Dallas Youth Dominate Nationals
July 28th, 2008 . 3:16 pm . By: Peter WelptonThe national championships for youth clubs were held in Little Rock this weekend. Out of the 12 age groups for both boys and girls a Dallas team was in nine of those group’s final. U19B – Solar 89 Congrats to all of the teams. Props to Texans for four titles, Andromeda for the double and to this Solar team for finally winning after so many tries – and to get it in the big one. While I knew that soccer in Dallas was good, it’s good to know that on a national scale it is really good. On a personal note, the left back for Solar 89 is Hunter Jumper (yup, that’s his name). He is a kid I have known since he was a pre-teen and was afraid to join in on the adult indoor kick around on Fridays. Sunday Hunter scored the winning goal in stoppage from a freekick (can be seen here at towards the end of the video). He also was awarded both the Golden Boot/MVP of the tournamentand did all of that as the LEFT BACK. He will likely be the starting left back for Virginia next season, as a freshman. He is a shockingly skilled, 6+ foot tall, strong young man who has been capped for USMNT (U17 & 18) teams several times. Quick story.. Two years ago his Solar team was announced to be opening the Dallas Cup against Real Madrid in the Super Group at Pizza Hut Park. When I asked him how excited he was about the prospect of that, he kinda embarrassingly admitted not so much. “We already played them last year – in Madrid”. Watch out for him. 3 Comments Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI Leave a comment |
Incredible how good the young players are here. Used to be SoCal but N. Texas is the current mecca.
Redo the math, part of the problem with local reporting from afar…4 Texans teams, 2 Andromeda teams, 1 Solar team win titles = 7 titles.
6 on Sunday, 1 on Saturday.
Girls win 93, 92, and 91 age groups (all Texans)
Boys win 92, 91, 90 and 89 age groups.
Congratulations to Kevin Smith, coach of the Solar 89 team. He has deserved a national title many times, and it is finally his.