Winning State Cup Is An Amazing Experience
Creating lasting memories for the player, coaches and their families, winning State Cup is an amazing experience. Perhaps it is all the accolades, the privilege granted to those who are triumphant after all the training and rounds of competition or merely the high of winning the very last game and be the last ones standing, but becoming State Cup champions is an accomplishment. After all the driving to the distant soccer fields, and spending all the money along the way — parents feel they have participated in a tiny way too. Reflecting on the road to becoming champions — all the trials and tribulations – the tests of the players’ (and coaches’) patience and endurance, dedication and passion — well, the experience is worth celebrating.
In Southern California, where the youth soccer competition is tough and respected around the country, the Cal South Sports Authority State Cup has been held annually since 1978 and is one of the largest youth soccer tournaments in the world.
Since there are so many youth soccer players in California, the State Cup Youngers competition is divided into three divisions offering different levels of competition: Mayors, Governors and Presidents. The Presidents Division is the most competitive. Winning the Presidents Division of the Cal South State Cup is a hallmark of performance in the circles of top youth clubs – and while soccer is a team sport, it is an accomplishment which each player can take great pride in. This is a youth soccer tournament where even making it to the semi-finals is significant and emerging as a finalist is an achievement to be proud of.
The knockout rounds of the 2016 Cal South State Cup was filled with strong competitors who had established themselves as the top teams in the state — all of whom had been preparing all season for this high level soccer compeititon.
One very talented team, the San Diego Surf SC Academy Select BU11, coached by professional soccer player Ryan Guy, returned home triumphant as State Cup Champions.
Guy is a homegrown San Diego soccer player who is currently on the Guam Men’s National Team Matao and has played for MLS’ New England Revolution, NASL’s San Antonio Scorpions and is the coach for NPSL’s North County Battalion. As a youth player, Guy first started training at San Diego’s Nomads and then moved to San Diego Surf SC where he has returned to coach and give back to the game he loves.
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After a strong season, the Surf SC Academy Select BU11 started off the State Cup tournament with a 2-1 win against San Diego SC B2004 Academy Navy followed by a 6-3 win against South LA United Martinez. The boys then shutout FC Golden State – B11 PDA 2005 in the quarter finals 2-0, sending them to the semi final where they defeated Albion SC BU11 White 3-1.
“Playing Albion in the semi-finals was a perfect matchup, not only are both squads stacked with talent, but we are crosstown rivals and had traded wins throughout the year,” said Guy. “I really respect their coach Wayne Crowe, and thought his team played fantastic – in fact, they outplayed us for stretches of that match. Fortunately, we were able to come away with two goals from Miles Imparato and one cracking finish from Andre Philibbosian while only giving up a penalty kick.”
The boys finished the tournament defeating Total Futbol Academy 2-1 in the final, and were crowned State Cup Champions.
“The final against TFA was exactly what you would hope for in the biggest game of the year,” said Guy. “TFA have incredible talent, they move the ball properly, and are coached extremely well. It was an even game all around until Imparato came up enormously again with an early goal and shortly after, a 30 yard wonder-strike from Alfonso Young. TFA had an opportunity to bring on back on the stroke of half time, but a brilliant save from Lucas Casazza kept the sheet clean for us. TFA came out strong in the second half, scoring early and then pushing hard for a late winner. Thanks to the experience of being in a number of finals this year, our boys were able to stay focused and composed under the circumstances and confidently finished out the game.
“As a coach, I feel privileged to say that every player on our team played in both halves of every game in our State Cup run, including the final,” said Guy. “State Cup is the competition that every Southern Californian soccer player dreams of winning. With that final victory, our boys fulfilled a dream of theirs.”
Is winning too important in our youth soccer culture? The controversy on the win-at-all-cost mentality should never tarnish the honor of winning for those who are passionately training to improve their abilities and work well together as a team and succeed.
“In the midst of the arguments in the soccer community about development versus winning, there are the kids, whose focus is to enjoy the game, and winning and losing play a major factor in that enjoyment. I fully believe there needs to be a focus on both. Do I know the perfect percentage balance between pure development and winning? No, but I’m working as hard as I can to figure it out! I do know however, that this team knows how to do both.”
“I remember the first scrimmage of the year when very few, if any, of the boys knew what all of the ‘position numbers’ were, nor did they know more than one type of team formation. It was my personal goal this year to have all the players be well versed in a number of different positions and team formations that would be relevant in certain game situations,” said Guy. “By the end of the season, the team was able to transition during a game between at least three different formations and all of the players had played more than one position in a number of games. These were probably the most major development aspects of what we did this year.”
The winning came down to the boys, I believe it was their talent and desire to score goals and stop goals from going in that brought them the big victories that they enjoyed.