By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Two years ago, the merger of youth soccer clubs in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky led to the creation of Kings Hammer Academy based at Town & Country Sports in Wilder. The academy trains players for premier select teams that compete in high-level leagues and tournaments so they can be seen by college recruiters from all across the nation.
This week, two Kings Hammer Academy (KHA) teams will be taking part in the biggest youth soccer showcase of them all when they play in the girls’ 17-under and girls’ 16-under age group tournaments at the United States Youth Soccer Championships in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The roster for the KHA girls’ under-17 team includes Elizabeth Greenwell from Notre Dame Academy, but a knee injury will keep her from playing in the national tournament.
Nine players from four Northern Kentucky high schools are members of the KHA girls’ under-16 team. The roster includes six Notre Dame Academy students – Harper Lamb, Macey Tranter, Sarah Schuh, Christin Sherrard, Sidney Spivey and Ellie Vandergriff – along with Hannah Poe of Ryle, Payton Black of Boone County and Maria Schilling of Beechwood.
“With our club being in this location, we do pull in a lot of kids from Notre Dame,” said Chris Black, coach of the KHA girls’ under-16 team. “It’s a good high school (soccer) program for sure. They’ve always had a lot success there and that transfers to the club atmosphere as well.”
This is the first time that two teams from Kings Hammer Academy have qualified for the United States Youth Soccer Championships in the same year. The under-17 team earned a berth by winning a regional qualifying tournament and the under-16 team got there by placing second in a national league.
The KHA under-16 team played national league matches in November and March against select teams from seven other states and finished second in the Red Division with a 4-1-2 record to receive an automatic bid to the grand finale in Tulsa.
“We’ve got a good mix of attacking players and defending players, and a team where everybody gets their (playing) time and contributes,” coach Black said. “There’s always going to be games when someone isn’t going to be able to play great and there’s usually someone else on this team that can step in and fill that role.”
Sherrard was one of the leading scorers on the KHA under-16 team before she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee last November and needed surgery to repair it. When she tried making a comeback in April, she tore the ligament again and she’s been on the sidelines ever since.
But Sherrard continued coming to practice sessions and games to support her teammates. She expects them to make a run at the national championship this week because they’ve done so well against high caliber competition all season.
“We’ve seen some of these teams (in this week’s tournament) before and know how they play,” Sherrard said. “I think our defense is the key. We just can’t get flustered and lose our heads. All of the teams out there are going to be good and put high pressure on us. We just have to keep our cool and be prepared.”
The five players who share time in four fullback positions on the KHA under-16 team are Tranter, Vandergriff, Schilling, Lamb and Abby Brown, one of the Ohio high school players on the roster. In seven league games and four regional tournament games, their defense gave up a total of 12 goals for a 1.1 average.
Coach Black would like to see his players improve on that defensive average this week, beginning with their three pool play matches against teams from Utah, Georgia and Missouri.
“We have a pretty good group on the backline and they’ve done a good job pulling together and becoming a unit,” Black said. “In the national league, every team is kind of even and you’re in some really difficult battles. So they know they have to be switched on and pay attention to little details, especially in set pieces and things like that.”
Both of the Kings Hammer teams would undoubtedly like to return home with a national championship trophy. The first step is doing well enough in pool play to reach the final four in the single-elimination bracket. The semifinal matches will be played on Saturday with the championship finals on Sunday.
College soccer coaches from across the country will be watching the upper age group matches all week and taking notes on perspective recruits. That exposure is another important part of qualifying for the tournament, but the KHA teams are primarily there to win a national title.
“If we’re playing in a showcase event, everybody gets in for half the game and that’s your time to get exposure for college,” Black said. “When we’re trying to win things like national league or regionals or national championships, it’s just going to be kids in there who are doing the job on that day. And they all understand that.”
United States Youth Soccer will provide live coverage of all tournament games on its website: http://championships.usyouthsoccer.org/live/