A wonderful testament to youth soccer from longtime supporter Jim Victor of Aiken. This is a reprint in its' entireity with permission from Jim. (Thanks for sending this!)
Kevin,
I hardly ever wrote (if ever) into the message board, but I was in Portland, Oregon last weekend and read that the Region 1 tournament was to be hosted there this week. It made me think of some of the good times I had at regionals. I looked to see results on scsoccer.com and found the whole thread on the subject.
Since I am not a member I can't post, but if you think it is worthwhile you can post for me.
Success at the regional tournament takes the following (in no particular order)
Athletes, teamwork, discipline, trust, skill and luck!
My son played with the Aiken Fire from U10 through U19. To finally win the state championship at U14 it took a slighter higher talent level than the team had in the previous 3 years. The coach, Justin Rhodes, did this by adding three players from Augusta and one from Columbia to an already fairly talented team. They won state in the spring and just had normal practices leading up to regionals. At Regionals, U14 Aiken Fire won their group and made it to the semis only to lose a close game to a Texas team.
At U15 4 more players from Augusta joined the nucleus and the team played well all year in several of the major East Coast tournaments. They won state in December. Most were freshman in HS and played for their HS teams in the spring. They did practice together on weekends a few times a month in Feb through April. As soon as HS was over they were back to 3 or 4 times a week starting in early May. Once school was out, it was almost everyday practice with two a days several times a week. Justin also scheduled a "boot camp" type week in Fripp Island for 6 days two weeks prior to going to Little Rock. Practice and conditioning at 6:00 am on the beach in the sand, beach soccer, tennis soccer, team runs, crawling through the wet sand during drills at 6:00 in the morning, etc. I thought it was borderline ludicrous! They all slept and ate together in one house. When they left there I have never seen a team as tight and focused. (It reminded me of the football movie, Remember the Titans). The parents and players went together to Little Rock on a chartered bus. It may sound crazy but as the bus arrived each day at the field, the atmosphere in the bus as the boys walked from the back of the bus to the front past their parents and siblings to cheers and clapping, they knew what they came to do. They won the finals in PKs defeating a CASL team I don't think they had ever defeated before. (This same CASL had won the region the previous year as U14 and lost the previous year national championship in PKs to the Maryland team led by Freddie Adu!) The bus ride home was electric. Even the bus driver adopted the boys. He scheduled around his own vacation and broken foot to be with them at Nationals. Again, the same black bus was secured. They lost their first game at nationals 6-2 to the NY team. (The NY team had lost their state championship, but got an invite to regionals as an at large team and went on to win Region 1 that year!). After the 6-2 drubbing, Aiken Fire had a closed door meeting with just coach and players for three hours. It did some good as they won game 2 and tied game 3 to advance to the finals to play Rochester, NY who had beat them 6-2 on day one. The final was a different story. As I recall, back and forth play and 0-0 at the half. NY netted a goal early in the second. From that point on, Aiken Fire picked up play and had a couple chances to equalize but either missed the shot or the shot was snubbed out by the NY keeper. With less than a minute to play Aiken Fire got a though ball to a striker who was fouled in the box, resulting in a penalty kick to tie the game. It was a good kick, not quite upper 90, but almost. The NY kicker guessed right and punched the ball wide. The ensuing corner kick was header over the cross bar by Fire and the whistle sounded ending the game. The NY keeper later said he had studied film of Aiken's regional final PK shootout and went the same way the kicker had gone previously.
A heartbreaking loss, but indication of the fight and determination of this team.
