While Beijing currently shines in the Olympic spotlight, the 8^th Annual Santa Clara Rotary Cup brought a little taste of Olympic excitement, intensity and pride to Santa Clara last weekend.

 

Featuring over 1,800 young athletes and over 2,000 spectators --- 96 teams battling it out, all vying to claim gold, there was undoubtedly no shortage of exciting soccer action, proving that the Santa Clara Cup might just be the Olympics of Northern California youth soccer events.

 

With 200 plus goals being scored over the weekend, exemplary sportsmanship shown throughout the weekend, the lone hiccups of the Santa Clara Cup were very few isolated yellow and red cards, and some uncooperative bathrooms at field sites.

 

Testifying to the competition level of the popular tournament, several championship games were decided by just one goal, some even less --- in the U-16 Girls Blue bracket, competition was so fierce that the Central Marin Storm waned off the Los Gatos Wildfire 1-0 by winning 5-4 on penalty kicks. Further, teams traveled from all across Northern and the Central Valley to compete in the tournament.

 

The annual tournament is co-sponsored by the Rotary Club of Santa Clara and the Santa Clara Youth Soccer League.

 

Rotary is a worldwide organization of business and professional leaders, providing humanitarian service, encouraging high ethical standards in all vocations, and helps at building goodwill and peace in the world. Approximately 1.2 million Rotary members belong to more than 32,000 clubs in over 200 countries.

 

The Santa Clara Rotary Club meets every Thursday from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Santa Clara Hilton, 4949 Great America Parkway in Santa Clara. Visit www.santaclararotary.org for more information.

 

Santa Clara Youth Soccer League is a youth soccer league organized under the charter of the California Youth Soccer Association. For more information, call 408-985-KICK or visit http://www.scyouthsoccer.org/