Naples, Florida (April 8, 2007) - We had three teams entered in the Naples 3v3 Tournament. The u8s were perhaps the team that generated the most excitement. The girls have only been practicing a few weeks but they showed some encouraging signs about what the future might hold. They played in a division against u7 boys. The team finished in a second place in a tight championship game. These girls just had a ball and as one parent said, they just smiled from the beginning until the end of each game. They also had some pretty good coaches, as Coach Gus and Coach Lou drove over to Naples just to coach the team.

The u11s finished in third place. The u11s don’t have that much 3v3 experience, and they had their moments when that inexperience showed. They also had some very good moments. They finished the tournament on a high note, winning their final game in convincing fashion and displaying some excellent passing and a good effort. This gives the team something to build on.

The u10s won the tournament, but not without making it interesting, maybe too interesting. The girls went 3-0 in bracket play and then played Florida Premier in the semi-final. The girls had a comfortable 5-2 lead when Premier worked their way back into the game and managed to tie it in the final few minutes. It looked like the game was headed to overtime, when Rylee Simons went on to the field. Rylee quickly got the winning goal to set up a championship matchup with the International Youth Soccer Academy (IYSA).

IYSA was ready for the title game and it looked like Sunrise wasn’t as IYSA took a 3-0 lead into halftime. But that set up a great Sunrise comeback.. The girls scored five second half goals and allowed only one to win the championship 5-4. It was a furious comeback as the girls had only 12 minutes (each half is 12 minutes) to win the game, and this was with the momentum completely against them. The final goal came in the closing minute or two.