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Show r f ' ; ' hik. i v M H : r j ! ; I : .7,. 1 1 ' - , "'.... .iu - . " , hwim.m,,!, ill ' " ?v ' 'J- ' -mill: $p?) I lEIl m'1 - f 2 n mmmMmgatmmmfl . .. i NEIL JENKINS By DAVE WIGKAM " Clipper Sports 6i BOUNTIFUL - Phone ring: "Hello is Neil 2f there please?" "No he's up at the golf course right now, call back in a little while." j LATER THAT day the same phone ring, j : "Hello is Neil there yet." "You just missed himhe's down at the bubble swimming pool." n' ; Onemore time later in the day. "Hello, is Neil ;! there?" "He went up to 1800 South Park." This sounds like the job everyone dreams about, the type where the guy is never in the office and is always up playing golf or at the local swimming hole or simply at some park doing whatever he pleases. Truth is in this case all those stops are just part of the job that Neil Jenkins handles for Bountiful City. NEIL IS the parks and recreation superintendent superin-tendent for Bountiful and he's played a big role over the past ten years or so in building up the recreational facilities and programs in this I Eagle Soccer Club I Soars In Denver 1 : i' c ; t $ ' By DAVE WIGHAM ; Clipper Sports CENTERVILLE - Lookout Cougars here IjS. come the Eagles. In these parts the word in little soccer is the Cougars, the team coached j by Tom Angelos that has a state wide reputa- lion as one of the top teams in the intermoun- j lain area, but a team of ten year olds from ; Centerville is also becoming a household name ; m soccer circles throughout the state. : A COUPLE of weeks ago both these local i sides went to Denver for the Wendys Interna-I'onal Interna-I'onal Friendship'Cup, and both of them came away with some hardware. The Cougars won 5 'tor division while the Eagles soared in with a Inird place finish, losing only one game to a solld club from Peru. ?cj: These Eagles got their start four years ago c ?; 'nen a father by the name of Robert Hooge got I ?i mvolved in the sport of soccer for the first time p: simply because he had a son on the side. For c; 'he past four years Robert has coached the nucleus of this Eagle team to three league titles andon'yone loss in that span of time. "B":-i f "BELIEVE ME wnen 1 took ver that team U. 0ur years ago, neither the players or the I ach- make that especially the coach, didn't ,now 100 much about soccer." Since then Vi ;! "gh he's purchased a stack of books on the "2 ! ar,, ,las attended clinics and simply attended - t ed to adult teams in the area to get his r1 ; co I K8e of the sport-Hooge is an excellent 'i ': j ; ne made himself one through time tl and effort. i shV e, ,doesn'1 want to accept any, although he , J. 0h ld' of he credit. He starts listing all these ? 5!i ,0.er8Uys Wno should get the credit, but some- cre ,ne has to believe that agreat share of the I3 -1 been fa" in his lap- "Gregg Larson has e?l! Th.n my assistant coach, as has Rick Egan. ?1 McNicho1 has spent a lot of time y y '"'steam and that has helped tremendous-liVe..e" tremendous-liVe..e" the Parents have been very suppor-lhe suppor-lhe list goes on. Y'l. this pact f?:: league r-h Season tne Ea8,es won the ! cerA mpionshiP in the South Davis Soc- 1: playedSC'ation 10 and under division. They rt( tion wh"6 lP leVel of recreation competi-' competi-' W lea?ue Th sasteP,0Wer 'hen the competitive taninin sgood to keep in mind since they i Z) ment,hSme trouble at some of the tourna- IS entered tKA- Tne first tournament they " ntha38 t'le ommissiners Cup about a L 1 Cornpet'f" tle Eagles wanted to enter as a ; ' l down th team' '"ne tournament turned us 3 d no"gh since we didn't compete in that 3 5' league all season. South Davis is one of very few leagues that doesn't have a competitive division for this age group. Anyway they, said we had to play in the recreational division, and it was a mismatch. We went undefeated in our five games winning some by 12-0 and 14-0. The other coaches were mad at us but it was the tournament that wouldn't let us play in the competitive division because we tried to get in it" noted Rick Egan. AFTER THEY had won the Commissioners Cup, which features the top teams in the state, the Eagles went after the top spot in the Cottonwood Cot-tonwood Heights event. "At this point I wouldn't have taken the kids to this event had it not been for Rick Egan" noted Hooge. "I knew that we could take the nucleus of his team and add four players, which is legal under the rules, and go see, the big world. We thought we had a good team so we wanted to see if we were really that good" Rick added. Well they found out they were that good as they got into the finals of this tournament and then beat Roy 5-1 to take home first place. "This event was a AYSO Invitational, basically basical-ly they were all-star teams from Utah, Idaho, California and Colorado" Rick explained. ONCE AGAIN Hooge thought the season was over and it would have been had it not been a phone call to the Cougars. "The people in Denver that were putting on the tournament called Tom Angelos of the Cougars and asked if there was a ten and under team in the area that could go play since they had an opening in that division. We were off' Rick beamed. While at the nine day affair the Eagles played five games. They won their first three to win their bracket and thus moved into the semifinals. semi-finals. That's where they ran into a strong team from Peru. "In their previous games this club from Peru were killing teams, I mean they won 8-0 and 20-0 in the two we watched. Anyway these kids held their own, in fact it was 0-0 at halftime" Rick proudly noted. When the game was over though the Eagles had lost 3-0, "I want it known though that these kids played well against them, it was a close game" Hooge added. IN ANY event the Eagles then had to play a team from Florida for third and fourth, they took this game 6-1 and headed home with the third spot trophy. "We would have finished second though" both coaches added "we know we were a better team than the team Peru beat in the finals. We wished we could have played them for second place." When asked the key to his players success Hooge was quick to point to two factors. "They are physical kids and they simply don't quit. I don't care what the score is these kids don't quit hustling and trying." JOSHUA Carmack, Kenny Vowles, Mark Hansen, Nicholas Berry, Garrett Larson, Nathan Judd, Barrie Lawson, Travis Hooge and James Buck are the nucleus of this Eagle team that has won all but one league game for Hooge over the past four years. Corby Egan, Ryan Creer, Matt Racker and Jaimie Coombs were the four boys added at the end of the season for the tournaments. Josh Hooge and Cameron Egan were also a big part of this team's success and they are the ball boys. Like most successful sports teams success didn't come easy to these guys, they put in the time. They practiced three times a week to get to the level they are at. They attended clinics and watched all the games they could to see ways to improve their game. And they are ' looking for bigger and better things next season. THE COUGARS have put South Davis on the soccer map through the Intermountain area and it looks like the Eagles will be the team to keep it here for a while. |
