[Editor’s Note: The following tournament information was supplied by the New Canaan Soccer Association.]
The U13 Girls Red team lead by UK Elite Coach, Barry Beattie, entered the Fall 2013 CJSA Travel Soccer playoffs as the No. 1 seed after an undefeated season.
They defeated the Stamford Hurricanes 2-0 in the semifinals. The following day they faced Darien Blue in the Division A CT Junior Soccer Association’s Southwest District Championship, winning 2-1 and claiming victory in the Division A Southwest District Championship. New Canaan finished its Fall season by outscoring its opponents 30-5 without ever ceding more than one goal in any game.
New Canaan Soccer Association U13 Girls Red team lead by UK Elite Coach, Barry Beattie. Contributed photo
Following the successful Fall 2013 season, the New Canaan Girls U13 Red team was entered into the CT Junior Soccer Association (CJSA) Premier League for the Spring 2014 season. This was the first team that the New Canaan Soccer Association entered into the CJSA Premier league and the New Canaan Girls U13 Red team finished the season with a plus seventeen goal advantage and four shutout victories.
Being new to premier level competition, the New Canaan team was required to begin play in the CJSA Premier Qualifying league. The Girls U13 team started their season with a 3-0 win over Everton on May 3rd. The next weekend they tied Shoreline FC Lynx and lost 4-5 to Soccerplus Elite. But the team remained confident and came back a week later to defeat Northeast United 5-0. After four weeks without a league match, the New Canaan U13 Girls Red team hit the pitch on Saturday, June 14th and defeated Middletown Sporting 4-0. They returned to the field the next day to close their season with a 6-0 win against NBYSL Foundation SC, clinching the #1 spot in the CJSA Premier League Qualifying Division.
This success comes after the major decision in Fall 2012 by the NCSA to launch two levels of soccer development for all players U9 (3rd grade) through U14 (8th grade): Travel Soccer & Academy Soccer. With a play to win strategy, the NCSA Travel Soccer teams have seen significant success with two teams holding undefeated seasons and 65% of the teams earning a spot in CJSA Southwest district Travel Soccer playoffs in the Fall 2013.
With a renewed focus on player development, the NCSA is continuing to build these programs for even the youngest players with the launch of the Junior Rams program for kids aged 5 (Kindergarten) through 7 (2nd grade). The NCSA works to teach key soccer development skills at young age and it’s starting to pay off.
Congratulations to the Girls U13 team for a tremendous achievement of placing #1 in the CJSA Premier Qualifying League for the Spring of 2014.