JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va. –
The Joint Base Langley-Eustis
soccer team placed second in the 2018 Defender’s Cup Armed Forces Soccer
Tournament at the South Texas Area Regional Soccer Complex, San Antonio, Texas,
from Aug. 31 through Sept. 3.
The tournament put 37 installations
from across the U.S. in competition to find out who is the top military soccer
team in the nation.
The teams were broken into nine
groups, where the top two teams in each group were placed into the Defender’s
Cup bracket and the bottom two were placed in the community Shield brackets.
Only those qualified for the
Defender’s Cup bracket had the honor to compete for the right to be called the
top military soccer team.
JBLE was put in group I with teams
from Nellis Air Force Base, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, McDill AFB and the Armed Forces
Women’s Team.
As an underdog in the group, JBLE
wasn’t projected to qualify into the Defender’s Cup, but ended with two wins
and a draw, highlighted by a convincing win of three to zero against Nellis.
“Our team captain, Specialist
Steven Estrada, was integral in keeping the team firing on all cylinders by
ensuring we were motivated, focused and taking care of our bodies,” said U.S.
Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jared Martin, 633rd Security Forces Squadron flight chief.
“Coach Groombridge put us in the best positions to win each game and allowed us
to execute. As the tournament progressed we realized teams were constantly
overlooking us due to the attendance of some large base teams that historically
did well in the tournament, which made our victories even better.”
In the Elimination round, JBLE
played Seymour Johnson AFB and advanced with a four to one win, setting up a
game against last year’s runner-up Scott AFB in the quarter-finals. The game
ended in a draw with no goals scored and went into sudden death penalty kicks,
where JBLE advanced with a five to four advantage and a trip to the semi-finals.
In the Semi-finals, JBLE was paired
against defending champions Fort Campbell, a team that many believed would
easily go through to the finals. At halftime, JBLE had a three to nothing lead
and ended with a five to one win and a trip to the finals.
In the finals JBLE played Fort
Meade and came up short losing one to nothing after a well fought game.
“We knew this would be a challenge,
we lost four players during the semi-finals due to injury and suspension.” said
Hermann Groombridge, JBLE Soccer Club coach. “Even though JBLE came up on the
losing end, we proved to be a team to be reckoned with in the near future.”
Even though they lost, their hard
work, dedication and sportsmanship did not go unnoticed.
Team after team came up to the
tournament director and nominated JBLE for the Stew Hess Sportsmanship Award.
Normally awarded to the individual in the tournament that displayed outstanding
sportsmanship, good conduct and fair play.
“We made history, that's how I
would define it,” said U.S. Army Specialist Steven Estrada, Transportation
Management Ops Clerk, 53rd Transportation Battalion Movement Control, 7th
Transportation Brigade Expeditionary. “It is an award that throughout the years
was given to a single player and for the first time a whole team has won it.”
The award was to be recognized as a
team award for this event, honoring each player and coach on team JBLE.
“The JBLE Soccer Club
represent their units, JBLE, U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army with absolute
pride and dedication,” Groombridge said. “We should all be proud of this team!”