Space Coast United U-19 women

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By: Lyn Dowling

Before the 2010 State Cup campaign began several weeks ago, Space Coast United coach Fidgi Haig sat his girls down to watch a video. It was not a film of great soccer teams of the past or present, nor did it feature the brilliant women who have graced Brevard County fields and sometimes won State Cups under his leadership.

It was a film shown on ESPN about the sad situation involving Haiti’s Under-17 Girls’ National Team and the abysmal situations in which some of them have been forced to live since last January’s earthquake, the same earthquake that killed Haig’s father.

“We were inspired,” Under-15 player Katie Reed said.

“Transfixed,” added Under-19 striker Katie Stengel.

So the girls dedicated their tournament to Haig and not surprisingly, came away winners, the U-15s having edged Brandon 2-1 May 23 and the U-19s hammering HC United Red 5-2 May 30, all at the Florida Youth Soccer Association’s new facility in Auburndale.

The U-19s, a squad comprised of many of Brevard County’s best high school players, had played HC United Red to a one-goal draw the previous week in the match for the bracket title, which SCU won.

United returned to Auburndale the following Saturday, when a hat trick by red-hot Michaela Hahn put United back in the championship match, as the girls dropped Jacksonville 3-1.

Sunday’s return match against HC United was a tour de force, “a chance for us to show everyone what we can do,” in the words of midfielder Carlee Jones, otherwise of another state champion, Melbourne High School.

The girls were stunned in the first five minutes of the match, by what Haig called “two silly goals” by HC United, and a short discussion ensued among some furious young women not accustomed to being in such a position.

“We said, ‘This is not going to happen in our last game,’” Jones said. “We went out and did what we had to do.”

Indeed they did, equalizing in short order and scoring another before the half, leaving a quality opponent baffled and exhausted.

As Haig and the players explained, the emergence of Hahn as a goal threat took a little of the pressure off Stengel, a United States Under-18 Women’s National Team player and Gatorade Florida Girls Soccer Player of the Year.

So Stengel, who had 168 goals in four years at Viera High School, did what Stengel does best: score, three times. Hahn, a 16-year-old from Titusville who plays three age divisions up, and forward-going midfielder Keara Murphy, otherwise a West Shore standout, iced the cake.

There were little moves in the side, and by members of it, that helped too.

Haig praised the play of Kristin Grubka, also a stalwart at Mel-Hi, who underwent a quick move from the front to the back, not merely learning to play sweeper in a matter of weeks, but mastering the position. Heather Botelho, the give-no-quarter midfielder from Bayside High School, was extolled by her coach, as was Jones.

And then there was Jessica Bartlett, a defender who didn’t start the final match, but left her stamp on it, heavily. “She came in as a substitute and really helped us out, completely shut down that side,” Haig said.

It all left the Hillsborough County-based opponent baffled and frustrated, and the 5-2 victory led to Haig’s seventh State Cup. His teams have been to the final four nine times in the past 10 years.

And the players reacted as the usually do, willing to talk about anyone but themselves. Stengel simply started naming names, starting with Nicole DiPerna, yet another Mel-Hi midfielder, who was stellar in the quarterfinals as well as the semi and final, and ending with the unflappable goalkeeper, Megan Dorsey.

The rest simply went down the list: Jill Holdsworth, Murphy, Emily Brandon, Jones, Natalie McLachlan, Hahn, Grubka, Casey Marsh, Botelho, Stengel, Lindsay Hamilton, DiPerna, Carlene Harrison, Dorsey, Bartlett, Kayla Campbell, Sydney Miller and Lindsay Marcinik

“We played probably the best game we ever played,” Stengel said. “We were amazing today.”

The next goal: homes for earthquake
devastated Haiti national team players

Space Coast United’s Under-19 women and U-15 girls are back to work, not in search of another. State Cup – yet – but, with their juniors on the U-15 team, in search of awareness and funds.

Brevard County’s champions in the state’s most popular organized youth sport are spearheading the drive to raise awareness and funds for the Haitian Under-17 Girls’ National Team, the group that was featured in that heartbreaking ESPN video.

Haig and Mercedes Homes Chief Operating Officer Scott Buescher, a longtime SCU volunteer, are leading a drive to collect funds at Space Coast United’s registrations and through other clubs and leagues around the state, to build homes for the Haitian girls, who will be guests at a tournament in July at Walt Disney World Wide World of Sports.

Mercedes has specially designed and engineered the 11-by-24-foot wood cottages for reconstruction in Haiti, and each will cost $8,000 to $10,000 to build and ship to the battered nation. A prototype home has been set up at Viera Regional Park, where it will remain through SCU’s registration period.

“If we can get $1 through $10 from every family that registers, we will have a good start,” Haig said.

For more information, e-mail fidgi19@yahoo.com.

To see the ESPN video, go to:
http://rise.espn.go.com/girls-soccer/articles/2010/04/28-Haiti-girls-soccer.aspx

 

Kids again, for a moment
Space Coast champs traveled through their ‘tunnel” into the future.

It is a move beloved by very young youth soccer players: after each match, the players’ parents and supporters form a “tunnel,” a sort of congratulatory gantlet from which the children invariably emerge with smiles and high-fives.

For a few minutes after their State Cup victory in Auburndale May 30, Space Coast United’s Under-19 women – that’s what they are, at that level – were kids again, and proud of it.

Scott Miller, proud father of SCU standout Sydney Miller, explained:

“One of the players’ mothers suggested that we form the classic "tunnel" that we used to do for these girls when they played rec soccer so many years ago. It was a simple yet touching moment . . . . The tunnel was symbolic of their journey: Many of these girls emerged from the other side of that tunnel as adult players. They are going on to college and they have their independence and they finished this part of their soccer careers.

“It was a fitting end to star-filled journey of accomplishment and sacrifice that brought them through the tunnel.”

Amen.

Want something publicized on Play Brevard? E-mail ldowling@cfl.rr.com.

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