Community Corner

Brookline Spartans Snag PA West Soccer Tournament Win

Brookline's spring travel soccer team sees success with the Spartans.

For soccer mom and coach Theresa Gaskill, the best part of her son’s team, the Spartans, winning the PA West Tournament held in Edinboro was watching the kids excitedly ring the victory bell at Edinboro University.

The Brookline Spartans went undefeated in their division all three days of the tournament held June 22 to 24 and had a total of two goals scored against them the entire time.

Another two of the nine Brookline Soccer Association teams that played this weekend, the Brookline Fire and the Brookline Crusaders, were finalists in their divisions.

According to Gaskill there is a magic to getting into finals. Because of the way the teams are ranked, winning every game is not enough. A big part of getting to finals has to do with how many goals were shot against you, and it’s very easy to get eliminated.

“It feels good. Usually we have somebody bringing home a trophy from the tournament and this year we had two finalists and one champion. Not too many of them can say three teams brought home something,” said Tim Gaskill, association president and Theresa’s husband.

It’s not bad at all for an association run completely by volunteers.

The program, which includes 30 teams made up of kids from different neighborhoods in Brookline, is run from the ground up by unpaid parent volunteers.

According to Theresa, many of the coaches and children know very little about soccer before they join.

“Our coaches are just dads and moms like me that give up their time and try to learn this game and try to go out and play these games,” she said. “They’re not professionals, but obviously they’re doing a really, really good job!”

As for the Brookline kids who won, Theresa said, “We’re so proud. We’re so proud of it we want to shout it out!”

If you know someone interested in volunteering or playing for the Brookline Soccer Association you can find contact information on their webpage.

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