Idaho soccer team clinches spot at nationals. ‘This group continues to break barriers’
Add Idaho Rush to the list of clubs proving Idaho youth soccer belongs on the national stage.
The club’s U-15 girls team recently clinched a spot at this summer’s U.S. Youth Soccer National Championship, making it the first team in club history and just the fourth team from Idaho to advance to the country’s most prestigious tournament.
“This group continues to break barriers and rise to the occasion,” said Olly Frick, the U-15 coach and girls program director with Idaho Rush. “It’s a testament to the work they’ve put in to put themselves in that kind of opportunity. It paves the way for younger girls and shows them that competing at the national level is a realistic goal if you put in the effort and trust the process.”
Rush locked up an early berth to the national championship via a new qualifying process. Rush won its eight-team group in the U.S. Youth Soccer National P.R.O. League, going 5-0-2 in games from December to March while outsourcing its opponents 17-3.
Group winners automatically advance to the national championships July 19-24 in Orlando, Florida. The national tournament will feature 16 teams in each age group, an increase from eight last year.
The achievement came with its own drama, though. Rush needed to win its final game on March 21 in Arizona to clinch a nationals berth. Portland’s PDX United netted an equalizer with 10 minutes left in the final group stage game, potentially sending Rush into a series of tiebreakers.
But Boise High freshman Kunie Hirai responded six minutes later with the decisive goal for Rush. Hirai shined in the group stage, finishing with eight goals and six assists in seven games against teams from Texas, Ohio, Washington, Oregon and Utah.
The national tournament berth continues the history-making streak for Rush’s U-15 girls. Last summer as U-14s, they became the first team in club history to win its group at the Far West Regionals. Rush allowed just a single goal all weekend — on a penalty kick — but lost in a shootout in the quarterfinals.
That performance earned Rush a spot in the P.R.O. League, which it took advantage of to earn a spot at nationals via a new path.
No Idaho team has ever won a national championship. The most recent team to qualify was the 2019 U-15 Boise Thorns girls. The state’s best finish came in 2015, when the U-19 Nova-Nationals girls finished second on penalty kicks.
All three previous national qualifiers were girls teams and came from the Boise Timbers Thorns or their predecessors. But Idaho showcased its depth last summer when the U-16 Idaho Inferno girls won a President’s Cup national title. The President’s Cup is the country’s second most prestigious tournament.
“It shows you where soccer in the community is going,” Frick said. “As the population grows here, it will become a more consistent thing, and a standard clubs and teams will continue to set. When you talk about putting Idaho on the map, you’ll continue to see it more and more as the talent develops across all the clubs.”
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 1:22 PM.
