Congratulations to the U14G Clippers for advancing to the semi-finals and winning 3rd place at the Pleasanton Soccer City tournament. Pleasanton Rage is an all-girls soccer club (www.pleasantonrage.org) and it’s one of the most fiercely competitive programs in northern California. (Note the name Rage.) Montclair’s ratio of competitive to rec teams is the highest in the League. As large as our Clippers program is in the East Bay, the Pleasanton Rage simply dwarfs our program. This year we have 24 Clippers teams (boys & girls) and 38 rec teams (U10-U19). Pleasanton Rage has 37 competitive teams – just for girls.

The outcome of tournament was joyful. The players showed fantastic resilience, coming from behind in three matches to tie it up. They played in brutal heat. Right after the game, Coach Marcus spent some time talking to the girls about the journey they had this summer. As a team they put in two weeks of summer camp and trained rigorously twice a week from mid-July through August. It’s all starting to click: “Play the way you are facing. Receive the ball with your back foot when there’s time. Take your touches 1-2-3 and get your head up. And talk to each other. Support each other. Help each other.” Rob Busa (at our afternoon game) worked with Marcus, providing vital transition and support for training. As a game coach Marcus is lifting the quality of soccer for the team. It’s visible and palpable. The girls know it. They can literally see it coming together. It’s invigorating for me and the other coaches. It leaves more time, energy and focus for us (parent coaches) to spend on player development (example: Player Plans).

This is Year 6 in this team’s journey. When this Clippers team was formed in 2006, it was Clippers first U9 team and first age pure team. We literally had nowhere to play games as a U9 team, so we competed against second year U10 teams. We piloted a professional training program for all Clippers teams one year later. The following year the team dual registered with CYSA and entered NorCal tournaments. The team played in NorCal last year, part of an early wave of teams moving over to NorCal for regular season play. We are the first Clippers team to face Premier teams fielding Regional Academy players, and the oldest Clippers team to play in NorCal.