A Wisconsin team will play for a youth national championship in futsal – again.
The WI Futsal Academy, a team made up of players from Cedarburg club North Shore United and Kenosha's United FC, won the boys Under-15/16 title at the U.S. Youth Futsal Midwest Regional last weekend in St. Louis.
The top two finishers in each of the divisions at regionals earned spots in the seventh annual U.S. Youth Futsal Nationals, which are Feb. 15 to 18 at the New Century (Kan.) Fieldhouse.
WI Futsal Academy has been a perennial contender at nationals, having won national titles at Under-10 (2008), Under-12 (2010) and Under-13 (2011) before falling to Sporting Kansas City in the Under-14 final last year.
The regional championship team consisted of Austin Barr, Ben Krolczyk, Drew Winkoski, Eduardo Marin, Sam Gomez and Tom Ehrsam from North Shore United andVidel Lomeli and Vitalis Takawira from United FC. North Shore's Luka Prpa will join the team for nationals – he wasn't available last week because he was participating in a U.S. Under-15 national team training camp in Carson, Calif.
The team's coaches are Danny Madrigal, Hank Ehrsam and Vitalis "Digital" Takawira, the former Major League Soccer and Zimbabwean national team striker who now coaches at United FC.
WI Futsal Academy also had an Under-13 girls team consisting of players from Brookfield and FC Milwaukee at regionals.
Tag(s): Clubs