Pahrump girls youth soccer dominates

The soccer team consists of a group of young girls known as the “Pahrump ‘05 Trojans,” and the club has been on quite a winning streak as of late.

In fact, head coach Danny Coleman said the team won two recent tournaments, dubbed “The Best of the West Winter Invitational,” and the “Icebreaker,” held in Utah earlier this month. “That tournament was over Presidents Day weekend,” he said. “Last year was actually our very first time in this tournament, which we won. We wanted to come back and try to defend our title this year.”

The team did just that. Coleman said though the scores were very close, Pahrump eventually emerged as victors once again. “We defended our title quite well and we won,” he said. “Our first game, we won 1-0. Our second game, we won 2-1, and our third game we won 3-2. The championship game was actually with the first team that we played. It was 0-0 after the regular match and the overtime, and we won in a shootout.”

Coleman also spoke about how the competition appeared to be a bit tougher this year. “We played stronger teams and they were separated by their ability levels,” he said. “There were four teams and no team won the game by more than one goal. Every game was decided by one goal.” Coleman said the team this year also was looking forward to embracing the challenge of taking on other teams with higher skill levels in terms of age. “The tournament director asked if we would be willing to move the girls up to the youth-14 division, for a little more challenging competition,” Coleman said. “That division is the next age group above us, so the last two tournaments that we participate in will be the youth-14 division. Our Pahrump girls were born in 2005 and 2006, while those opposing players were roughly a year older than our girls because they were born in 2004. I’ve been coaching this group of girls for about four years now.”

The Pahrump ‘05 Trojans’ fall season league began last August, with a great amount of success and enthusiasm, the coach noted.

Additionally, Coleman said the team is roughly halfway through its season, and the squad is looking forward to taking on any and all comers with aims of taking down the club. “We have our spring league coming up in March and then we have three more scheduled tournaments where we are the defending champions,” the coach caid. “We have signed up for all those again to defend our titles. There is also an unscheduled tournament called the “State Cups.” Since we won our league, we have earned a bye to the quarterfinals, and if we win the state level, we go on to Sacramento to play for the regionals. Obviously, all of the players are pretty excited about that prospect.”

Dominating and unrelenting would be accurate terms to describe the style of play the Pahrump ‘05 Trojans girls are now known for.

“When we look at the tournament standings, we usually have the least amount of goals scored on us, while having the most goals scored in the tournament,” Coleman noted. “The most important number for me is the amount of goals that we allow, because if we allow zero, we only need to score one goal. And like I said already, we have just had one goal scored on us in the tournament which was the very first game. After that, we scored five goals twice, then four goals during the next games.”

At present, the team is 15 players strong. “We just picked up a new player when we were invited to play the older age division,” Coleman said. “We also had some injuries and illnesses. We did manage to pick up a player who was in that older age group and she meshed pretty well to the point where our players want to move up one age division, so she can stay on the team for the rest of the season.”

To its credit, the team puts in at least two hours worth of practice three nights a week at Ian Deutch Memorial Park. Coleman made certain to note that he makes an effort to allow for a bit of flexibility to the team’s practice schedule. “Because of other sporting events, I try to do the best I can to make sure that soccer does not interfere with the other sports that the girls want to participate in,” he said. “I spoke to the athletic director of our middle school to try and arrange our schedule a little better. We did not have a winter league this year so the girls could play basketball and not miss any games. We have two soccer tournaments that were scheduled during the basketball season, so in turn, the athletic director made sure that that they did not schedule basketball on those weekends so we did not miss those tournaments.” The simple “thrill of victory,” Coleman suggested is what keeps him engaged with the soccer team, as he and his other coach are not compensated for their time.

The coach also said special considerations are made for current and would-be players. “Myself and my other coach, we do not get paid and we don’t charge monthly dues” unlike other soccer clubs in Las Vegas, he said.