Golden MEAD win for Javanon

Congrats go out to Javanon's U13s, which beat top sides from Indiana, Cincinnati and Missouri to take the 29th annual MEAD Cup in Dayton, Ohio over Labor Day weekend.

The tournament for U8 through U14 boys and girls had some 475 teams participate. Coach Greg Robinson's boys won the U13 Gold Division title by going five games unbeaten against Carmel United from Indianapolis (twice), Cincinnati Soccer Alliance, Southern Cincinnati Soccer United and TKO from Kalamazoo, MI.

Three players on the Javanon team are from southern Indiana – Evan Hollkamp, who goes to Providence Jr. High; Varun Alse, who attends Highland Hills Middle School; and Grant Hollkamp, who goes to St. Paul’s Elementary School.

For more info on the MEAD Cup, check out www.meadcupsoccer.com

Sites worth a visit

Southern Indiana's Providence High School has had a site dedicated to its boys' varsity and junior varsity soccer teams for some time, but now it has added a section for the girls' teams. You can check it out at www.phsboyssoccer.com.

Good job by soccer parent Tim Brown (sons are sophomore twins Wade and Trent Brown) on this season's match reports, which are pretty thorough.

Another school site worth checking out is that of Eastern High School of Louisville (http://www.ehssoccer.com/default.htm), which has -- amongst other things -- information on its recent soccer extravaganza.

If you know of any decent school soccer sites worth visiting, give us a shout here atthe blog.

High school spotlight

The high school soccer season is in full swing and already teams are giving a good indication as to who will be playing for honors come October.

One of the teams we advised you to watch out for this fall as far as southern Indiana is concerned is New Albany's Lady Bulldogs.

Yesterday (Saturday), we watched Julie Deuser's charges beat Bedford North Lawrence 11-2 in its Hoosier Hills Conference opener to go 4-0 on the season. Having beaten Forest Park 3-0, North Harrison a whopping 20-1, and Silver Creek 8-1, they have now averaged over 10 goals a game.

Standout Kaitlin Robinett scored three (to bring her season tally to eight), while Mackenzie Nash and Kameron Cole each scored two. Kayton Cole, Chelsea Cotner, Kelsey Graeter and Whitney Smith also found the net.

However, it would be fair to say that New Albany could easily have doubled its tally if its shooting had have been a little more accurate.

The sectional will come down to the Bulldogs, Providence and reigning champion Floyd Central. The Highlanders started off the season well at the Eastern College Extravaganza in Louisville last week with a 4-0 win against Meade County, and followed it up with a 3-2 victory over Mercy Academy a couple of days later.

However, FC was up against it at the weekend at the Hoosier Cup in Bloomington, losing 4-1 to both Indianapolis Roncalli and Evansville Mater Dei. It did finish the tourney on a winning note, beating Lafayette Central Catholic 4-0.

Also taking part in the Hoosier Cup was Providence boys' team and Christian Academy of Louisville, with the latter running out 2-1 victors in the game between both. Scorers for CAL were Jacob Scearce and Tanner Wilcox, while Ben Hughes netted for the Pioneers.

Providence also lost to Ryle by a 1-0 scoreline, but finished on a high note with a 5-0 victory against Edgewood with goals from Steven Meyer, Omar Salguero (2) Keenan Sparks, and Patrick Leistner. Meanwhile, CAL lost 6-1 to Indiana's No #7 ranked Zionsville.

Elsewhere, reigning KHSAA girls' champion Sacred Heart has signalled its intent to repeat its fine 2007 season with an unbeaten start (6-0-1) which included a 2-0 victory over rivals Assumption. Its tie (1-1) was against Notre Dame of Park Hills yesterday, state winners in 2004 and a team expected to go far this year.

DuPont Manual is another team with high hopes. It has started the campaign 6-0, and has already proven too strong for North Oldham, South Oldham and Lexington Catholic.

On the boys' side, 2007 KHSAA champion St Xavier is 3-0 after a 2-0 win against Erie Cathedral of Pennsylvania, while Trinity won its fourth game on the trot when beating Louisville Collegiate 1-0.

Offer accepted ...

The results are in - 82.3% of 7,452 members who voted said Ebbsfleet United should accept the offer for John Akinde.

The club will now go ahead and carry out the supporters' wishes by transferring Akinde to English Championship side Bristol City for about $248,000.

Our chairman John Moules said the decision was the "feather in the cap" for the MyFootballClub concept.

"This shows again the responsibility of the 30,000 owners," he said.

Will we sell striker today?

Forget the long running transfer sagas of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Barry. Today sees the biggest transfer news of the season.

By 2p.m. EST, I will have decided along with 30,000 of my fellow Ebbsfleet United members whether our club should transfer one of our players.

And it will be the first time ever that such a decision will be made via thousands of supporters voting on the internet.

We have to decide whether our club, which plays in England's Blue Square Premier League and won the FA Trophy in May, should accept a £140,000 offer from an unnamed club for stiker John Akinde.

As members of MyFootballClub, we paid £35 ($71.35 at the time) to provide a £700,000 takeover pot, take control of The Fleet,and receive an equal share in the club.

