National Ambition Inspires Soccer Players
Kacie Jewell, who will be a sophomore at Woodbridge High School in the fall, sat in the Rose Bowl stands watching the U.S. Women’s World Cup team defeat China for the championship, and she got caught up in the moment.
“I was watching the game a lot, but sometimes I would picture myself on the field,” she said. “I drift off sometimes.”
But unlike most of the girls who watched the World Cup in awe, Jewell may actually be on the field for the U.S. national team in the future.
Jewell is a goaltender on the Southern California Olympic Development team, in the girls’ under-15 division. Jewell and the 17 other girls who are on the Olympic Development team from Southern California will head to Wyoming to compete in the regional camp next week against other teams from the West. The top 30 players from the Western region will head to Oregon at the start of August. Next, an 18-member regional team will be selected to compete against the teams from the other three regions in the country at a camp in November. The top 18 players there will be selected for the under-15 national team.
The other four Orange County girls on the Olympic Development team are: Ina Kain from Irvine, Tory Manchester from Costa Mesa, Katie Rivera from Mission Viejo and Rubi Sandoval from Placentia. Sandoval, who will be a sophomore at Valencia in the fall, said she doesn’t dream of scoring the winning goal in the World Cup. Her ultimate goal in soccer is much simpler than that.
“I just want to make the [U.S women’s] national team,” said Sandoval, a sweeper. “If you get older and you don’t make the national team, you just go to college and then you quit. I don’t care if I sit the bench, as long as I’m on the team.”
The coach of the Southern California under-15 Olympic Development team is Cem Tont, and he said the dreams of Sandoval and Jewell may come true. He said the Southern California under-15 team “is probably the best in the world,” and that two or three of the 18 girls on the team have a legitimate shot at making the national team. Most of the girls on the team will be 19 the next time the World Cup is played in 2003.
“A lot of them have potential to be there, it’s just whoever makes the most commitment,” said Tont, who coaches women’s soccer at Palomar College. “When they reach 18 or 19, it’s going to be whoever works every single day.”
The girls’ Olympic Development team prepared for their trip to Wyoming by spending a week at an elite soccer camp in Yorba Linda. The camp was coordinated by Steve Sampson, the former U.S. men’s coach and current technical director of the California Youth Soccer Assn.--South. Such camps are being held all month around Southern California. The girls on the under-15 team hope that in the future they can help the U.S. maintain its position as the premier women’s soccer program in the world.
“They want to make it. You can see it in their eyes,” Tont said. “They visualize it.”
Other players on the Southern California Olympic Development team for 15-year-olds are: Sara Davis (Manhattan Beach), Jenna Fodor (Winnetka), Hayley Hunt (San Marino), Jennifer Jasper (El Cajon), Kelly Lavery (Woodland Hills), Shelly Marshall (Arcadia), April-Joy Milado (Winnetka), Jill Oakes (Encino), Jamie Ortega (San Diego), Janal Schmitt (Palos Verdes Estates), Rosa Anna Tantillo (San Diego), Lindsey Weening (Encino), and Candace Wilson (Walnut).
CLOSING POINTS
Former Santa Margarita forward Jake Rohe, who played on the Eagles’ 1998 state championship boys’ basketball team, has signed with Cornell after spending a year attending St. Thomas More, a prep school in Oakdale, Conn.
The 6-foot-6 Rohe was a second-team all-Sea View League selection.
Four Orange County girls were members of the Asics Nova club volleyball team that won the 16-year-old division title at the recent Junior Olympics in New Orleans.
They were Marisa Aston (Huntington Beach), Serena Bountour (Huntington Beach), Cassie Guess (Cypress) and Katie Hahlweiss (Mater Dei). Asics Nova defeated the Avoli VBC of Puerto Rico in five games in the championship match.
