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RSL Seeks Southern Title

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By NICHOLAS J.E. MURRAY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 21, 2008

TAMPA - When this club soccer season began last year, RSL Florida's girls under-17 team had one goal in mind.

Win the state title that had eluded them the year before.

"That was in our heads from the beginning," midfielder Ana Cate said. "Win state, win state, win state. It's the best thing that could have happened, the best ending."

Coach Jason Streets, who will be taking a team to the Southern Regionals for the first time, agrees with Cate's sentiments.

"It had been a goal of ours for the last couple of years," Streets said. "Last year we got to the final and fell short against a team we should have beaten, and this year it's been our focus all year. It's been such an unbelievable experience to have won it and now be heading to Raleigh."

The team accomplished its goal with a shootout win against the Valrico Fury, and on Friday began its quest for a Southern Regional Championship in Raleigh, N.C. One of three girls teams from the club to reach the tournament, along with the under-16s and under-19s, the under-17s are hoping to continue their success against other state champions from across the southern states. With the team having faced a number of those teams in the past at national tournaments, the coaches are hoping the team can stay focused on the game at hand, and not who is lining up on the other side of the field.

"What I've said to our players is that it's just another soccer game, that's how you have to treat it," director of coaching Jim Cote said. "Most of these teams that are in the regionals we played sometime over the last year or two, so we know the other teams, they know us to some degree, and we've just got to treat it as another stage we're going to play on."

With three teams in Raleigh, the coaches and players are hoping that the support system that has been instilled within the club will carry over. Cote said the under-16 and under-17 teams in particular have become very close, and seeing some supportive faces on the sidelines in addition to the parents that will travel should help players relax and play their game.

"It's really been a camaraderie," Cote said. "It think that's what carried our club, on the girls side at least through state cup."

The coaches also will be working together, with Streets leaning on the experience Cote has gained in eight previous Southern Regionals.

"It's not my team or Jason's team, it's our team, it's RSL's team," Cote said. "The staffs are great working together and pulling players together; no matter what we're doing, it's a family event.

"It's an exciting time for the girls, for the club. I've been to regionals nine times and this is the greatest regional for me because of the way the teams did the work together."

Sluggers Find Success, Gain Experience

While the Team Tampa Sluggers reached the semifinals at the Cooperstown Dreams Park's first tournament of the summer, Coach Bud Merrell said that the success the team had was equaled by the experience they got in upstate New York.

"It was a great experience on and off the field," Merrell said. "We want to put our boys in a positive experience and want them to face the best players. You know Tampa is a great place for baseball players, and we have some super-talented teams from this area and we feel like if we can get our players to face the top-notch pitchers from other teams it's going to help their experience when they get ready for high school baseball, and even after that."

The Tampa Ravens and Temple Terrace Stars reached the round of 16 in addition to the Sluggers success. After earning the No. 11 seed for the 98-team bracket with a 6-1 record in pool play, the Sluggers beat the Carolina Raiders 12-5, the Hobgood Storm 10-0, the Texas Nationals 7-1 and the Okeeheelee Legends 10-4 to move into the semifinals. There, they fell 10-6 to the eventual champions of the event, the Nevada Wildcats.

For a team that only forms intermittently over the course of the year, with players competing in Little League at Citrus Park and Northside and Pony League in Town 'N Country, Merrell was pleased with the way they came together in a short space of time to regain their cohesiveness.

"We aren't the traditional AAU club that plays all year round," Merrell said. "We ask our boys to get involved in their local Little Leagues and Pony ball."

"We really worked hard for the three or four weeks before we went up to Cooperstown, and they really came together very well. The boys are good boys from good families and the chemistry was there for them. They had a lot of success on the field, and they came together in the clubhouse."

Looking to duplicate that success this week in Cooperstown are the Academa All-Stars, who while playing in a different tournament at the Cooperstown All-Star Village, will get a similar experience to that of their fellow Tampa teams. Coach Miguel Ruiz has been to the event before, and his experience and stories have left his team eager for the event.

"They're not excited, they're ecstatic, they're nervous," Ruiz said. "They would ask me 'Coach, what's it like,' and I'd tell them, 'it's a lot of fun.'"

Ruiz is focusing as much on the experience the players will get at the weeklong tournament as he is the playing aspect.

"I've got a bunch of kids who are playing in college ball now, and the first thing they want to know now is 'Coach, when are we going back to Cooperstown?'" Ruiz said. "It's phenomenal to see the kids go through that."

Keyword: Youth sports for more news, notes and live game reports.

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