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(February 18, 2009) Eighteen must be the team’s lucky number: Crossfire Premier’s GU18A team has a roster of 18 girls, and all 18 will be playing soccer in college. As of the team’s Signing Day celebration at a local restaurant last week, seventeen players had actually committed to a school and one teammate was still deciding where to play. (Not included in the tally was Kenisha Macklin, who played with the team, but graduated in 2008, and is now playing for Portland State.) The event celebrated the girls’ future college soccer careers at Arizona State, Azusa Pacific, Fairfield, George Washington University, Macalester, Pepperdine, Regis, Seattle U, St. Mary’s (California), University of the Pacific, University of Chicago, UCLA, Western Washington and WSU.
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Coach Porter Lombard, who has been with the team since U11, met the milestone with a sense of accomplishment and pride. He laid out a plan early to make the team competitive on a national level. The girls worked hard to make it happen, winning four state championships (U12, U13, U15 and U16) , a Surf Cup title (U14), a championship in Far West Regionals (U15), and a third place finish in the USYSA National Cup at U15. Three of his current teammembers moonlighted with their respective national teams: Lucretia "Lulee" Lee was in the US national team player pool at U16; Adriana Moya was in the player pool for the Chilean U-20 National Team; and Laura Hernandez was with the Colombian squad at the U17 World Cup in Australia.
Seventeen of Porter’s players started with Crossfire at U14 or earlier; nine played with Crossfire since U12, and five since the team first came together at U11.
The team’s success in continuing to play into college is reflective of the club’s growing success in attracting and developing youth players. “This marks a banner year for the Crossfire girls’ program,” according to Coach Lombard, who also serves at the club’s Assistant Girls’ Coaching Director. “We are lucky to have had two teams on the girls’ side at this age, playing at the highest level since U13.” Both teams have played in WSPL Division 1 along with a third Crossfire team playing up a year. Between the two G90 teams, twenty-six girls have committed to colleges, but not all colleges have completed their rosters, and many players, halfway through their senior year, are still deciding.
Click here to view the most current list of Crossfire college players from the class of 2009.
