WP Shines In Jamboree
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September 9, 2010
Dayton's Blake Powell keeps his eye on the action from afar as teammate Adam Strohbehn works hard to keep the ball away from WP's Kevin Ortega during Tuesday night's soccer jamboree in Dayton.
DAYTON - The untested Waitsburg-Prescott Tigers swept the field defeating both Dayton and Walla Walla Valley Academy at the league's soccer jamboree in Dayton Tuesday evening. "We take our hats off to the WP team," said Dayton assistant coach Jerry Dedloff after the game. "They live it and love it. They're at the level we hope to be at."
Though the scores at Tuesday night's jamboree don't count toward the three teams' overall rankings, Tigers head coach Rick Hamilton was pleased at the results of WP's first match. The Tigers are a brand new team just organized this fall. "We got off to a bit of a rough start in the first game (against WWVA)," he said. "The kids had some game butterflies. But then they started warming up, started passing the ball. We've still got a lot of games to go, but we've gotten off to a good start."
The Tigers beat WWVA 3-0 and then went on to defeat the Dayton Bulldogs 6-0. "I think we've discovered a few things we still need to work on, though," Hamilton said, declining to give any details that would give other teams an advantage over his players.
Bulldog's mid-fielder Blake Powell moves in for an offensive play against Walla Walla Valley Academy during Tuesday night's soccer jamboree in Dayton.
Though playing for the first time as a high school team, many of Hamilton's athletes have been playing club or street soccer for years. "But this is a step for them," he said. "This is more organized ball, more of a team ball. It's about passing and controlling the game instead of being a 'boot ball' game." The Dayton Bulldogs are now in their fourth season as a team, with some strong players and a small but enthusiastic
crowd of fans who attended Tuesday night's games.
Assistant coach Jeff McCowen felt his team played well against WWVA, though the final score in that match was WWVA-3, Dayton-0.
"There was some miscommunication between our defensive line and our goalie, and a few unfortunate falls," he said. "Otherwise I think we would have played a scoreless game against WWVA." McCowen praised his team, which he described as a good corps of players, but said the jamboree was "an eye opener for our kids, to see the competition they're going to be up against." "These were two state-caliber teams they played tonight," he said.
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