For the City Times

The Rapids Kickers U17G team started off their season with great success this weekend.  The Kickers took the championship at the Appleton Soccer Club Summer Shootout held at the USA Sports Complex in Appleton, Wisconsin. The Kickers went 4-0 during the tournament, giving up only one goal with game results as follows:

• Rapids Kickers (7) vs Dakota Rev Chaos, MN (0)
• Rapids Kickers (3) vs DePere Select (0)
• Rapids Kickers (2) vs Keliix, MN (1) – PK shootout win in semi-final match
• Rapids Kickers (3) vs Lakes United en Fuego, MN (0) – Championship match.

The team is composed of local high school players from Assumption, Lincoln and Nekoosa.

“Our style of game is possession-style soccer combined with a relentless pursuit of the ball when we are not in possession,” said coach Jim Wendels. “We are a team with great creativity tactically and technically strong with our individual skills including a top notch goalkeeper. “

The team is playing some very good soccer against some of the best club teams in the Midwest.

“We are a tournament-only team as league play is not offered during the summer for high school age girls,” said Wendels. “We will be participating in three more tournaments yet this summer and possibly one or two in the fall.”

Because the goal is for the team to compete at a high level, celebrate team success and have fun, the team does not take individual stats for the tournaments in which they compete.

The signature tournament for the team is the Schwan’s Cup, held annually in July in Blaine, Minnesota where the Kickers will compete with over 1000 teams attending from all over the world.

Team Members:

• Veronica Berger
• McKenna Black
• Zoe Derks
• Jade Giese
• Kaitlyn Hess
• Mia Iwinski
• Katie Kiiskila
• Laura Koch
• Brianna Martin
• Mariah Matthews
• Chani Pulchinski
• Sadie Rocha
• Kaitlyn Schuenemann
• Katy Schooley
• Libby Schuerman
• Emily Smith
• Gracie Wendels

Coaches:

• Jim Wendels
• Rick Hess