Beach FC's Girls U12 WIN League Cup

On December 6, 2009, the U12 Beach Girls Gold team won the CSL League Cup Championship.

It was July of 2009, when Coach Jeff Joyner was introduced to the players and parents by Beach’s Club Director, Mauricio Ingrassia. Coach Joyner was to replace Coach Richard Perez, who had taken most of the girls from recreational soccer to the above average club level they were currently playing. Coach Joyner explained to the team that he would be changing to a “Flat Four” style of defense. Most of the parents had to go home and look up that defense on the internet. It was an interesting and eventually, championship winning change for the girls.

In the Beginning of August, after only three practices with Coach Joyner, the team went up to play in the 2009 Mustang Stampede Tournament in Danville, Ca. The “Flat Four” defense was not an immediate success. Coach Joyner explained it would take a little time for the team to understand his new defense and style of soccer.

A month later, the season started with a loss to one of the power-house teams in the League. But eventually, the girls started to understand what Coach Joyner expected of them. The defense began to come together. The team ended with a respectable 5-5-4 record in league and actually shut down several top teams by the end of the season.

The League Cup Tournament started for the girls on Saturday, December 5th at the Polo Fields. Beach Coach, Robert Demelo, did a great job covering for Coach

Joyner while he was in Texas with his older Premier team. The girls won all three games that weekend, including a Penalty Kick over-time final that propelled them into the next week’s Final Four games.

Coach Joyner returned from Texas and brought the girls back to the Polo Fields the next weekend. Due to the intense cold rain, the fields were full of huge mud puddles that would capture any ball or player that attempted to pass through it. The morning semi-final game would be against arguable the top-ranked team in the nation. After a hard –fought game where the Beach players seemed to revel in the mud and rain, Beach emerged triumphant with a 1-0 victory.

To everyone’s surprise, except it seemed for Coach Joyner, the team found themselves in the League Cup Finals that afternoon. Coach Joyner was very cool and collected, explaining to the girls what they needed to do. The girls were relaxed, happy to be together, and having fun playing in the Championship round.

The game started with a light rain, which eventually turned into a full storm. At half-time, the game was tied at 0-0. The five month old “Flat-Four” was holding. Our Goalie made several amazing saves, and the Mid-fielders and Forwards were threatening to score. The 2nd half started, and then it happened. Beach exploits a hole in the other team’s defense and scores the first goal of the game. Now it became the longest fifteen minutes of soccer that the Beach team ever had to play. In the end, with sheets of rain coming down, the U12 Beach Girls Gold team emerged victorious.

On hand to meet the girls as they left the field was their now veteran Coach Joyner, a joyous Mauricio Ingrassia, and Coach Perez looking very proud. With only two substitutes on the bench, Coach Joyner’s girls brought Beach Futbol Club their first League Cup Championship trophy.