Boca Prepares For U23 Summer Program
February 15, 2010
After winning the 2009 MSSL Cup, the Jersey Shore Boca U23 women’s team has helped raise the bar for the Boca U23 summer program. Boca announced today that the Club will be again entering two teams in the Mid-Atlantic Summer Showcase League in 2010 and is searching for the top men’s and women’s college age players from the shore area to join the Club for its 7th year of MSSL competition.
Boca Prepares For U23 Summer Program
Club seeks top college age men and women for seventh season in league
TOMS RIVER, NJ (February 15, 2010) – The Jersey Shore Boca soccer club announced today that the Club will be entering two teams in the Mid-Atlantic Summer Showcase League (MSSL) for the 2010 season and is searching for the top men’s and women’s college age players from the shore area to join the Club for the spring and summer.
Boca will field both a U23 men’s and U23 women’s team this summer as the Club participates for the seventh consecutive year as one of the inaugural founding members of MSSL.
All college age players and high school seniors who are born on or after August 1, 1986, are eligible to participate on the Boca summer teams provided they have not signed a professional contract with the US Soccer Federation.
All interested players should to log on to Club’s official website at jerseyshoreboca.com, click on the U23 team tab and submit their soccer background along with any playing references.
Selected players will be invited to attend initial tryouts for Boca MSSL teams starting in the spring.
MSSL is a seventh year regional soccer league fostering high-level competition during the summer months at both the youth and adult ages in both men’s and women’s divisions.
The adult level of MSSL is specifically designed for collegiate players under the age of twenty-three and is fully sanctioned by the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA), the national governing body for adult amateur soccer.
Boca’s MSSL home league games for 2010 will be played at the John Patrick Sports Complex in Lakewood.
“During our Club’s history, we have always provided a competitive environment for our college players to stay active over the summer months when they return to the shore. MSSL allows us to continue our college-age program this year at the highest level of soccer available with the most affordable cost. This is not a Sunday tavern league. There are very good players in this league and excellent soccer is played as we have seen over the past several years. I believe our Boca summer teams of recent years have set the standard for our summer competition” said Walt Pericciouli, a member of the Jersey Shore Boca Board of Directors who will also coach the U23 men’s team this summer.
Last summer, in only their third year together, the Jersey Shore Boca U23 women’s team notched themselves a place in the record books as the ladies of the “blue and gold” topped-off a strong summer season together which culminated with a 1-0 win over the Middlepath Soccer Club and the capture of the 2009 Mid-Atlantic Summer Showcase League Cup.
It is the first time during the Club’s six previous seasons of MSSL competition, that a Boca team, either men or women, has captured the MSSL Cup and also the first time in Boca’s history that a women’s team of any age has captured a championship.
Also during 2009, the Boca U20 men’s team reached the MSSL Cup Semi-Finals.
Over the past six years, the Boca U23 teams have seen some of the top collegiate soccer players in the shore area fill their rosters for the summer and then continue to excel individually at some of the highest levels of college soccer in the United States and even beyond.
Three members of Boca’s 2006 U23 men’s team, Chris Konopka, Teddy Niziolek and Nick Gkionis, still continue their professional soccer careers to date.
Konopka and Niziolek were selected by the Kansas City Wizards of Major League Soccer and Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer in the MLS 2007 Supplemental Draft.
Toms River native Konopka has won two FAI Cup medals and one League of Ireland championship medal over the past two years and will begin his third season on the emerald isle with Waterford United as their first choice keeper.
Niziolek hopes to remain in the United Soccer Leagues for the 2010 season after spending two years in its PDL division.
After a standout career at Stevens Institute of Technology, Gkionis spent his first year of professional soccer in 2007 with MEAP Nisou of the Cypriot Second Division in Cyprus.
The Jackson Memorial alum is currently on the books of Excelsior Veldwezelt of the Belgium third division.
The Jersey Shore Boca summer soccer program is officially sponsored by Surf Taco, a popular Mexican themed restaurant chain with locations throughout the jersey shore.
Boca has been a fixture in the soccer community since 1978 and is one of the most respected soccer clubs on the East Coast.
The Club is celebrating their 32-year anniversary in 2010.
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