Youth soccer teams doing big things for Salinas

A couple of local soccer teams are kicking their way to a potential national championship!

“I’m just hoping for the best in keeping the hot streak going, we’ve been on a good hot streak. I don’t think we’ve lost this past season or the season before that,” said Andres Farias with the U16 Pumas.

“It’s always an honor to be representing our city and our town of Salinas. Feels good to be state winning and we’ll go all out to see if we can make it to nationals just like them,” said Abraham Montano with the U14 Galaxy.

Those are just two players involved in Monterey County’s El Camino Real Soccer League, a youth premier soccer league out of Salinas that takes on other team’s around the state and eventually country. The U16 Pumas and U14 Galaxy have won the state championship two years in a row, qualifying them to play in the far west regional tournament in Boise, Idaho this June. The El Camino League isn’t just helping these kids athletically, but keeping them focused and off the streets.

“Now they see that there’s an outlet with the sport, so hopefully besides the soccer, they get the message as far as looking forward to their future. Everybody here, I mean there’s a story for every kid. The oldest group that we have, the U18’s, we have 6 seniors…and out of those 6 seniors, all of them are going to college,” said Director of Coaching, Sergio Herrera.

The regional tournament in Boise isn’t just a great event to show off teamwork, but also to get noticed as an individual. Over 600 soccer coaches are expected to attend in hopes of finding new talent, including many from division 1 colleges.