U.S. Youth Soccer a hit at Shawnee; Bridgeport based team wins Eastern Regional title

DUNBAR, W.Va. — One of the biggest events the Shawnee Sports Complex has ever hosted is in the books but there is no rest for the weary for the officials at the popular facility.

With the U.S. Youth Soccer Eastern Regional Presidents Cup tournament wrapping up on Tuesday, the workers at the state of the art facility will now turn attention to the upcoming U.S. Youth Soccer Eastern Regional National Championship Series event.

The soccer tournament that just wrapped up, which was also played at the Barboursville Soccer Complex, featured 112 boys and girls teams from 12 states.

Katie Arthur, the Director of Shawnee Sports Complex said the out of towners loved the facility.

“I actually just spoke with a gentleman who brought his daughter here from Pittsburgh,” she told MetroNews.

“He said they didn’t have anything like this in Pittsburgh and that this is a beautiful complex and they loved it. All of the kids have been running around saying how cool this place is with all of the fields and the turf.”

Teams at the tournament were from all over including Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

A West Virginia team won a regional championship as Empire FC from Bridgeport beat Premier Soccer Club 12U Girls Gold out of Baltimore, Maryland, 1-0 on Tuesday.

Empire FC 12U girls became the first West Virginia team in the history of the West Virginia Soccer Association to win a regional Presidents Cup.

“The region brings some really good competition from big cities and states. There is a lot of competition as some of these clubs have three teams in one age group,” she added.

Regional winners in certain age divisions will now head to the U.S. Youth National Presidents Cup tournament in July in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Even more teams, 308 to be exact and 20 from West Virginia, will be at Shawnee for the Eastern Regional National Championship Series June 28 to July 4.

Arthur said this will be the first time that all 127 acres of the facility will be used for one tournament that will feature around 6,500 athletes.

Shawnee was recently awarded to be the 2020 site of both of the U.S. Youth Soccer regional events as well.





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