U19 Three Rivers soccer team makes history as first Tri-Cities team at nationals
The U19 Three Rivers Soccer Club made history as the first team from Tri-Cities to win the US Youth Soccer Far West Regional Championships this year.
The team plays in the Regional Club League, which is affiliated with Washington Youth Soccer and has three different divisions, said head coach Jason Quintero. The team is in division one, the highest level, and went undefeated during the regular season with one tie and wins every other game.
While the team went undefeated in the regular season, they went 1-1-1 at the regionals tournament in Boise at the end of June. They advanced to the quarterfinals as a wildcard team and went on to win that game, along with the semi finals and finals, making them the first team from Tri-Cities to go to the USYS National Championship.
“We’ve had I think about between five and 10 teams win state cup in the past ... but none of them have won regionals,” Quintero said. “It’s pretty cool to for them to be capping off their career and going into play in college and having this experience right before that.”
The team has been through a lot of ups and downs throughout the season, including multiple injuries and winning a tournament with 11 players and no subs.
“Pulling out six points, pulling out two wins there,” Quintero said. “That’s not something a lot of kids get to do, so that was a pretty cool memory.”
Throughout the season, a total of 22 girls played on the team. Some players got injured, so Quintero called a few other girls from tryouts to be on the team.
Quintero said he has seen the team grow in confidence and be flexible position-wise in the past few months.
“Everyone on the team has played multiple positions throughout the year just as needed. They never complain about it. There’s no divas on the team. Everyone gets along. Everyone just fights for the common goal,” he said. “It’s pretty special group, chemistry wise, where it’s all about the team.”
The first game in Orlando is on Tuesday, July 19, but the team plans to fly into town on July 17 because of a team player bonding event the tournament puts on the day before it starts, he said.
“Airfare is super high right now. Like you win in Boise regionals and it’s like, okay, by the way, you have two and a half weeks to get to Orlando all the way across the country,” he said.
To raise money to send the team to Florida, the team manager set up a GoFundMe, and the team has done fundraisers including a car wash, Quintero said. Between the GoFundMe and the fundraisers, the team has raised almost half of their $10,000 goal.
