News and Announcements

Team Chicago Academy-Santos advanced to the U16 IYSA State Cup semi-final with two impressive wins this weekend in Rockford. On Saturday Midwest United was defeated 6-0 on goals by Caitlin Tabilog (2), Maddie Hulsman, Olivia Schmitt (2), and Heather Handwork. Courtney Keefer earned the shutout in goal.

Today Santos came back from being 2-0 down at half to beat Windy City Pride 3-2 in overtime after an inspired performance. Katie Ciesiulka halved the Windy City lead shortly into the 2nd half and Madi Harris tied the game with 3 minutes left. Kelsey Pruett got the game-winner 13 minutes into the first overtime from Abbey Mazur’s cross.

Santos will face Academy SC in the semi-final Saturday, June 16th at Noon in Rockford.

Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo advanced to the U17 IYSA State Cup semi-final after two convincing wins this weekend. Saturday the Strikers of Fox Valley were defeated 4-1 behind goals by Zoe Swift (2), Zoey Goralski, and Brooke Ksiazek.

Today Botafogo defeated Chicago Inter Homer Glen Blue 5-0 behind goals by Gianna Dal Pozzo, Meegan Johnston, Ashley Handwork, Hope D’Addario, and Jillian Van Kampen. Megan Geldernick and Kiley Dunning shared the shutout in goal.

Botafogo will face NSA in the semi-final Saturday, June 16th at 10am in Rockford.

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Team Chicago Academy-Santos Co-Captain and midfielder Kristen Brots has accepted a great scholarship to continue her soccer career at Kent State University.

Kristen, who plays her prep soccer for Coach Julie Bergstrom at Waubonsie Valley H.S., will be part of Head Coach Rob Marinaro’s 2014 recruiting class. Kent State finished with a 12-8 record in the 2011 season.

Kristen is the first 2014 graduate from Team Chicago to commit.

Team Chicago Academy Welcomes New Coach!

Posted by Phil Nielsen at May 23, 2012 11:27AM PDT ( 0 Comments )
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Team Chicago Academy is excited to welcome Matt Chura to our coaching staff. Matt will be the Head Coach for the U12 Girls Team Chicago Academy-Bahia for the 2012-13 season.

Matt comes to us from a position as Director of Coaching for the Fort Wayne Fever Academy. He guided his ‘91 Girls to the U14 State Championship and the Regional semi-finals. He was also a State finalist with the ‘91 boys (U12) and ‘92 girls (U17). While at Fort Wayne Fever, Matt oversaw the Girls U15-18 program including the college-search advisory program. As the Head Coach he developed current U20 National Team and UCLA star Sarah Killion, and a number of ODP Regional Team players. Matt holds a USSF ’A’ License, and has over 25 years of coaching experience.

Team Chicago Academy has a close working relationship with the Fort Wayne Fever as we share very similar coaching, development, and playing style philosophies. For the past four years Team Chicago Academy teams have participated in the Fever’s 11v11 Indoor College Showcase in January, and this Spring teams participated in the Fever’s Shoot for the Cure tournament. This upcoming weekend the Fever will be participating in the NSR Region II Midwest Cup hosted by Team Chicago Soccer Club.

Matt played for four years at Rochester Institute of Technology and earned ALL-CONFERENCE honors as a senior. RIT was recognized as a Division III power during the early to late 1980’s and participated in the NCAA Final Four. Matt graduated from RIT with a BS in Applied Statistics (1988). He received his MBA from Indiana Wesleyan in 1999.
Matt is a 17-year veteran of Navistar where he currently holds the position of Purchasing Manager. He resides in Geneva with his wife Nancy. Their daughter Emily is a Division I soccer player at Indiana State University, and their son Gavin played Division I soccer at University of Evansville.

Matt spent seven years as the assistant coach for Shenendehowa High School boys program located in Clifton Park, NY. The team won 5 state titles and finished twice as the #1 ranked high school boys team in the nation as voted by USA Today. He had the opportunity to coach both Miles Joseph and Damian Silvera who both starred for the U.S at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and for the New York/New Jersey Metrostars in the MLS.

During the same time Matt was a club coach for Capital United Soccer club where he won two state titles, U17 Boys and U19 Girls, respectively. Many players went on to play soccer at the collegiate level from both groups.

Matt moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana in August 1995 and began coaching with the Fort Wayne Citadel. He had the opportunity to win three state titles, U17 Girls, U18 Girls, and U19 Girls. During the late 1990’s he was also a member of the Indiana State ODP coaching staff.
Matt was then Head Coach of the Canterbury High School Girls team from 2003 through 2008. His teams were ranked in the top-20 in the state for three years.

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Team Chicago Bahia Lions Win Illinois Cup!

Posted by Phil Nielsen at May 20, 2012 11:33AM PDT ( 0 Comments )

Team Chicago Bahia Lions coached by Brian Bierman won the U11 Illinois Cup with a 5-2 defeat of Team Elmhurst 5-2 in final after winning yesterday’s semifinal 1-0. The defense, led by GK Anna Doman and defenders Erin McCarthy, Shannon Tagler, Kiley McKee, and Francesca Magno, only allowed 3 goals the entire tournament.

In today’s championship match, the Lions started strong, scoring 2 goals in the opening five minutes. Paige Miller dribbled a ball down the right flank and crossed it beautifully to the far post where Zaira Solis headed it in to make it 1-0. Shortly after GK Anna Doman punted a long bouncing ball into the Lions offensive half where Sarah Davies was making a well-timed run to slot the ball past a charging keeper to make it 2-0. Despite other strong opportunities from Paige, Sarah, Zaira, and Shea Curran, the first half ended in a 2-2 tie.

The second half started off as a battle in the midfield, with Jennifer Garcia, Paige Miller, Abby Kay, Lainey Doman, Emily Alt, and Sophia Majher dominating. Just as parents were beginning to chatter nervously about the possibility of an overtime, the midfield served a great through-ball down the left flank where Sarah Davies finished a well-placed far-post shot. A moment later, Sophia Majher framed a bobbled ball from a long shot to give the Lions a bit of a cushion. In the waning minutes of the game, a corner kick from Zaira Solis was finished by Erin McCarthy to seal the game 5-2.

Congrats to the entire Lions team, as well as its two guest-players – Yariliz Aguado and Nikki Coryell – who helped contribute to the exciting victory.

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Mary Rounce from Team Chicago Academy-Santos was in impressive company on Tuesday night as she attended the Red Carpet Premiere of the new documentary “Head Games” by award-winning documentary film maker Steve James. James is probably best known for his movie “Hoop Dreams”.

“Head Games” takes a critical look at the issues surrounding brain injures suffered in both professional and youth sports. Mary and her mother Laura star in the film as they share their story about Mary’s concussions from playing elite youth soccer. The movie also has footage from a Team Chicago Academy-Santos game at Midwest United last fall with cameo appearances by AJ Jakuszewski, Caitlin Tabilog, and Talise Romain.

After the screening of the movie Mary and Laura were joined on stage by former Women’s National Team star Cindy Parlow-Cone, Ryan Nowinski (former All-Ivy football player and WWF star), Isaiah Kacyvenski (former NFL star), Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins front-man & self-avowed “wrestlemaniac”), Alan Schwarz (Pullitzer Prize-nominated New York Times journalist), and the film’s director Steven James for an hour-long Q & A session with the audience. The athletes on stage shared their stories of dealing with concussions and concussion-related symptoms.

The movie will be released shortly. For a view of the trailer, please click on this link http://vimeo.com/headgames/trailer

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