Spring has begun to spring! Things are back to normal here in Southern California with regards to the rain and the older state cup is in it's final phase. The younger state cup has been completed and it was a sad day in Blues land as younger Blues teams fell short of the championship having two teams (U12, U13) bow out in the semis.

Congratulations to the SD Surf club who captured both the U12 and U13 age groups, hats off also to Mission Viejo who won the U11 state championship.

Mission Viejo High School narrowly defeated Capistrano Valley in the CIF soccer finals scoring in the last minutes to win 1-0. This championship final saw many Blues players battling one another on the high school pitch and signaled the return to club soccer and the older state cup run.

As was evidenced by the younger State Cup, this is the time of season when the Southern California youth soccer community can lose perspective of the bigger picture. Many parents, players, and coaches will hang all their soccer balls on one state cup trophy and use the tournament to measure whether or not their team, it's players, and coach have any value; a short sided way to look at things.

STOP THE MADNESS! While part of every competitive team's goal is to win the state cup championship and the right to call themselves the best, winning state cup may have little meaning with respect to the development of a youth soccer player. Blues News knows of countless stories where teams that win the state cup in one season, turn around the next season and fail to even exist! On the flip side there are accounts of teams that fail to advance out of group, take the experience, turn it to gain to come back the next season and win it all!

All too often in our youth soccer environment people get emotional and only seem to recognize winners and losers. Remember only one team will win the state cup, hopefully it will be your team. Keep things in perspective; value, self worth, and learning can not be measured solely by results. Be realistic in your expectations, keep your eyes on the big prize; the healthy development of young people, students, and soccer players!

1998 BLUES STATE CUP SCHEDULE

Older Blues teams finished a hectic tournament play schedule and now begin state cup. U18 Blues began post season preparation recently losing 1-0 in an exhibition game vs the U.S. National U16 team at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista on February 28. Coach Hugh Donald took available U18 players and combined them with other Blues from the U17 and U16 Blues. Coach Donald felt the team represented the Blues club extremely well without much preparation and gave Blues players great exposure to Women's National team coach Tony DiCicco and U16 National team coach Anson Dorrance.

The Sunkist Adult Women's Tournament at Cal Poly Pomona was held in early March, which along with the Adult Women's Blues, included the U18 Blues. The CSL champion U15 girls attended the Fram Tournament at Cal State Dominguez Hills and showed a lot of rust from the high school season losing 3 of 4 matches. During this same time the U16, U17, & U18 Blues competed in the Pangolin Cup (March 21, 22, 23) at UC Irvine and had better results. Both the U16 & U18 Blues captured the Pangolin Cup championship. The older teams closed out the month of March by attending a rain soaked Nomads Girls Tournament at UC San Diego which was won by the U18 Blues. Wow, that is a lot of games!

To the delight of the Blues coaching staff along with numerous Blues club members, Mario Zanetti, famous for his Cal Berkeley attending Blues alumni daughter Maresa Zanetti, has finally opened his new restaurant.

The new cucina is located in Marbella Plaza at 31105 Rancho Viejo Road in San Juan Capistrano. Before opening this restaurant, Mario owned and operated the now famous Mario's by the Sea in Dana Point. The Blues News has sent reporters to Mario's house for dinner, of course they were invited, and this man can flat out cook.

After seven long years in search of an exclusive equipment sponsorship, the Southern California Blues and FILA Sports announce they have come to terms on an agreement which makes FILA the exclusive outfitter of the Blues Soccer Club.

Blues Director Larry Draluck was openly excited about the future association. "We have felt all along the Blues can offer positive exposure to a major sponsor. FILA has given the us the Red Carpet Treatment in that they have taken the time to listen to our needs, not the least of which has been the design of a spectacular custom uniform. When I saw they were willing to put in the effort for us, when I saw the unmatched quality of the equipment they would provide for us, not to mention the quality of people we would be working with, I knew this was the right thing for the Blues."

Along with exclusively outfitting the entire club of 160 members, FILA will be outfitting the Blues coaching staff and administrators. FILA will also be taking an interest and assisting in several of the club's future projects including the Blues New Years Invitational.

Some of the best quality soccer being played at the youth level happens the first weekend of the new year. The 1999 Blues New Years Invitational is looking for qualified teams to fill it's age brackets (U10, U11, U12, and U13).

Former Blues player and Irvine native Katie Roda, a member of the first Blues team (graduated in 1996) and a sophomore at Dartmouth College, has been named Honorable Mention, All Ivy League.

Katie plays defensive midfielder/marking back. She narrowly missed four shots on goal (all headers) in her game vs Harvard, which Dartmouth lost 1-0. Harvard went on to play UNC 1-0 in the NCAA quarterfinals as the Ivy League champion. If Dartmouth had won that game, they would have been the Ivy League champions and would have received an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

Ok people, Blues News is getting on the soap box to dispel rumors and set the record straight. ODP state tryouts were held for older players with younger players tryouts pending. The Blues advocate full participation in the ODP to all players who meet the age requirements at all levels. This means attending tryouts regardless of past or present experience with the program.

The Blues club is fortunate to have several members of their coaching staff involved in the ODP program at various levels on both the girls and boys side. This in itself is no advantage for Blues players although to listen to public speculation, it is all a bunch of politics.

First of all, players and parents need to understand the work of becoming a quality soccer player is not done at the ODP level. ODP is merely a showcase for a tiny percentage of players who already have talent or show promising qualities to perhaps one day play at the National level. The real work of developing oneself for high levels of play is done in the club soccer environment where day to day training and regular competition takes place.

The initial purpose of the ODP was to promote our national team program but has become muddled over the past few years with the influx of major scholarship money at the college level. While there is nothing wrong with this, in many ways the program at the older age groups has now become a recruiting ground for college coaches. In the ODP, college coaches get the chance to evaluate a large quantity of quality players in fierce competition.

Most soccer pundits will tell you this system of selecting our National team is far from perfect. Often times quality players fall through the cracks and go unrecognized. No doubt the best way to evaluate players is to watch them in meaningful competitions on a regular basis. With the size of our country, however, this is logistically impossible on the local level. The ODP has become our imperfect selection process. Eventually if players have the ability to play for the National team they are discovered along the line. Do you know any of these people (Hit Photo)?

Now on to the truth. The following is a litany of truths; like them or not they are the truth! The Blues want to publicly let current and prospective players know that by itself, just the fact that someone plays for a Blues team has no effect on whether or not they make or do not make an ODP team. To suggest so is an insult to any hard working Blues players who do make the team. No particular club or club coach can get you on to the ODP team if you do not have the talent. Any coach who promises or threatens players one way or another about being selected for the ODP at any level should be questioned carefully by players with respect to the coaches honesty, standards, and motives.

Player evaluation is a subjective matter and each coach has personal player preferences. Mistakes are made at every level of selection but most often are made at the district level. Most mistakes are due to a lack of proper environment or inability to evaluate, and not politics. One year a player can be in the national pool and the next year will not even make the district team.