The new year began with a bang at the 1998 Blues Invitational and the good luck continued at the Celtic Cup for U12 & U13 age groups.

The Celtic Cup is now held at the CYSA-South 17 field soccer complex in San Bernardino and outside of a small slope on some of the fields, playing conditions at the complex are excellent. The grass is well manicured and the playing surface is smooth. Thank you John Harper (former CYSA-South President), the city of San Bernardino, and all those involved in putting the complex together for what may be the greatest contribution to Southern California youth soccer, EVER!

U11 Blues played well, but not well enough to advance to the semifinal round as trouble scoring goals in short tournament games continued to be a problem. Needing a win to advance, the U11's were blanked 0-0 by a defensive minded ISC Strikers who only need the tie to advance. The Blues won the consolation game 2-0.

The U12 Blues won the Premier Celtic title by defeating Torrance in what turned out to be an even game aside from the first 10 minutes which saw the Blues jump out to a quick 3-0 lead. The Blues went on to win the championship by a score of 4-0 with forward Lauren Winters earning tournament MVP honors.

The U13 Blues had their ups and downs throughout the tournament weekend at times playing some of the best soccer one will see at this age level nation wide. The team met fierce competition in each of it's games once again playing Southern California's top teams. The final was called the game of the weekend by tournament director Matt Mc Donagh who awarded the first place trophies to the Blues after a penalty kick victory over host Celtic in the final. Mr. Mc Donagh was also kind enough to acknowledge Blues coach Tad Bobak during the awards ceremony calling him one of the nation's top youth coaches having known him for the past 20 years.