At U16 tryouts several more talented kids appeared and a few were added to the team. Similar results in the fall with the state championship game going 3-2 in favor of Aiken over CESA (they may have still been St Giles then). A tremendous game with the game winner coming with less than 5 minutes to play. The spring was the same with sessions on a few weekends Feb through April, then 3 times a week through end of school and everyday (including 2-a-days in June). The "team boot camp" was in the mountains of NC with all the boys in one house and eating all their meals together. After midnight runs and early morning fitness and drills they had the same bonding as the previous year. They were ready to go again. One point I remember was the pre-tournament talk with the SC cups and games director. He reminded the boys about the fair play award. One of the captains was smiling and was asked, "Why are you smiling?" He promptly answered. "With all due respect sir, we aren't here for the fair play award". At regionals, they got the to final only to lose to Dallas TX 1-0 in the final. Two straight years to the finals. This team was special!
The u17 tryout year brought even more players from far away places. Another from Atlanta, one from Athens and a few from the SC coast. In my opinion this was the most talented team. The fall season went well. I think they were either first or second in the R3PL and won a few tournaments. They won state 2 or 3 nothing over CESA. Justin had lined up friendlies in the spring with SC, Clemson, Furman, PC, Wake Forest and a few others. During April, they went to Dallas for Dallas Cup, won their group and were beaten 3-2 in the qtrs by the Tigres of Mexico. I think the Tigres went on to win the tournament. It was a great experience as the tigres played like professionals! Justin asked the boys not to play HS ball so they could train together for these matches and to prepare for regionals. It was a disaster as parents and players and coach all argued the pros and cons of doing such. In the end, they all played HS and some chose not to play in the friendlies because it was too much. It was a lot of games to play in the spring with HS and these college games. After the HS season, practice as normal, the "boot camp" took place again, this time the boys staying in Aiken together in one house with just players and the coach, no parents except to prepare meals. They went to Texas in cars rather than a team bus. The feeling just wasn't the same. The spring took its toll with some players not getting over the decisions and commitment level of others. The first two games saw Aiken dominate play but come up with two ties. They lost the third game to their old CASL nemesis 1-0. As crazy as it sounds, the second place in the group was tied and we waited 2 hours to go to PKs to determine the runner-up in the group. Aiken missed 3 of 4 and was eliminated from the tournament.
Sheer disappointment, but typical when a team doesn't have the chemistry and bonding. I felt that the players didn't have the respect, and closeness of prior years. Also, most of the luck at that year's tourney was bad!
At U18 tryouts some of the disgruntled players left the team, two went off to college and several new faces were on the team. In the Aiken Cup in August, one of the key strikers tore his ACL. In the last R3PL game of the season, the center back tore his ACL. This team didn't have the depth nor the passion to overcome these injuries and were defeated in the state semis to a fine Columbia team.
At U19 with almost everyone back in college they decided to try for regionals one more time, especially since it was back in Little Rock, the same site as their U15 championship (and by the far the best venue for the regional tournaments that we attended). We invited everyone who had EVER played for Aiken Fire for the U19 team. At one time we had 20 rostered and I think we had 18 show for the two games versus CESA in Columbia. We had one tear his ACL in this game and a few change plans at the last minute for Little Rock. We took 14, with a total of 3 parents and no coach. Of the 14, at least 10 had just finished playing in college or were going to play as freshman the next year. The boys pretty much coached themselves with two dads on the bench and one mother in the stands for support. What a difference at U19! The passion was back and the boys advanced to the semis only to play the Dallas Texans (who had beaten Aiken in the u16 final 1-0 and had won the national championship at U18!). To top it off the only GK that Aiken had rostered got called up to play for the U20 national team in Canada and left the day before the semi final game. The guys moved a field player to goal and shuffled players around the best they could. Remarkably it was 0-0 after regulation. Two full OT's were played but the lack of players caused severe fatigue. They gave up a goal, then adjusted to push players forward and gave up two more. The regional experience was over for them. I think every player was glad they did it one last time!
These guys played 5 regional tournaments and lost a total of 5 games!
As I look back these players/team had an intangible thing... the ability to find a way to win.
I am sure I missed some important points, but I go back to:
Athletes, teamwork, discipline, trust, skill and luck!
Jim Victor, manager of Aiken Fire U10 through U19
