Locals to NA champs
Under-14 soccer player Jordan Garcha works the midfield in recent soccer play. He and his teammates are off to the North American Super-Y League finals.
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For just the second time, a team from the Okanagan will take part in what is considered the top youth soccer tournament of the year.
The Okanagan FC Under-14 boys will head to Florida this month to play in the North American Super Y League finals.
The competition brings together boys and girls soccer teams from Under-13 to Under-17 to compete for the North American championships.
Each year a small handful of Canadian teams qualify for the tournament and head down to Florida to compete with their American counterparts.
According to the Okanagan FC, this year marks just the the second time ever that an Okanagan team will be taking part. The Okanagan FC U-14 boys qualified for the finals by finishing the regular Super Y season in second place in the Pacific Northwest Region.
The tournament draw has been done and coach Andy Stevenson says the tournament will be tough.
“The draw could not have been any tougher,” said Stevenson. “However, we are delighted to be paired against some of the strongest teams at the finals.
“Qualifying for Florida was a huge achievement for our team and we were hoping to be paired up with the tournament’s top teams. It will be a fantastic experience for our players.
“It is also kind of neat that people up and down the east coast are studying their map books looking for the Okanagan,” Stevenson said.
The Okanagan boys will make the long trip to Tampa on Nov. 17. On the Thursday the players will rest and acclimatize to their surroundings. On the Friday, Okanagan FC will open the tournament against the Long Island Roughriders, who qualified from the Mid-Atlantic region in an unbeaten season. Saturday’s game will see Okanagan players face off with Quickstrike FC, New York’s premier youth soccer club who qualified as champions from the Mid-Atlantic region, and finally on Sunday they face MPS Bulldogs, Boston’s championship team from the New England region.
Only the winners of the four team group will advance to Mondays semi finals, with the championship match played on Tuesday.
The Okanagan U-14 team includes Sam Bowers, Mackenzie Rigg, Jake Bainas, James Taylor, Cody Hutton, Jeff Philibert, Garrett Wiltse, Alex Beatle, Robin Whittaker, Matthew McHugh, James Gass, Devin Popoff, Andrew Stevenson, Jordan Garcha and Brendan Melin.
For more, visit: www.uslsoccer.com.
For related story see Kids Should Be Put First, this page.
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