By JAY WILSON

Crusaders Soccer Club President Terry Cords and Director of Coaching Rene Miramontes are very pleased to announce that seven of the club’s top competitive division teams have been invited to join the Southwest Division of the National Premiere League (NPL).

“We have boys and girls teams with birth years of 2002 to 2006 participating at this very high skill level,” Miramontes said. “We will be playing against teams from throughout Southern California.”

As of now, the schedule has NPL games at the Pershing Middle School fields on March 14, 15, 22, 28, 29, April 4 and 5, 18, 19 and the finals on April 25, 26 and May 2.

The NPL website states this is a national competition platform created to elevate and change the competitive youth soccer landscape by extending developmental principles espoused by U.S. Soccer into more age groups and clubs; linking competition with player development and identification platforms; and providing meaningful weekly competition culminating in the NPL Finals.

Competitive team tryouts for the Academy, Premier and Elite divisions for boys and girls born between 2002 and 2005 are scheduled in April. The tryouts for the boys are on April 6 and 8 and the tryouts for the girls are on April 7 and 9. All tryouts will be on the Pershing Middle School fields from 4:30 to 6 p.m. To register, go to crusaderssoccer.org.

The 2020 Recreational Division season is underway with more than 550 boys and girls playing Crusaders Soccer on Sundays through April 26 (no games on Easter Sunday). Because of the increase in the number of players and teams, games are being played on Field No. 1 at Pershing Middle School and on the new grass fields at Gage Elementary School.

“Our recreational division is powered by 60 volunteer coaches and division coordinators,” said Jay Wilson, chief operations officer for Crusaders “It is their dedication to help instill sportsmanship, team play and soccer skills that makes our recreational division so successful.”

As we begin our 2020 recreational season, Ivan Melendez, one of our key competitive coaches, has been appointed our Recreational Division technical advisor.

“I am 27 years old and I have been playing soccer all my life,” Melendez said. “I have been coaching Crusaders Soccer Club competitive teams for six years and my goal is to work with and help our volunteer recreational coaches and players. I am looking forward in helping train our recreational players and assist our recreational coaches however I can. I will be a resource for our coaches, parents and players. I will provide information on how to conduct specific drills and/or an entire practice session. I am an open book, and I want to enrich our recreational program experience. I have a strong background with our recreational program as a coach for many of the camps and clinics. In addition to coaching competitive boys and girls 7v7 and 9v9 teams for the Crusaders Soccer Club, I have also coached 11v11 junior varsity high school teams. I have been involved with the entire spectrum of youth soccer.”

— Jay Wilson writes on behalf of Crusaders Soccer Club. Visit crusaderssoccer.org.