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Hillsborough County United Aims For Region Title

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By NICHOLAS J.E. MURRAY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 14, 2008

Hillsborough County United's girls under-15 team will try to add to its Florida President's Cup title from earlier this season in Columbus, Ga. this weekend as Coach Igor Goncales leads the team into the Region III President's Cup competition.
HCU won its way into the eight-team tournament with a 2-0 win against Delray Beach at the beginning of April. The club's director of coaching, George Fotopoulos, hopes the team will enjoy the experience of reaching this level of competition.

"I think it's fantastic," Fotopoulos said. "First of all, it gives them an experience of competing at a national level, so winning the President's Cup was great, but now they get to compete against some of the best teams in the country. And, obviously, as a club we're very proud of them and are very excited for them. The staff, the coach, the parents have done so much to get the players to this point."
HCU has been actively retooling itself over the last year to build a stronger foundation for the club at the younger age groups. Its under-15 team, and the invitation extended to the boys under-13 team coached by Kevin Cowan that reached the Florida final to also compete for the Region III title, is an early indicator the club as a whole is headed in a positive direction.

"I think every step that we go forward as a club, you're going to start to see more and more teams like this accelerate and achieve the great success this team has," Fotopoulos said. "A lot of people want instant success and instant gratification. My goal and the club's goal is that we want long-term success, so for us the fact that we're seeing the younger teams be successful, we know we're heading in the right direction."

The eight-team tournament sees two groups of pool play, with the top two teams in each group moving onto the semifinals. The girls under-15 team drew the East Ridge Express from Tennessee, the Atlanta Fire and the Tuscaloosa Stars. Fotopoulos is hopeful the players can take the same approach they did in the Florida President's Cup and give themselves a chance at more silverware.

"The No. 1 thing I've passed onto them is that this should be for fun," Fotopoulos said. "You're at a point right now that you've got no pressure, so you should go up there and just play free soccer. I think once you get to this point, that can be a hard thing to do when you've never been there before, so what I've encouraged them to think is it's not going to be any different than where you've been at before.

"The difference is going to be in the scenery, the difference is going to be in the teams; you're not going to have a lot of knowledge of the teams, but how you prepare, and what your mentality is should be the same: confident, laid back, and going after it."

Junior Bolts Preparing To Round Out Roster

The Tampa Bay Bolts junior hockey teams will look to round out their inaugural rosters this weekend as the team holds its second set of tryouts at the Ellenton Ice and Sports complex tonight.

The Bolts will be fielding two teams, a Junior "B" team that will compete in the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League's new South Division, while the Junior "C" team will play in the Southeast Junior Hockey League. For team President and General Manager Neal Nachman, the main reason for bringing junior hockey to the bay area was to provide a steppingstone for young players from high school and age-group club hockey so players didn't have to leave Florida to face a higher level of competition.

"We really felt there was a need for the kids in the Tampa area to have a place to play without having to leave the state," Nachman said. "We felt that there was a need to have the kids stay home and develop the kids here, rather than have them leave the area."

The team held its first round of tryouts in May, and at that point offered 11 players positions on the junior "B" team for training camp in August. Nachman says that while players from outside the bay area will be playing for the Bolts, he is looking to have more than half the junior "B" roster and almost all of the junior "C" team come from the bay area. Nachman is expecting this weekend's tryouts will come close to closing out the roster for Coach Zoran Bendicak.

"I don't know if we'll complete the roster," Nachman said, "but with the players we have coming in from all over the country plus the local players, we'll definitely be filling a good portion of the spots that are currently available."

LITTLE LEAGUE: Bloomingdale Little League won a pair of softball titles at the District 13 Harold Garella Tournament of Champions, winning the major and junior championships in dominant fashion.

The major softball team scored 26 runs over two games, including a 15-2 win against East Point in the final, as pitcher Brianna Roman struck out nine and allowed four hits.

The junior team also piled up the runs as it defeated East Bay 11-1 in the final. Michela Hine hit a home run and a triple. Jordan Alexander added four runs for Bloomingdale as she got three hits and was hit by a pitch.

South Brandon Little League also won a pair of titles, theirs coming in the senior and junior baseball tournaments. Justin Lentz hit his second home run of the tournament as the senior baseball team defeated Bloomingdale American 9-2. Sean McChord and David Medina each added three hits, McChord scoring twice and Medina once, while John Warych had two hits and scored twice. South Brandon American took the junior baseball title with a 10-0 win against East Bay National.

In the major division, East Bay American denied South Brandon a third title with a 5-4 win. East Bay's Sam Carillo had a single and a double and scored twice, while pitchers Darius Sillart and Ryan Savidge combined to allow nine hits and two walks, but allowed only four runs as they struck out eight.

South Brandon's Joshua Mote pitched a complete game, striking out 13 batters while allowing six hits and one walk.

Nicholas J.E. Murray can be reached at (813) 259-8243 or nmurray@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Youth Sports for more news, notes and live game reports.

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