Carolina Elite Soccer Academy to sponsor all-star games
Bob Castello, The News (Greenville)
For at least the next five years, high school and club soccer in South Carolina will have a tie that binds.
The Carolina Elite Soccer Academy and the South Carolina High School Soccer Coaches Association have announced a five-year agreement in which CESA will serve as the primary sponsor for the sport's high school all-star games.
The 2005 CESA North-South Soccer Classic is scheduled for June 11 at the College of Charleston's Soccer Stadium at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant. The girls match is set for noon and the boys game for 2 p.m.
Mauldin boys soccer coach Matt Brophy was chosen to coach the North team, and he said he was disappointed when he heard the event would be canceled. CESA made sure the games will go on.
"We're not like football," Brophy said. "We don't have the Shrine Bowl. We don't have those kinds of sponsors. The club throwing in with the North-South definitely gives it a boost, because soccer's basically funded by soccer people."
"I think both groups realize that they feed each other," said Andrew Hyslop, CESA's co-executive director. "For most kids, they play half the year with their clubs and half the year with their high schools. The better the club system is, the better the high school teams are, and obviously the more successful the high schools teams are, the more successful the club programs are.
"I think this was a great opportunity for us to be involved in something that we think is very worthwhile, not just because we have club players involved in it, but because we're actually interested in soccer development within the state. We also see it as a great opportunity to bring the two groups together, to maybe dispel some of the myths that are out there."
CESA was formed in April 2004 by the merger of St. Giles United and Greenville Futbol Club. The club became the first in South Carolina to win all eight championships in the State Challenge Cup Tournament in December.
Hyslop formerly was the boys soccer coach at Hillcrest High School. Brophy also coached one of CESA's state title teams.
"I think we have some of the better high school coaches involved in the club, and it's just a plus that the club's involved now," Brophy said.
Hyslop said people should remember that CESA is first and foremost a soccer club.
"People shouldn't forget the word 'soccer' in there," Hyslop said. "We're for soccer, whether it be recreational, high school, the elite level, whatever it may be, and this is a great way for us to branch out and be involved in more than just the club side."
Upstate players make soccer all-star teams
Bob Castello, The News (Greenville)
Mauldin High boys soccer coach Matt Brophy knows what it means to the players selected for the CESA North-South Soccer Classic.
"I make my kids fill out personal goals, and for a lot of the seniors, their personal goal was to play in the North-South," Brophy said. "That was one of the first things they wrote."
The North-South games are scheduled for June 11 at College of Charleston's Soccer Stadium at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant.
Brophy was especially glad when CESA stepped in as sponsor, because he will be a co-coach for the North boys.
"It's a great opportunity," Brophy said. "There's a bunch of good kids and a bunch of kids from Greenville."
One of Brophy's players, the Mavericks' Paul Goding, is among 10 Greenville County players who were chosen to play in the all-star event. Goding will be joined on the North boys team by Jeffrey Boyd of Eastside, Matt Gasmovic of Mann, Fletcher McCraw of Christ Church and Alex Pangraze of Greenville.
The county girls on the North roster are Charity Cirillo and Amanda Jenkins of Eastside, Kim Kelley and Chelsea Webb of Mauldin and Carly Hughes of Riverside.
