This USA CUP team brings the thunder

While the SSAAK Chugiak SC 05g Thunder Elite lost every match and scrimmage it participated in during its first season, team parents and players continued to believe that it was developing and would eventually become a competitive team. Despite experiencing losses, the girls worked hard at training, gave everything they had during matches and slowly began to see positive results. Instead of huge differentials in match scores, the team was now only losing by a goal or two and made both parents and opponents notice development among individual players and the team as a whole. 

Shortly after the fall 2015 indoor season, team Thunder went undefeated until the the indoor season of January, 2016, when it won every match in both league play and tournament play until the following August when it became a finalist in a local tournament called the Zane Cup Memorial Tournament!

The team turned the tables within its competitive age group. Now, the girls win their matches by large margins. The team decided to move from the 06 to the 05 age group for the following 2016 summer season and continued its success while developing skills against tough, older opponents. 

When the team decided to join the 05g age group in 2016, it picked up a number of new players that helped grow skill and friendship within the group. 

Since this time, SSAAK Chugiak SC 05g Thunder Elite has become the premiere 05g team in Alaska and has accomplished a number of tournament wins including reaching the quarterfinals of the 2017 Far West Region IV President’s Cup and winning the 2018 Alaska Airlines Cup Tournament, the Las Vegas Mayor’s Cup in the Adidas group, the 2018 Bend Premier Cup Tournament in Bend, OR., the 2018 Alaska State Cup Tournament and earning a return trip to the 2019 Far West Region IV Tournament in California in June. Additionally, the team is the first in Alaskan youth soccer history to be accepted into the National Premier League Northwest Conference where it showed strong enough to be invited back in the fall of 2019.

Thunder continues to work hard, and the girls desire to play at the collegiate level after high school. Teammates take pride in their game and development and continue to train with the dream of being noticed by college coaches so that they can continue their soccer experiences at the highest level possible.

This will be team Thunder’s first USA CUP and players are extremely excited and appreciate the opportunity to show off their skills in July!

As the girls like to say, “We bring the Thunder!”