2015 ISLAND CUP RECAP: BIFC youth tourney sees three big wins for island teams

Published 9:16 am Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Even as attention at the professional level is drawn to the exciting startup of another potential Seahawks sweep, Bainbridge sports fans were all about a different kind of football last weekend as they turned their attention toward two local fields during the annual three-day Bainbridge Island Football Club’s 2015 Island Cup youth soccer tournament.

The summertime staple athletic tournament sees a yearly convergence of young players from Washington Youth Soccer teams, US Club teams and US Youth Soccer teams from across the nation as well from Canada on Bainbridge for a weekend of sport and fun.

Bainbridge claimed three first-place wins this year, both in the Boys U10 (Group A and B) bracket as well as the Boys U13/14 division.

BIFC B’05 Blue claimed the win in the Boys U10 Group A contest, winning 3-2 against Blue B’05 at Battle Point Park on Sunday, Aug. 23.

BIFC B’05 Liverpool did likewise, winning 3-2 over TSC Silver.

In the Boys U13/14 bracket, BIFC B’01 Blue brought home a 2-1 win against Storm King Vipers B’01 at Battle Point.

Bainbridge failed to qualify for any title matches in the girls brackets, though several managed decisive early wins by considerable point margins.

Competition in the annual tournament is divided into the following divisions: U9 boys & girls (6v6), U10 boys & girls (6v6), U11 boys & girls (9v9), U12 boys & girls (11v11), U13 boys & girls (11v11) and U14 boys & girls (11v11).

The tournament was a wonderful success, said Ballan Campeau, coach of the winning BIFC B’01 Blue squad and head goalkeeping coach for the Bainbridge High School boys and girls soccer teams.

Even more teams participated in the event this year, Campeau said.

“Last year it was 74 and this year it was 76 or 77,” he added, saying that Bainbridge Island was quickly becoming known as a youth soccer destination.

“It’s a beautiful place to have a tournament,” he said. “The fields are in great shape and I always look at these fields surrounded by trees and it’s great, green fields, white lines and green trees.

“It’s fun to watch.”

Overall, BIFC’s efficient running of the event is made possible by a really good group of volunteers, Campeau said.

Of course, a few more first-place victories would have been great, he added, but overall the island’s youth soccer scene is showing some good things coming down the pike for the BHS teams in the near future.

This year’s victory made two in a row for Campeau and the Boys U13/14 squad.

“We won it last year [as well] in the U13 [division],” he recalled. “I asked my kids this year, ‘Was this an exciting game?’”

They said it was, though not quite as exciting as last year’s championship match.

Second most perhaps, but the match’s finale was distinctive.

“It was a lot of fun,” Campeau said. “The team that we played is from Sequim, and it’s always a great game with those guys. It was the second time in the weekend that we played them. We played them Friday and we tied them 0-0, and then came back Sunday and we were lucky enough to pull it off in the last minute and a half.”

It all came down, as it so often seems to happen in soccer, to the quick reflexes of the goalie, Campeau said.

“Our goalkeeper saved us, with a minute and a half left, Quinn Millerd just [jumped] up and tipped one over the top,” he remembered.

“It hit the cross bar twice. He tipped it, it hit the cross bar [and] went straight up, hit the cross bar and went out.”

Even Campeau, after a lifetime of soccer — including two seasons with the Seattle Sounders in the 1970s — said he’d never seen that happen before.

“It was amazing,” he said.

Visit www.bifc.net/islandcup for complete Island Cup results and more information about training camps and team competition.