Soccer is a sport that requires endurance on any given day. But the SoCal State Cup takes it to the next level.
Starting with 44 teams from across Southern California, the tournament involves days of continuous play before a winner is crowned. In this case, the La Jolla Impact Soccer girls team — made up mostly of students from Muirlands Middle School — won the State Cup’s Classic Cup in the under-14 division last month.
“This is one that is difficult to win, regardless of how good you are,” said coach Austin Mobley. “There are just so many games.”
The event starts in late February with teams playing in groups of four. After each team plays a round against the three others, the team with the best record moves on. From there, it is win or go home. The tournament ended the last weekend in March.
“It’s a long tournament, with a lot of weekend games,” Mobley said. “We had one game where half the team was getting really tired. It was a wake-up call for them to persevere. But we rallied and had a great second half to that game. Once we got to the semis and the finals, they felt the energy.”
After a successful season that earned La Jolla Impact its spot in the SoCal State Cup, Mobley said he “knew going into it we would do very well.”
“I thought we would make a decent run [at the title], but the girls rolled their eyes when I said I thought they would win,” he said. “They are a confident group, but they also realized someone has to win every year, and were aware that it might be someone else.”
Mobley said the team’s success throughout the season — and in the tournament — came from a combination of talent and camaraderie.
“The majority go to [Muirlands] and are close off the field,” he said. “When that happens and there is a good relationship, they row in the same direction. That was the main thing. We’re good, but there is a deep level of care they have for one another.”
Taking that to the field, the athletes played with the mindset of having a good time together, he added.
“The coolest part for me, and the thing I kept telling them once we made it to the quarterfinals, was that this would be a core memory regardless if they win it,” Mobley said. “When they get to experience that with people they care about, it is something that stays with them. They realized that when they saw how cool it was when they won it. It felt like a dream, but when they won it felt very real.” ◆
