Blackhawks soccer aims for national championship Arcadia ballclub headed to Cooperstown tourney By Ron Grif fi th The Arcadia Bulldogs youth baseball team has been selected to compete in the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational Tournament at Cooperstown Dreams Park. The tournament, billed as, “America’s fi rst and foremost youth baseball tournament,” will be June 9 at the same location as Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Teams invited to the tournament will spend seven days and six nights in Cooperstown. Each team is guaranteed to play seven games, after which the teams will be seeded in a single-elimination tournament to determine a champion. Michael Nevins, formally of upstate New York and a coordinator of the trip, called the Cooperstown park the premier 12 year-old baseball facility in the country. “There will be 104 teams from around the country there,” Nevins said. Bulldogs head coach Erik Kehoe serves as the assistant baseball coach at Arcadia High School. By Jeff Marshall Five Arcadia soccer players will travel to South Carolina with their team in July to compete for their fi rst national championship. Arcadia residents Lorenzo Belahassen, Chase Bishov, Tyler Dial, Clay Kiggins and Adam Mosharaffa play for the ’96 Blackhawks, a team that has been dominant in Arizona for years with three consecutive state championships and regional tournament berths. The Blackhawks, ranked No. 2 nationally by gotsoccer.com, are likely to meet their rival, the No. 1 ranked OBGC Rangers from Maryland, during the Under-16 Youth Soccer National Championships. The Rangers have won two of the three matchups between the teams. However, the most recent matchup ended in a 5-0 Blackhawks victory. The path to the national tournament hasn’t been easy. The team has struggled with injuries and player scheduling con fl icts, not unusual for teenagers juggling high school with club sports. “I tore the ligament in my ankle in November and missed the fi rst four games of National League,” Mosharaffa said. “It is still not fully healed, but I will continue to play on it.” Blackhawks coach Adam Burke has had to come up with some creative solutions to the obstacles. “For some games we were down to as little as 11 players,” Burke said. “I had to put someone who normally plays goalkeeper in at forward. The boys have been great though. They are doing whatever it takes to get it done.” As the national tournament gets closer, the training schedule for the boys will get tougher. Their normal 3-days-per- week practice schedule will be increased to fi ve, all while playing in local tournaments on the weekends. “To mentally prepare myself, I think about Nationals many times a week,” Belahassen said. “To physically prepare myself, I work hard in practice, in the games and in the gym.” You could say these boys have been preparing all their lives, some having played since they let go of their mother’s leg. “I’ve been playing since the age of fi ve,” said Bishov, the Blackhawks goalkeeper. All the Arcadia players have at least 10 years of experience on the fi eld. “We’ve beaten the No. 1 team in the country already,” said Burke. “We can do it again.” ARCADIA SPORTS PAGE TOO ARCADIA SPORTS PAGE TOO Page 52 May 2012 Arizona School for the Arts is one of the nation's leading schools offering the unique opportunity to combine innovative and intellectually nourishing academics with daily performing arts training featuring premier instructors and locals arts institutions for grades 5-12. ASA was recently honored with the 2012 Governor's Arts Award for outstanding Arts Education Organization. Now accepting applications for new high school openings for the 2012- 13 school year. For more information, visit our Web site at www.goasa.org. 6 SPORTS CAMP LOCATIONS May 29 - August 10 Basketball, soccer, baseball, swimming, archery, volleyball & field sports IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD at Phoenix Swim Club 29th Street & Campbell 1 week sessions · Full & Half day Extended Care · Ages 4½ -13 HUBBARDSPORTS.COM 602.971.4044 SPORTS CAMPS & INDOOR SWIM SCHOOLS REGISTER TODAY FOR CAMP & SWIM LESSSONS!

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