For youth soccer team, silver is golden

By: Mooresville Tribune | Mooresville Tribune
Published: August 28, 2009

The Mooresville-based Lake Norman Soccer Club's '97 Black tournament-caliber youth soccer team struck gold in the form of silver during this month's Volkswagen Junior Masters competition.

In the field for the national soccer tournament series' second schedule stop that took place in Advance, the LNSC Black posted a second-place finish within its age division that has been rewarded with a berth in the Volkswagen Junior Masters Finals.

As a result, the '97 Black is now a contender for the U.S. Finals that will take place later this year. From that event, the winning team will then earn the right to advance to the Volkswagen Junior Masters World Finals slated to take place in South Africa.

This month, the LNSC entry was among a dozen regional soccer clubs competing in the Spirit United Soccer Tournament, the second stop on the Junior Master Series.

There, the '97 Black successfully navigated its way to the finals before falling to the eventual champions. The runner-up effort still proved solid enough to merit the Black with an invited to the Junior Masters Finals.

As such, it will be among some of the nation's top teams fighting for the berth to the World Finals. The latter event attracts some of the world's elite junior soccer clubs. This year's World Finals will take place just prior to the World Cup.

Under the guidance of coach Chip Warner and manager Brian Couch, members of the '97 Black accountable for the latest feat include Robert McCarthy, Peter Merritt, Pedro Zuniga, Justin Myers, Grant Couch, Elijah Clark, Phil Salice, Elijah Keever, Mikeal Somji, Michael Carman, Andrew Martin, Grayson Gimblett and Matt Rasmussen.

Additional schedule stops on the Junior Masters series will take place later this year in Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Jersey. A dozen teams from each of the preliminary events will then advance to the U.S. finals to take place in Washington, D.C. in mid October.

Upon striking gold in the form of some silver, the LNSC Black is already assured of being one of those U.S. Finals-bound entries.