Soccer regional thoughts
Today was my first taste of a brand-new thing - Southern California Regional soccer. I'm not the only one, as this year marked the first year of the inaugural SoCal regional soccer tournament. I initially thought the tournament, coming a week after CIF and not followed by a state tournament of any kind, was pointless, but my mind changed a bit after seeing it in action.
However, the reason my mind changed was the revelation, via Granite Hills girls soccer coach Mike Bradbury, that the regional tournament is a two-year experiment to see if a state tournament is feasible. With the way the San Diego Cathedral Catholic team - a team with six Division I players and four straight CIF-San Diego Section titles - reacted to winning the first-year event made me yearn for a state tournament.
"No matter what happens from here on out, we made history," Cathedral coach Dawn Lee said. "It's great to be part of something like this and it feels great to be the first to win in this tournament."
In talking to Bradbury, who was also very complimentary of the tournament, he feels this is a step in the inevitable build toward a state tournament - something that I'm always in favor of.
"It works in basketball, there's no reason it can't work in soccer," Bradbury said. "I think this is the beginning of something big."
About T.J.
T.J. Berka has been covering sports for The Sun since 2006. As a graduate of the University of Michigan, T.J. know good sports when he sees them - at least he thinks he does.
Email T.J. here
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