Known almost as much for their distinctive lime green uniforms
as they are for their amazing soccer skills, the Storm U9 girls
soccer team finished its spring season with an 8-1 record,
outscoring the opposition 23-2, to capture its third title in the
2003-04 season.
Known almost as much for their distinctive lime green uniforms as they are for their amazing soccer skills, the Storm U9 girls soccer team finished its spring season with an 8-1 record, outscoring the opposition 23-2, to capture its third title in the 2003-04 season.
The Storm added the District II Spring champion-ship to its District II Fall outdoor championship, as well as the “Off the Wall” indoor championship in the winter.
The Storm also finished second overall in District II this spring, dropping the championship game 1-0 to the Central Valley Chillipeppers.
This spring, playing against the best competition between Burlingame and Watsonville, the Storm used its top-flight defense and goalkeeping to post seven shutouts in nine spring games.
The Storm defense was led by keeper Rebekah Inouye and fullbacks Tula Urban, Sydney Barker and Paige Menage.
The defensive quartet were also key contributors to the offense with their strong passing and support on the attack.
The Storm’s strong midfield play was another key to success, as Kaylana Mah, Taylor Slattery, Amber Thomas and Janessa Garcia controlled play and kept the Storm on the attack throughout the season.
The bulk of the scoring came from the Storm’s talented group of forwards, Colby Carson, Samantha Riolo, Hailey Hamilton and Jada Williams.
As the Storm prepares to move up to the under 10 division this fall, they can look back on an amazing year, during which they won two league championships, one indoor championship and posted an overall record of 44-3-3.
The coaching staff attributes much of the Storm’s success to team speed and strong possession play.
In addition to their individual skills, Coach Kelvin Thomas pointed out that the Storm players had the benefit of some great role models.
He noted the team had been “adopted” by the Live Oak High girls varsity team during the season and attended the team’s practices on several occasions.
Thomas said Coach Tony Vasquez and players Janae Pimental, Ashley Thomas, Cobbie Jones, Allison Power and Andrea Riolo were particularly helpful and actually conducted independent workouts with the Storm team.
Thomas said, “our girls love working with the Live Oak girls. Having “big sisters” from the CCS champions working with our girls means so much to our team, and has been a big part of our success.”
