Local Santa Cruz Sand Soccer Teams Crowned Champions in SF

On Saturday, May 31st. two sand soccer teams from Santa Cruz entered the America SCORES Beach Blast tournament in San Fransisco and both came home Champions! 

The Mavericks, a U15 girls team comprised mainly of girls who play on the local  SCC Breakers 98g team, plus one teammate who plays on Bay Area Barcelona, made a clean sweep of the tournament by winning all five games on Saturday.  All players scored, including the goalie! Final game was the toughest, but the Mavericks came away with the win after a tie-breaker was decided on penalty kicks. Girls on this team include Field Players: Alyssa Miller, Winnie Swiencicki, Keeley Christiansen, Lauren Winkler, Paxton Ataide, Mikayla Reed, Simran Singh and Goalie: Sadie Collins. Coach, Shari Scruton should be considered the 6th player on the sideline, as she managed the substitutions superbly and modifiied the girls play and formation as necessary.

Another local team, 3rd Ave SC, an adult coed team, also came home with a first place trophy.These local soccer players are: Jenny Ley. Callie Russo, Sierra Schlesinger, Cara Al-Lami, Dave Al-Lami, Luke Welch, Tucker Hodgkins, Shintaro Kitajima, and Marty Mannion, Plus Goalkeeper extraordinaire.

A little tidbit about this event is that the adult team invited the Mavericks to scrimmage with them prior to the tournament. The younger team only made it to one scrimmage with the 3rd Ave crew, but the experience and encouragement from the more seasoned sand soccer players was invaluable. The soccer community in Santa Cruz is big and the community is only enriched when the generational lines are crossed, which does happen in this community.

Next tournament, the Pro Am Beach Soccer Tournament, occurs this weekend, June 7th and 8th, at Main Beach near the Boardwalk stage. Teams from all over attend this very athletic, sold out event to compete over two days.

There are many more upcoming summer tournaments are looking for volunteers and participants, you can visit www.breakawaycollegeaccess.org or www.proambeachsoccer.net for more info.

Be sure to stop by and cheer on the Mavericks and the 3rd Ave SC teams this weekend!