Two teams each of BRYC U8 Boys and U8 Girls participated in FPYC's Fathers' Day Tournament over the holiday weekend, playing four games "for the fun of it" and the All Star experience, not to speak of a tournament t-shirt, but no trophies. Meanwhile, sixteen other teams from BRYC, representing the cream of the crop from the U9 to U19 leagues, went for the gold. Four of them came home with it, while another two came close but settled for silver. BRYC was competitive in every age group, winning or tying 40 games while losing only 16. It was the league's best tournament showing in recent memory.
Deans of the BRYC coaching ranks George Getek and Darrell Oresky coached the U16 and U19 Girls teams respectively. They've been coaching some of the girls since they were in elementary school. Getek's girls just missed bringining home trophies while Oresky's girls beat the eventual tournament champion squad from Chantilly 1-0 in their final game but had to settle for Finalist awards after tying two earlier games 0-0.
Returning to the coaching ranks after a year or two off, Bob Brennis and David Evans coached the U16 and U19 Boys squads, where BRYC enters the recreational team with the best regular season record. Evan's squad turned in it's best performances of an already stellar season, tying a powerful team from the Arlington Soccer Association 1-1 in its opening game, then beating Springfield Youth Club, Prince William, and perrenial power Soccer on the Hill, by a combined score of 8-1 to finish undefeated and capture the tournament Championship.
Ed Knorr's U13 Boys team was a last minute tournament entry, wearing their BRYC blue jerseys because it was too late to order jerseys. Not the least bit humbled, they took every advantage of the opportunity, finished the tournament with three wins and only one loss, to take BRYC's other Finalist award.
Matt Burke's U9 Girls won their first three games of the tournament fairly handily (by a combined score of 13-4), but then played the Championship game vs. a spirited team from PWSI to a 0-0 tie, and had to endure two more scoreless overtime periods before winning a Penalty Kick shootout by a score of 2-1 to earn Championship trophies.
Joe Willmore's U12 Boys won three very tight matches to make it to the final game in a five team round-robin format needing only a tie to take home the title. Tie Prince William they did, repeating their showing in the fall season All Star tournament with another set of Championship trophies.
Last but certainly not least, Dan Wonderly's U11 Boys entered their Championship game with a record of 3-1, then, wearing their house gray uniforms, earned a thrilling 1-0 win over the host team from FPYC to earn its Championship honors. (Apologies to the players who had to leave before the delayed trophy presentation and missed the team photo below.)
With a little parental help from those teams/fields the webmaster and photographer just couldn't get to, pictures from all the other teams and action photos from most of them are also now posted on this page.
