The 2014 edition of the Weekend Warrior started out in true form as ice fell from the sky while the organizers arrived at the fields on Saturday. The precipitation quickly faded, the sun peeked through the clouds, and the weather ultimately gave way to a great first day of soccer.
After a hectic first day of games between the 28 teams involved, teams were seeded for the knockout round, a few first round matches were finished up in the morning, and all eyes were closely monitoring the Forevergreen Golden Boot standings to size up the competition.
Despite having three different pitch sizes (maybe the pitch is one of our 99 problems, go figure), we feel the 2014 edition of the Weekend Warrior was a huge success. We learned a few things… Tennis shoes don’t work well on grass fields, our wives are awesome (well, we already knew that), and updating scores and standings is tough when 30 people are looking over your shoulder! Were were fortunate to have a team from both Indiana and Tennessee that managed to fight their way to the final in two different divisions. For the first time, the Forevergreen Golden Boot was tracked through the entire length of the tournament, rewarding players on teams that advanced through the knockout rounds. While no prize was given for the award, your name will be etched in Weekend Warrior lore for eternity!
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The Rec Fun title game looked to be a runaway early as newcomer Norfolk and Chance built a 3-0 lead, but battle tested FC International clawed back into the match to tie the game with only minutes remaining. The Golden Goal overtime was short lived, however, as Norfolk and Chance tucked one into the corner and walked away with the crown.
The Rec Fun Forevergreen Golden Boot winner was #20 Jonathan Myers from Norfolk and Chance, as he proved to be a deadly weapon throughout the tournament.
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The Rec Competitive division, usually the most evenly matched, fielded players of out of shape ex superstars, young up and comers, has-beens, never-weres, and out of towners. Ultimately, it was the battle tested Old Law Dogs and the 2009 Rec Comp champs Indy Elite that found their way to the final match. The tired Old Law Dogs built an early lead and held out to win the title over a persistent Indy Elite team playing their 5th game of the weekend before the dreaded ride back up interstate 65. Thanks for traveling south for the winter, Indy!
The Rec Competitive Forevergreen Golden Boot winner was John “Nasty” Lawrence. The nickname suits him well, as he finished most of the chances he had in the final to finish with 20+ goals for the tournament.
The Women’s final featured one team split into two as the HASL team Herricanes was split in half and ended up colliding at the end to determine this year’s champion. The match was a hard fought one, but ultimately the Herricane’s alter-ego “Cleats & Cleavage” fought through the storm with one goal being the difference between the two squads.
The Women’s Forevergreen Golden Boot award went to Katie Schager on Cleats & Cleavage as she proved to be a goal scoring machine for the tournament champions.
The Open Final featured (Martin Methodist + Craig ) a tournament staple in every division, Schurke, and the newcomers from Knoxville, Fast Alex. The open final was a rematch of a first round game in which the Knoxville boys took the match 3-2. The intensity of the match was, well…intense, from whistle to whistle. Fast Alex showed some veteran savvy, allowing Schurke to maintain possession and effectively counter attack at opportune times. This strategy was effective for most of the championship game for the boys from Knoxville. Showing discipline throughout most of the match, Fast Alex was able to hold a 2-1 lead up to about 10 minutes remaining in the match. However, through sheer determination the young guns with Schurke were able to find the key to unlock the Fast Alex defense. In a span of about 3 minutes, the momentum flipped on it’s head as Schurke rocketed 3 quick goals and added one more to close out the match for a 5-2 victory, the second title for Schurke in the Weekend Warrior Open Division.
The Forevergreen Open Golden Boot winner was an on form Andrew Nkurungi from the Rocket City United Reserves team who made finding the back of the net look easy.
Again thanks to all the participants and sponsors involved. Please take our survey and come back for the Rocket City Invitational this summer. We’ll be working with American Outlaws and Rocket City United to host World Cup viewing parties and make this summer’s tournament bigger and better than ever. If you have ideas, want your business to be a sponsor, or just want to give us your thoughts, feel free to drop us a line at info@southernsoccer.net
As always, great tournament guys. Keep it up.