Blast midfielder Paul Wright, the team's leading scorer and the Major Indoor Soccer League's Player of the Month in October, said he has quit the team in protest of the firing of former head coach Kevin Healey earlier this month.

After playing in the team's first game under new coach Sean Bowers last Friday, a home loss to the Philadelphia KiXX, Wright did not travel to Harrisburg the following night, and then was out again in last night's win over the visiting Milwaukee Wave.

"I told them I quit," said Wright, 33, who had 24 points in eight games played this season. "It's a bad situation the way things happened with Kevin. He never kicked a ball in the three years I've been here. The players should have been held accountable. The wrong decision was made by removing the coach and not making player moves."

Wright said he plans to return home to San Diego at the end of next week. He said he is uncertain whether soccer is in his plans.

Healey, caught in an awkward situation as he remains the team's general manager, said he has talked to a number of teams about a possible trade.

Wright, who is in the last year of his contract with the Blast, said the only option would be the San Diego Sockers, with whom he won four championships starting with the 1988-89 season of the previous MISL.