Since then members -- from 122 countries acorss the globe -- have voted on a number of major decisions affecting the club, including the price of season-tickets to watch Ebbsfleet, but this is the first time a transfer will be decided by us.

We basically have had 48 hours to decide whether we should sell the highly rated 19-year-old striker, who has played fewer than 20 games for Ebbsfleet.

He has already been watched by Chelsea scouts and we have already turned down an offer for Akinde from League One side Peterborough.

Our coach Liam Daish and our board has recommended the striker should be sold to allow him to play at a higher level.

Players who have recently turned professional like Akinde are unlikely to be earning more than £200 ($367.12) a week.

To see how we decide, stay tuned!

Super Strikers!

Southern Indiana United's U12 Strikers landed a big catch by winning the recent Pike Fest Tournament in Indianapolis.

In its first game, it beat Dynamo FC Black 1-0 with a goal from Kyle Hercamp and an assist from Zach Yagle. It then tied 2-2 with Henry Co Dynamite with goals by Jacob Hedrick and Nick Davis.

A late winner from Parker Davidenkoff against Center Grove Clash ensured Paul Duckworth's charges a championship game against Fusion Navy.

Nick Davis scored two goals in the first 10 minutes to get Strikers off to a flyer. A third was added before the end of the first half when Alex Duckworth fired home a penalty after a Fusion player had hand balled in the box and was duly sent off.

The second half saw Fusion come back, but a Jacob Hedrick goal secured a 4-2 win for SIU.

Pike Fest 2008 was Pike Youth Soccer Club's 13th annual soccer travel tournament for teams in the U9 to U14 boys' and girls' categories. Games were played at Pike's facility, the Mary and John Geisse Soccer Complex, Eagle Creek.

Kermit ready for Beijing kick off

One local man will play an essential role in the Beijing Olympics' soccer tournament, but he won't be winning any medals.

Kermit Quisenberry, 39, of Louisville will be one of six US referees officiating at the men's and women's soccer tournaments, which start today (Wednesday) ahead of Friday's opening ceremony.

Along with his referee team of Jair Maruffo and George Gansner, Kermit’s first assignment is the Group D match between Cameroon and Korea at Qinhuangdao on Thursday.


Kermit Quisenberry (far right) is pictured with Jason Cullum, Jason Anno and Jozsef Batko at a Major League Soccer game in Houston.

Now employed at Taylor Middle High School in Pierson, Florida, Kermit was directing students out of the parking lot on April 17 when he received a call from Paul Tamberino, national director of referees.

"He told me that I had been selected and that I was one of the six officials going to the Olympics. It was a huge surprise," he told The Evening News & Tribune.

Surprise to Kermit, maybe, but if you talk to his peers in Louisville and southern Indiana, the Male High School graduate's rise to the top of his profession has been well earned: A journey that has been, in his own words, a "long, tough road with a few bumps."

Kermit's start in the game came at Sawyer Youth Soccer in Louisville at the age of 10 and it wasn't long before the prospect of refereeing was put to him.

"When I was 13 or 14 years old, my coach Kent Powell, came to practice one day and said that the SYSA program needed referees and they would pay our way through the clinic,” says Kermit. “All we had to do was referee one game a day on the weekends for about six weeks. I enjoyed it and it was an easy way to make money."

He went to a United States Soccer Federation course taught by local referees Brian Darling and Bill Beatty, and from there began working many youth tournaments.

His big break came when he was invited to referee the first ever women’s league final in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1995. It was there that he was spotted by the national director of officials, Vinny Mauro, and was given the opportunity to referee at the youth national finals in Indianapolis.

After that, he was chosen to become an assistant referee in what was then the new Major League Soccer.

In 1997, Kermit moved to Florida to take a job as an assistant athletic trainer at Jacksonville University and became a national referee the following year. Attending amateur regional and youth games there helped him advance onto the USSF’s panel for FIFA, soccer’s world governing body.

"By meeting new people and proving that I had the ability to referee at the highest level, it opened the doors to being appointed to the international panel," he says.

Since hearing the news that he is Beijing bound as an assistant referee, Kermit has had a hectic schedule, comprising a lot of training and meetings.

"My referee team has worked 2010 World Cup qualifiers (including Costa Rica against Grenada, and Cayman Islands against Bermuda), as well as MLS games together in order to get better prepared on how to act and react in different situations,” he said.

They arrived in China last Thursday (July 31), and when the 16 team men’s tournament commences on Thursday - a day before the Olympic Games opening ceremony - they will have already had meetings and training sessions every day in order to prepare them for the games.

Although he hopes he won't be too much in the spotlight, Kermit will still have many supporters cheering him on, none more so than his family, who are steeped in soccer.

His mother, Estelle, has been a referee assignor since 1984, becoming a high school assignor for the Louisville area in 1998. His father, Gordon, is a referee assessor and instructor, who got involved in the game when Kermit's teams in high school didn’t have enough officials to go round. And his brother, Mark, has also attained the grade of state referee.

They -- and Kermit -- know that a good performance during the competition could see him in line to officiate at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

You can follow his progress on the US Olympic Referees’ blog at Olympicrefs.blogspot.com.