State Cup Champs - Again

Should have been a three-peat in my opinion because they shouldn't have lost last year in the final. Heck, they should have never even gone to overtime last year. But, I'll chalk that one up to coaching error (which it was). But these guys never gave up. and two out of four of their high school years they earned State Cup honors. Despite lots of adversity. Despite three of those years having coaching changes one month before the start of the State Cup, these guys still persevered. I am so proud of them. 

Austen back row, 4th from left

Did I mention coaching changes? Yes, I haven't talked about it too much but finally - after 6 months of craziness did we get another coaching change this year in May. This one we welcomed. It was a tough and very long 6 months - I'm not going to lie. Kids quit. Others were demoralized. Most lost the love of the game. Kids were happier sitting the bench than playing. All because of the worst coach I've ever seen in any sport. I'm not talking about his choices on the field - which I didn't agree with most of the time - he certainly didn't bring out the best in any players that he coached, I thought, but this went beyond his field antics. This was verbally abusive behavior meant to tear down these boys personally. Let me be clear, he was not verbally abusive to Austen but what he had to witness and what was being said would have had any employee fired from his job. And this was happening to 17 and 18 year old boys. Our kids. And we were still their parents. We still had a responsibility to them. 

This coach wanted these kids to quit. He wanted to build his new team with all of his own recruits (who he played and started even when they didn't come to practice). Austen stepped down from his captain position so a junior going through the recruitment process could wear the armband and lead the team. This coach self-selected one of his favorites to wear that band even though the team did not vote for him and he was not a junior. Favoritism at its finest. After enough evidence; threats of reporting him to U.S. Safe Sport; the boys going to the head of the Club to report him (great lesson for them in do you put your head down and get through it or do you speak up even if it's not happening to you); and many of us parents banding together, he was finally relieved of his coaching duties for our team. It was a great day when that happened. Made even sweeter by this State Cup win (he's the only coach they had over the last three years that they did not win the State Cup under - and actually their record and the way they played was worse under him). 

These boys earned all of this - on their own. In a particularly difficult semifinal game for the State Cup, they had three kids out due to graduation and two kids out with injuries. That left 13 to play (since you had to go by your 18 rostered). The favorite player conveniently had to work (but count him in for the final, he said) and we didn't even know if we'd have one sub because the other recruit never said he was coming (he did end up showing up at the last minute). So we played with 12 in the heat. These boys hung on and ended up winning 4-2. That was the game! The final, they walked away with 3-0. They then went on to Regionals in Kansas City where they beat two teams 5-0 in group play but due to injuries (and our new coach giving everyone playing time) and the fact that the team we were playing had D1 college kids on it, we succumbed 3-1. But Regionals was never the goal as it was just training for Nationals since we had already qualified. 

So this is what it comes down to - one last hurrah. One last time playing together. One last moment to make memories. Hopefully, Austen and his teammates will give it everything they have because this is it. This is all they have left together - USYS Nationals 2025 at the ESPN Complex in Orlando. LFG! 

Austen's fans

State Cup Champs 2025!

Regionals in KC @ 95 degrees