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Palmetto Cup now a nationwide affair
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the Palmetto Cup
Brookland-Cayce boys soccer coach Kevin Heise thought he was hearing
things when he received a phone call from Alaska last April.
“I had to ask again where he was calling from,” he
said.
On the other end of the call was Mike Montgomery, whose South Anchorage
team had just won the Alaskan state soccer championship. He wanted
to sign his team up to participate in the Palmetto Cup, a boys soccer
tournament hosted annually by Brookland-Cayce.
This year’s tournament kicks off today at 2 p.m. with state
powers Northwestern and Summerville playing at the USC soccer practice
field.
Heise said studentsports.com’s proclamation of the 2005 Palmetto
Cup as one of the best boys soccer tournaments in the nation, attracted
coaches such as Montgomery. This year’s 16-team tournament
includes three out-of-state teams — South Anchorage, Kelly
Walsh — the defending Wyoming state champions — and
Farragut, Tenn.
“It’s a pretty stout tournament and the quality of
the teams is so strong,” Heise said.
You think?
Six of the top 10 Class 4A teams from the state are spending their
spring break in Columbia, including the top three _ Northwestern,
Hilton Head and Wando.
They are joined by four teams from the 3A top ten, and Airport
(3A, No. 12) and Summerville (4A, No. 14).
There is no clear favorite to win the championship game, which
begins at 7 p.m. on Saturday at USC’s Stone Stadium.
Heise said, “Some coaches from the state have told me this
is a killer schedule. It doesn’t get any tougher, and there
are no easy games for anybody.”
Not even the Bearcats (8-7), who round out opening night with a
7:30 p.m. match against 4A’s No. 8 squad Lexington. They face
4A No. 7 James Island on Thursday and close Friday action against
South Anchorage.
“Getting through this four days of a tournament is kind of
a micro-state championship,” said Heise, who does not expect
his team to pick up its third tournament title this week. The Bearcats
won in the inaugural year and four years later, in 1997.
“When we won the tournament it wasn’t nearly as deep
as this,” he said.
Among teams competing this year, only Spring Valley and Socastee
have earned Palmetto Cup titles before.
But Heise said the larger point of the tournament is for teams
to maintain or turn around momentum over a long vacation.
“You work so hard through January and start getting into
your region schedule and then, all of a sudden, there’s spring
break in the middle of it,” Heise said. “This way the
kids can keep playing soccer and getting better.”
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/sports/14321536.htm
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