April 22, 2004 – The Peacemakers Youth Soccer Club Under 14 team will travel to San Juan on Friday for weekend tournament play against Fraigcomar Club, Levitown, Bairoa Soccer Club and Angeles Encantada.
The St. Thomas club U14 team has been coached by Clifton Williams, who is certified by the International Federation of Soccer Associations (FIFA). On April 4 in play on St. Croix, the St. Croix AYSO U14 team won the first game 3-1, with the Peacemakers' lone goal by Madison Van Heurck. The St. Croix and St. Thomas teams then divided for 5-a-side games, with the "A" team winning the first and a draw in the second.
All of this was "good preparation for the stiffer competition in Puerto Rico," according to a Peacemakers release, and later the St. Thomas players and parents reviewed videos of those games and play on Tortola last November and discussed strategy.
The last time Peacemakers met Fraigcomar was in April 2001, when the current Under 14 team was playing Under 11 in a Roosevelt Roads tournament. Considered one of the best clubs in Puerto Rico, Fraigcomar "has more than 500 members including youth, men and women, and they arrange leagues and tournaments during the year," the release stated.
The Peacemakers U14 team includes a number of boys who have been playing together for six years and who look forward to being considered for the U14 V.I. "national" team later this year. The youngest is 10-year-old John Carpenter. The others, ages 11 to 14, are Rahim Benjamin, Nolan Diehl, Christos Dimopoulos, Adam Fuller, Stefan Hebert, Jarell Mason, John David McDonald, Haydn Mitchell, Luke Perry, Stefan Piraux, Madison Van Heurck, Eric Walters, Gerard Wiley and Zachary Nelthropp.
This weekend's tournament will see boys' U6, U8, U10, U12 and U14 and girls' U14 competition. Here's the Peacemakers U14 schedule of play in San Juan:
8 p.m. Friday vs. Fraigcomar
11:30 a.m. Saturday vs. Levitown
4:30 p.m. Saturday vs. Bairoa Soccer Club
9 a.m. Sunday vs. Angeles Encantada
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