured.

Further complicating Bascome's status is the aforementioned surgery, with a three month minimum recovery period set.

Whatever the case, Bascome said that he will be back playing in 2002-2003. But the question begs . . . Where?