KC Star All-Metro

Congratulations go out to all 15 Sporting Kansas City Juniors players chosen to the Kansas City Star's All-Metro Boy's Soccer teams. The selections were announced in Sunday's edition of the newspaper (shown on right), with our very own Derek Schrick being named the All-Metro boys soccer player of the year! Here's a rundown on the honorees:

First Team: FWD Shane Woods (Kearney, senior), MF Derek Schrick (Rockhurst, senior), MF Chris Tuso (Blue Valley NW, senior), Matt Peterson (Blue Valley North, junior), Clay Stewart (Olathe South, junior), GK Jacole Turner (Lee's Summit North, senior)

Second Team: FWD Steve Enna (St. James Academy, sophomore), MF Andrew Brown (St. Thomas Aquinas, senior), DEF Eric DeJulio (Blue Valley NW, senior), DEF Julian Ramirez (Blue Springs, junior)

Honorable Mention: FWD Garrett Pulliam (Blue Valley West, senior), MF David Leichty (Shawnee Mission South, junior), MF Joey Piatczyc (Lee's Summit, sophomore), MF Taylor Walter (Blue Valley, senior), GK Evan Wright (Blue Valley, senior)

SKC Juniors Conclude Showcase

Sporting Kansas City's U16 and U18 Juniors concluded their six-day trip to Florida with a win and a tie respectively on Tuesday. The Juniors accumulated a combined record of 4-1-1 with the U18's going 3-0 on the week and the U16's finishing with ones across the board.

Both squads faced the Oakwood Soccer Club in the last match of the three-game road voyage. Tuesday's match for the U18's concluded 2-1 in Sporting Kansas City's favor with Eduardo Moreno and Clay Stewart both contributing second-half goals.

The under 16's contest versus Oakwood ended in a 2-2 draw. Seo-in Kim and Julian Ramirez each added tallies for Sporting Kansas City while Thomas Parisis and Timothy Edward Mines notched goals for Oakwood. To view a more detailed account on the Juniors trip to Florida check out Sportingmembership.com.

Here is a direct link to the recap from the DA Winter Showcase Day 3 as well as a photo gallery. Sporting Kansas City Juniors will continue to train outside for the next couple of weeks and prep for futsal during the winter months before resuming play in March.

Piatczyc & Stewart see reserve action; U14s take Denver Cup

Through five matches of the 2011 MLS Reserve League, a total of seven members of the Sporting KC Juniors program had seen playing time. Today, in the sixth match of the league schedule against the Colorado Rapids, two more got their chance.

Joey Piatczyc and Clay Stewart entered in the 83rd and 89th minutes respectively in Sporting Kansas City's 1-0 win over Colorado this morning.

Piatczyc (born in 1996) is the youngest player to feature for the reserves this season, most recently completing the season with Sporting's U15 side. Piatczyc's selection comes after impressing with the group that Jon Parry brought to the U17 Generation adidas Cup.
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In other Juniors news, Dustin Ottesen's U14 side were named champions of the 2011 Denver Cup this past weekend. The 14s topped bracket A, scoring 12 goals in four matches, finishing ahead of the likes of Real Colorado and Colorado Rush en route to their first title of the new season.

U16s Win 3-1 in Playoff Finale

The Sporting Kansas City U16 Juniors ended their run at the US Soccer Development Academy playoffs at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas with a 3-1 win on Tuesday over IMG Academy. Clay Stewart opened the scoring for the U16s in the first half on a corner kick from Daniel Hare, then David Leichty earned man of the match honors with two superb goals in the second half. His first strike came on a perfectly placed free kick to double the U16s advantage before he scored the team's third goal on a chip over the IMG Academy goalkeeper.

The U16s finished in a tie for third place in Group 3 behind fellow MLS clubs LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo, after qualifying as a Top 25 seed for the USSDA Playoffs and earning an automatic entry with a first place finish in the Frontier Division of the Central Conference of the US Soccer Development Academy.