A bigger kick: Chance to play for inaugural SoCal title elates local prep soccer teams
By: SCOTT BAIR - Staff Writer | ∞
Michelle Spacciapolli has been a Cathedral Catholic High girls soccer player for three years, and she has never ended a season with a loss.
The star forward has won a CIF San Diego Section championship every year, continuing a legacy of Dons' dominance dating back to the mid-1980s.
Spacciapolli is now a full-fledged member of Cathedral Catholic lore, which includes 20 league titles and 14 section championships.
The Dons have won three consecutive crowns and are aiming for a fourth when the playoffs begin this week. Pummeling local competition is clearly nothing new.
This season, however, there's something larger to pursue. The Dons will strive for a CIF Southern California Regional championship, marking the first time the state's high school soccer teams can advance beyond the section level.
It's as close to a state championship as California will ever get, since soccer is played during the fall up north and in the winter in Southern California.
Of more interest to Cathedral Catholic, and teams like it, is that the extra week will challenge them on a larger scale than ever before.
"We'd like to win it all," Spacciapolli said. "We obviously need to take it one game at a time, but hopefully we're still playing in the spring. This extra tournament is something we're all excited about, and it's something we want to win."
The tournament will begin March 4 with three eight-team divisions composed of schools from the San Diego, Southern, Los Angeles City and Central sections. A number of North County teams should be involved.
One team from the San Diego, Central and L.A. City sections receives an automatic entry into each division. The Southern Section gets four automatic bids. An at-large team will be chosen from the San Diego, Central or LA. City sections to round out the field.
With the quality of soccer in this area, North County might get two teams into the inaugural tournament.
Cathedral Catholic seems poised to represent this area in the boys and girls Division II tournaments and will be favorites to take the regional crown.
"That's our ultimate goal, but we don't want to jinx it," Spacciapolli said. "We're going to take it one step at a time. We'll put all our effort into the section playoffs, and if we're lucky enough to advance, then we'll focus on something even bigger."
Dons boys coach Bryan Wood has no problem touting his team's lofty goals.
"We've been talking about this since the first practice of the season," Wood said. "The kids are thinking big, and if we have a good run, I expect us to compete for the championship."
The regional championship changed the way Wood evaluates his players, especially during the nonleague season. The Dons played stiff competition, entering tournaments against teams from outside the San Diego Section.
It also forced the Dons to change their overall preparation.
"Because we're a smaller school, our nonleague schedule used to be the most important time of the year," Wood said. "We used to try and peak when we played bigger schools and coast through the playoffs. Now I have my kids focused heading into these matches. We've picked up our fundamentals and have put some serious effort into preparing for teams we've never faced."
Cathedral Catholic should have an easy entry in Division II, but Division I figures to be much, much tougher to predict. Torrey Pines is a clear favorite on the girls end, while Poway should emerge as the boys representative in a talent-laden Division I field. The expected competitiveness of the section playoffs, which begin this week, left many area coaches reluctant to look ahead to the regional playoffs.
"I'm doing whatever I can to keep these boys in the moment," Poway boys coach Gene Morris said. "We've struggled in the playoffs recently, so we need to remain calm if we want to win in an extremely tough bracket. But the regional tournament is something the guys have been talking about. They want to make it that far, and they want to win."
Out-of-section experience should help teams that have it, like the Torrey Pines girls and the Cathedral Catholic boys, who each fared well against non-San Diego teams.
"Road trips definitely help out in situations like this," Torrey Pines senior Stephanie Malik said. "We know how good the competition can be, but we know that we can beat those teams. There's no mystery. We played well against new teams. Hopefully, we can do it again."
North County teams play some of the finest soccer around, meaning several teams have a legitimate shot at winning the whole thing.
"We're entering foreign territory, but I still like our chances," Falcons girls coach Dennis Costello said. "We've played well against some very good teams, and if we're lucky enough to make it that far, I think we'll do so again."
-- Contact staff writer Scott Bair at (760) 739-6642 or sbair@nctimes.com.
More Stories
First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.
Advertisement