By Steven Serafini
Sonoma Valley Sun Sports Editor
While the biggest global sports event, the World Cup, begins play in North America with Canada, Mexico and the United States tri-hosting the spectacle, the Sonoma Valley United youth soccer club’s year-round select program recently had two teams battle their way to the top of their divisions and earned spots in the National Championships.
In qualifying for the Nationals, the Sonoma Valley United (SVU) under-15 and under-19 boys teams captured first and second-place finishes, respectively, in the Elite Academy Northwest Conference.
After competing against large and challenging squads from the Central Valley, West Contra Costa County, Roseville, Turlock and Nevada, the two Sonoma Valley teams will travel to St. Louis, Missouri for the national tournaments, which take place from June 10 to 14.
“This truly is an amazing feat to accomplish for smalltown soccer teams and our Sonoma Valley United club, and we are banding together to bring these boys to this national event whether they can afford it or not,” said SUYSC representative and under-15 boys team manager Amanda Marino. “Both teams beat out huge soccer clubs in our northwest conference, and made a huge showing of pure passion and perseverance, from not only the players, but the volunteer coaches who give their time and heart to show up for these boys day in and day out.”
With seven of the 19 current players having been on the same team since they were in the under-8 division, the Sonoma under–15 boys possess a cohesive core of teammates who have moved through bronze, silver and then gold divisions to reach NorCal National Premiere League status enroute to joining the Elite Academy League.
Both the coaches and supporters of the SVU under-15 and under-19 boys are currently raising funds to cover the plane tickets, the hotel rooms and transportation in St. Louis, which are approximately $27,000 per team.
The under–15 boys team – which recently received donations from a Lombardi’s Barbecue fundraiser as well as from Boden Plumbing, Valley Construction and Remodel, Tienda Íñiguez, Schell Vista Fire, and Evina Construction – is accepting tax deductible donations of any amount and has a GoFundMe site: Https-//www.gofundme.com/f/backing-sonoma-valley-boys-national-dreams
Sonoma’s under-19 boys are also accepting donations and anyone interested in helping the National Championship bound SUYSC team in its fundraising campaign can email [email protected].
I’ve stated in the past about my passion for soccer, and when I played for our local semi-pro Sonoma International team back in the 1970s, I joined some of my teammates, and a group of community team supporters, to start the first youth soccer program in the Valley.
We pulled together our resources and connections to organize a youth soccer camp, held some fundraisers, and as more supporters jumped onboard, we eventually created the Sonoma Valley Youth Soccer Association.
In a future column I’ll write about how we were able to get one of the best and most influential college soccer coaches in the nation to put on that first youth camp, along with highly successful fundraisers that enabled us to plant those initial soccer seeds that grew into the SVYSA.
Clearly, I have a bit of bias about the need to support two of our Valley’s youth soccer teams, but the cause is a good one and I urge all who can to support our young boys and girls who want to play the world’s most popular sport.
Ciao!
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