Vail Valley Soccer Club U16 boys head to National Presidents Cup

The future looks bright for Eagle County football. Perhaps as bright as ever.

Vail Valley Soccer Club’s U16 boys placed second at the Far West Regional Presidents Cup in Salt Lake City earlier this month to punch their tickets to the USA National Youth Soccer Presidents Cup in Wichita, Kansas, July 12-16.

“They have a quiet confidence about them,” head coach Joel Rabinowitz said. “It’s an interesting group. They don’t go too high, they don’t go too low… in the big games, they show up.

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Fourteen years ago, Rabinowitz also took a U16 boys team to the Far West Regional Championship in Salt Lake City. Although this group failed to qualify for the state tournament, they formed the core of Battle Mountain that went 20-0 and won the 4A state title. in 2012.

Asked to contextualize the talent on this team, Rabinowitz said, “I think this team is very good and we keep telling them to believe in themselves — how good they can be — but I wouldn’t say they’re the best team I’ve ever coached.”

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“But they went further,” he added. “So that says something.”

The roster is made up of athletes from Battle Mountain and Eagle Valley High School as well as a player from Summit and another from Front Range who was added after the State Presidents Cup. There are also three freshmen who attended Gypsum Creek Middle School last year.

“The young players don’t lack confidence,” Rabinowitz said of Alfonso Gallegos, Marco Rosales and Louy Tellez, all of whom are headed to Eagle Valley next fall. “They have great technical skills, they are not afraid to dribble at someone. So it’s cool to watch.

The club’s indoor training sessions began in mid-December and increased to 3-4 sessions per week at the start of the league season in March. Vail went 9-1 in league play, despite being one of the youngest teams, with nine players born in 2009. In May, Rabinowitz’s team won the Colorado Presidents Cup, the tournament of State for Colorado Soccer Association teams that are not Premier 1 or Elite 64 league teams, with a record of 6-0. The team’s record is now 20-2-2.

“If you had told me at the beginning of the year that this team would have gotten this far, I would have called you crazy,” Rabinowitz said of the group, which was coming off a sub-.500 campaign last spring . “We grew week by week and got better.”

The head coach said the team has matured in both its training habits and schematic elements.

“A lot of kids come from college where they are the best players on the field and can do whatever they want,” he said. “So coming together as a group has been important.”

He and his assistant, Cameron Kamin, also worked to hold their players to higher standards.

“They don’t always like it,” Rabinowitz said. “But they tend to react.”

Two teams from each of the four regions qualified for the championship, meaning Vail could have a rematch against the team from Boise, Idaho, that beat them 3-2 in the Far West final. After five games in five days – all in 100-degree heat – Vail found itself down 2-0 against Boise. They were able to equalize before halftime, but gave away a rebound on a free kick from the top of the box in the final five minutes.

“I can’t wait to face them again,” Rabinowitz said.

Although he acquired some team footage to prepare, Rabinowitz said it’s not as easy to find film on the summer club circuit as it is during the fall high school season.

“It’s more about refining what we do and adapting to the other team’s style of play,” Rabinowitz said when asked how the group will prepare for the July tournament. “I think for the most part, you have to prepare yourself to be the best version of yourself.”

Want to support the team? Donate on Venmo to “VailValleySoccerClub”.