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LOCAL "CINDERELLA" BOYS SOCCER TEAM WINS TOP HONORS

Hudson, Ohio. A local soccer team has done what no other Cleveland-area boys club has managed to do in over 20 years: advance to the national championship series. This July, the Everest SC boys U-17 team will face off against the top 3 teams in the nation in Little Rock, Arkansas. The winner will be crowned national champion.

Everest advanced to nationals by winning the Midwest Regional Tournament in Rockford, Illinois, this past June. They prevailed over teams from Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Missouri.

In Little Rock Everest will play regional championship teams from California, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

The US Youth Soccer National Championship Series is the country's most prestigious national youth soccer tournament. The event provides over 185,000 players from US youth soccer's 55 state associations the opportunity to showcase their soccer skills against the best competition in the nation.

Hudson-based Everest features players from the greater-Cleveland area and as far away as Toledo and Erie, Pennsylvania. Most of the players on the team are juniors in high school and plan on attending college where they hope to continue playing soccer.

The team was formed 3 years ago when a group of players and coaches who were fed up with the Cleveland soccer scene banded together. Said head coach John Fenix of Westlake: "We were all looking for the same thing -- to be the best we could be. The local soccer scene had little to offer. It was all about various clubs protecting their turf and putting players second.”

The odds were against this small group but they soon earned a reputation as one of the most skilled teams in Ohio. They started to attract players from other clubs. Last year they were semi-finalists at the Midwest Regional Tournament. "We almost became a collection of good individual players rather than a team,” said assistant coach Dan O'Brien, also of Westlake. "We were becoming just like the clubs we had left. Fortunately, we saw what was happening and got back on track."

The team is now one of the top-ranked boys U-17 teams in the nation. Added Everest Owner and Boys Program Director Jason Hopkins: "It's been an incredible journey that began 3 years ago when we brought together a group of dedicated players, coaches, and a team manager. Through many ups and downs the team never lost its focus on playing skilled soccer. In the end all the hard work paid off."

The team's goal keeper and Perrysburg High School student, Timmy Ahlberg, summed-up the team's recent success: "We are a hard-working team, and luck was on our side. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have been rewarded for our troubles. There's not a person on this team who believes that this outcome was a "given," not by a long shot."