September 30, 2008 – Kendall SC’s streak of appearances at the Super Y-League North American Finals will continue this year after the club’s U14 girls, U16 boys and U17 boys teams earned berths in the championship tournament that will take place from November 21 to 25 in Tampa.
The U17 boys stand atop Group B in the Southeast Division in a hard-pitched battle versus Miami Strike Force, who they lead by one point after amassing an 8-3-1 record. Both teams will be in Tampa come November as will the top two teams from group A. Orlando FC, the division’s points leader, and Florida Soccer Alliance.
For their part Kendall SC’s U16 boys delivered a dominating performance matched only by Schulz Academy, the other Southeast team that is headed to the Finals. With one game pending, Kendall SC leads the division by one point (12 wins, 1 loss and 2 ties), but both teams, who split their home and away matches, have an insurmountable lead over third-place Sunrise SC.
However, top honors go to the U14 girls, who are the only team from the Southeast Division that qualified for the championship tournament after leading the league with an 11-1-0 record. Their only loss came at the hands of Schulz Academy, the team they bested for the division title by a narrow 2-point margin.
Kendall SC had three other boys teams and two girls teams competing in the Super Y-League this past summer. The U13 boys finished fourth in Group B of the Southeast Division with a 5-8-2 mark, although they posted a positive goal differential for the season. The U14 boys finished with a winning mark of 6-4-2, but finished third in Group B, while the U15 boys posted a record of 5-4-3 and also finished third in Group B. The U13 girls, who had many members playing up in age, finished fourth in the Division with a 5-5-3 record, and the U15 girls barely missed returning to the Finals after finishing in second place with a 7-0-3 record.
The 2008 version of the Super Y-League finals culminates a ten-season journey towards the establishment of an elite-youth development program in North America. The 1999 USL initiative that began as a 16-team, exclusively East Coast league, has expanded rapidly from the start.
The SYL jumped to 75 teams in just a year, 200 the following season, and as more and more adult clubs and professional franchises delved into youth development, the league saw exponential growth. In 2005, the league contained an astounding 780 teams from across North America. And more recently the principles and standards established by the Super Y-League ten seasons ago have been adopted by U.S. Soccer’s Development Academy, a program that will lead to future success at the National Team level.
Last season, the North American Finals brought together clubs who would otherwise never compete. Far off places such as Vancouver, Canada competed against clubs from Miami, Florida. Clubs from Los Angeles faced the best New Hampshire had to offer. Teams also represent the youth academies of some of the top professional clubs in North America.
