U13 Nike Girls Take 2nd at Dallas Texans Fall Festival

U13 is a pivotal year for the Nike team as the girls train to enter the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL). This also means it’s their final year in Colorado Youth Soccer and the last year they’ll compete for the State Cup.

In preparation for entering the higher level of ECNL competition, Coach Ross Fowler identified the Dallas Texans Fall Festival as a good tournament for the girls to experience new teams in a different part of the country.

The November tournament was held at the same time Coach Fowler was selected to participate in a trip to South Africa as part of the Rush Equipment Assisting CHildren (REACH) program, so Cameron Bushey stepped in to coach.

Under partly cloudy Dallas skies and perfect soccer temperatures, the Nike team played 5 games in 2 days. They beat Sting Central 3-1, Andromeda FC 1-0, and FC Dallas 1-0 to make it into the semifinals where they beat the Lady Aztecs 1-0. In the finals, the Nike team came up against the formidable and fast Dallas Texans and fell 0-2.

Coach Bushey said, “Throughout the first 4 games, our Rush soccer outplayed their soccer. It dominated. Their soccer was direct and hard. Our soccer was smooth and creative. We were quick, we tried always to link with players, and we were fast attackers when the game was open.”

The Rush skills did not go unnoticed. The FC Dallas coach said to Coach Bushey, “Good job. You played the first soccer we've seen in 6 months.” Bushey went on to say, “This is what we want – to be noticeably different.”

Goals were scored by Cassidy Formanek, Anna Bane, Sophie Caswell and Carolyn Anschutz.