On Soccer
John Shimer
The local stadium in dire need of a renovation — World War Memorial Stadium — will play host to an event put on by the combined efforts of the Newburyport Youth Soccer Association (NYSA) and RESTORE to raise awareness about the stadium's needs and raise money for stadium repairs and a new field.
The in-town soccer program made up of kids ranging from 3 to 9 will play a giant final season jamboree in which all of the 52 teams in the program will play a game in the stadium. Each player will have his/her name announced over the public address system and receive medals at the end of the day.
NYSA is asking for a voluntary $10 admission fee per family. However, there will be plenty of other ways to donate including eating at the snack shack, participating in the 50/50 raffle, face painting, and dunk tanking. Several other groups will be doing fundraising as well, including the high school's girls program, who are looking to add a freshmen team next year.
In-town director Jay Iannini said the event was organized after the NYSA organization had discussed several ideas to better expose the community to soccer and also the poor state of condition of War Memorial Stadium.
"If you don't have kids at the high school you almost don't even realize the stadium is there, and it's a great resource," Iannini said. "We thought it would be a good idea to play these games in the stadium to give a lot of the younger parents some exposure.
"This event is a community building exercise — to rally some younger families — and help make people understand our schools require greater resources," Iannini explained. "Hopefully we can get the stadium back on line to where it needs to be."
Newburyport High girls soccer coach Robb Gonnam said many of his girls' state championship players will be at the event helping out, while also doing some of their own fundraising.
"Many of the girls are donating old clothing to sell, and selling bad-dog and bad-puppy t-shirts with the goal to get every girls soccer player in Newburyport to wear the shirts in training," Gonnam said. "We have 60 girls for only two teams, so hopefully we can raise some money for a freshmen team next year.
"We also need to do something with that stadium because it's one of the best in the state," said Gonnam. "It's so personal and in such a great location in relation to the high school. It's just a great place to view a game because it's right on top of the field with no track in the way."
Aztec teams look to capture state titles
This weekend the New England Aztecs will send several teams to the Mass. Youth State Cup championships at the Citizens Bank Fields at Prongin Park in Lancaster. Although the club has never won a state championship to date, several of Newburyport's most prominent players on both the girls' and boys' side, will look to end that drought.
Enjoying perhaps their finest season since joining NE Aztecs in 2004, the trio of Taylor Bresnahan, Laura Muise, and Jillian Kinter helped the U17 girls team capture first place in the first division of Mass. Premier with a 6-0-1 record this season fresh off their state championship last fall for Newburyport High.
The team then clinched a berth in the semifinal for a fifth straight year this Saturday by winning its State Cup round robin group with a 2-0-1 record.
Despite having only one substitute for the majority of the season, Bresnahan said this has been the team's finest year performing well in several big tournaments, including winning its bracket at a prestigious college showcase in New Jersey over Memorial Day weekend.
"This year is definitely the best team we've had, and I think we have a pretty fair shot at the state title," said Bresnahan. "It takes a team a while to click. With Newburyport we have all played together since youth so we know how we play/ But this year we just clicked."
Having gone through stretches of playing seven games in eight days, Kinter said she does not believe the Aztecs will wear down.
"We are a really fit team and we've learned to adapt to having one sub," said Kinter, who has verbally committed to Colgate University for her college plans, but admitted she will keep her options open. "We have all these great players, there's no reason why we can't finish it this year."
After a long season of battling even stronger competition than last fall, according to Muise, another state championship would be a fitting reward to end a great year.
"The competition is better in club because the teams we play against have players, like this one girl that has a full ride to Santa Clara in California, and the teams pick the best girls from all over Massachusetts," explained Muise, who hopes to find a Division 1 program to play for this fall. "Winning last year definitely helps us this weekend, but it's going to be different because you don't have a big following, and you have to find other ways to get pumped up."
On the boys' side, after narrowly finishing second in the first division with a 3-2-2 record, former Clippers keeper Nick Allman, who will be attending Endicott in the fall, helped his Aztecs win their State Cup Round Robin group and move into the semifinals.
"We're looking forward to the challenge. It's been a long three years after jumping from Division 3 to Division 2 to Division 1, but we're fortunate to get the support from the coaching staff," Allman said. "We've persevered over everything we've tried, and everything seems to be working itself into place."
U12 girls Newburyport team wins Danvers Tournament
With four girls teams from Newburyport between the ages of U12 and U14 competing at the Memorial Day Danvers Tournament, three Clipper teams advanced to the finals, while the other lost in double-overtime in the semifinals, and one of the U12 teams won the entire tournament.
