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Experience Lifts HCU To Nationals
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Published: July 22, 2008
TAMPA - Experience is often used as a reason why a team succeeds. The difference between the seasons of Tampa's two United Soccer League Men's Super-20 teams is another case in point.
Hillsborough County United's squad will be headed to the USL Super-20 North American Championships next week after earning one of two berths from the Southeast division. The team's core players are set to return to their college teams in two weeks for sophomore seasons, with players like goalkeeper Jeff Attinella, midfielders Ben Foerstener and Trent Anderson or attacking midfielder Kyle Kuhlman already immersed in the next level.
For RSL Florida's squad, which won't be going to Virginia Beach next week, the next level began in part this summer. Most of the team, which includes local high school standouts Santi Alexis, Sebastian Thuriere, Ryan Griffin and Brad Sienkiewicz, will be headed to college campuses for the first time.
"You see when guys come back from college, their level raises another notch just by playing against more experienced players," HCU coach Eric Sims said after HCU's 5-2 win against RSL last week. "They've got to learn different ways to play the game than maybe what they're used to, and I think that's very important."
RSL coach Adrian Bush thinks his team is going to have its eyes opened when college preseason begins in two weeks.
"We're the young team and I think we've competed well," Bush said. "But our guys have got to get used to coming out. It's an everyday commitment to be at the top of your game, and I don't know so much that our guys understand fully what's getting ready to happen in two weeks."
For Sims' team, which was eliminated after pool play at the Southern Regionals last month, the Super-20 league has given his players a chance to not only get ready for the new college season, but also chase a second national championship. The core of this team won the Super-Y League under-17 division title two years ago.
"To get them to win another national championship is obviously important," Sims said. "For some of them it's their last chance, others will be back next year, but you never know."
Sky's The Limit For Decathlete Chen
Decathlete Auston Chen is headed to Detroit this week for the AAU Junior Olympics, fresh off a Region 4 intermediate title in Winter Park. His 5,997 points were, in fact, higher than athletes competing in the older age-group young division.
Not bad for his first competitive decathlon.
Chen, who threw the discus and shot for Berkeley Prep in the spring, only began training full-time for the 10-event, two-day competition in May after spring football practice ended.
"I thought at best he would get around 5,000 to 5,200 points," Coach Jeremy Geisel said.
Chen decided to give the multiple-discipline event a try at the prodding of teammate Charles Klug, who finished second in the junior division and is also headed to Detroit.
"He was into it, and I knew I could run fast and that would be good for the decathlon," Chen said. "I just wanted to try something new."
Chen's background in throws helped him greatly in his first competition, as he recorded a distance of 51 feet, 11/2 inches in the shot, and 143-11 in the discus. But those events weren't the sole reason for his victory by almost 2,000 points. Chen won eight of the 10 disciplines, including marks of 21-2 in the long jump, and 11-93/4 in the pole vault. Geisel thinks as good as Chen's score was in his first decathlon, it could improve by leaps and bounds as his technique becomes more refined.
"He still has so much further to go, which is why I think he could be quite good at this, possibly at the 7,000-point range by the time he is out of high school," Geisel said. "The first time he pole vaulted he went eight feet, the next time he went nine feet, then the week before competition he cleared 10 or 11 feet, so to see him go to his first national meet and clear 12 feet was absolutely amazing."
Berkeley's Attal Thrilled By ESP Experience
Since its inception in 1997, when players like U.S. National team member DaMarcus Beasley and the Los Angeles Galaxy's Edson Buddle were in attendance, the adidas ESP soccer camp has been a proving ground for young American players.
Michael Attal is hoping to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessors. Attal, who plays for the Clearwater Chargers, attended this year's camp this month.
"It was a very intense environment," Attal said. "It really exemplified how to move to the next level of college or pro soccer."
Other local standouts have attended the camp in the past, including Blake Wagner and Anthony Wallace, who both play for FC Dallas in MLS, and Jeremy Hall, who was a member of the U.S. under-17 national team and is about to start his junior season at Maryland. Attal hopes he will have a choice to make between turning pro in two years when he graduates.
"I would love to go straight to the MLS," Attal said. "Of course, there is a parent aspect to it who are really pushing for college, but honestly I'm going to wait and see the next couple of years, train as hard as I can, and hopefully I'll have that tough decision to make."
Nicholas J.E. Murray can be reached at (813) 259-8243 or nmurray@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Youth Sports for more news, notes and live game stories.
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