Another successful holiday outing

How does co-director James Young sum up the three days of the 21st Annual Columbia-Windham Soccer Alliance Columbus Day Soccer Tournament?

“It was a total success. Great weather and a lot of happy people,” Young said. “The tournament could not have happened without all of the volunteers who put forth such an effort. We even had kids that were not even involved with soccer that came out to support us.
“Our committee did a super job.”
This year marked the final year on the tournament committee for Paula Belekewicz, who is retiring from her position in charge of the field marshals.
“She has done an outstanding job and we are going to miss her,” Young said. “I hope to have everyone back for next year because the tournament could not be run without all of these super people.”
That group includes fellow co-director Leo DeSautels, Laura Young, Paul Croteau, Greg Vertefeuille, Ray Wykowski, Peter Casey, Brett Jones, Brad Ernst (who will be taking over for Belekewicz), Drew Nelson and many more people who volunteered their time in helping making the weekend run as smoothly as possible.

The holiday weekend also ended for Young with a championship as he coached the CWSA Cougars in the U-12 Boys White Division with Sebby Randazzo to a tournament title with a 3-2 victory over Andover at Columbia Recreation Field in a back-and-forth contest.
Other local winners included Lebanon, a 3-1 winner over the Shelton Storm in the U-14 Girls Red Division while Hebron defeated Columbia-Sternat, 4-2, to capture the U-14 Boys Green Division title.
Three local teams reached boys championship finals.

CWSA Guarino fell 4-1 in the U-12 Orange Division in a short-sided 8-vs.-8 game to Brooklyn and Andover Mawdsley lost 2-1 in the U-11 Boys Red Division final to the Norwich Blast while the Marlborough Wildfire lost on penalty kicks in the U-12 Blue Division.

And on the girls side, two teams dropped decisions in short-sided 8-vs.-8 games. Andover dropped a 2-0 decision to the Ridgefield Razors in the U-12 Green Division and the Marlborough Fireballs fell to the NeConn Goalbusters, 4-1, in the U-11 Blue Division.