City Honors Youth Soccer Champions

In a hall packed with proud parents, Oxnard leaders Tuesday honored a north Oxnard boys soccer team that recently won the American Youth Soccer Organization’s most-prized championship.

The City Council presented a certificate to the 15-member Warriors soccer team that won the AYSO’s Tri-Section Championship in Thousand Oaks in March.

“It is an incredibly amazing feat,” John Rector, a regional commissioner for the organization, said before Tuesday’s ceremony. “When the season started last September, there were close to 1,100 teams of 12- and 13-year-olds. They finished as the champions of all that.”

The team became the top team of 12- and 13-year-old boys in Southern California and southern Nevada with a 4-3 win over a squad from the Solvang/Santa Ynez area March 16.

The victory gave the teammates medals and bragging rights.

“It feels great,” said team member Javier Figueroa, 13. “We were the first ones from Oxnard to make it to the finals in 15 years.”

For most teams that play in the organization’s 11 sections nationwide, beating out the other teams in their section is the top honor. But because of the close proximity of three sections in Southern California and Nevada, the AYSO sponsors the Tri-Section championship playoff, which is the organization’s most coveted title.

Coach Sean Salinas said he was glad to see the team go so far because he had taken the coaching job at the last minute. “I didn’t want to see a team go without a coach,” Salinas said.

The council also honored two other Oxnard youth soccer teams--the Golden Bullets and the Southside All Star Girls.