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For a soccer goalkeeper, boring is good, a lot of activity can be bad.

Olivia Melich admits to being bored as the taut defense of the Savannah United Select 2010 Girls Premier squad rolls to another shutout.

“Oh absolutely,” said Melich, 13. “I talk to myself. It’s the worst thing, but glad we’re winning. 

“In recent games when we’re up, I talk to my defense a lot when it gets boring.”

 

That’s perfectly fine with team captain Kiley Singleton, 14, an attacking midfielder. 

 

“I’d rather have her bored than on her feet a lot,” Singleton said.

Savannah United Select 2010 Girls Premier Squad

Winning never gets old, and the 2010 Girls have made it a habit with a second consecutive title in the U.S. Youth Soccer National League’s Piedmont Conference this spring and back-to-back crowns at the Georgia State Cup on Mother’s Day Weekend in May 2023 and 2024.

 

They were joined this year by the Savannah United Select 2011 Boys Premier squad, which captured the State Cup in its first year of eligibility. Savannah United executive director Gary Wright said it had been many years since one of its boys travel teams won the Georgia State Cup.

 

The 2011 Boys, coached by Declan Haughton, also won the Piedmont Conference’s Premier 1 division for ages 13-under, which had 12 teams from Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Piedmont is one of 13 conferences in the National League.

Savannah United Select 2011 Boys Premier Squad

“Some (players are) from the School of Excellence at Savannah United, which is the program they developed to really start technical work with the younger kids (6-U to 8-U),” said 2011 Boys team manager Joanna Rodenberg, whose son Charlie is a left wing. “These 2010 girls and 2011 boys are the age groups that are really showing the results of that program being in place.”

 

Rodenberg said a total of six select squads from Savannah United qualified for the USYS Southern Regional Championships on June 21-17. The Savannah United girls are playing at the Tournament Sportsplex of Tampa Bay in Tampa, Fla., while the boys are headed to the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, Fla.

 

The 2010 Girls and the 2011 Boys would have qualified with either a Piedmont Conference title or the Georgia State Cup crown – and they accomplished both. 

 

“Our team is very well-rounded,” Singleton said. “Alyssa (Gibson), our striker, is very good at getting around people. Our wingers also contribute a big part; they’re good at crossing the ball. Our whole forward (line) has a lot of speed up top. Our defense knows how to stay in front of the ball and get the ball. They also know how to switch the ball around and keep possession and find the midfielders. Olivia (Melich), obviously, does a great job in goal.”

 

The 2010 Girls were 7-1-0 (21 points) in the five-team 14-U Piedmont Conference Bracket A, outscoring opponents 32-6 for a division-best plus-26 goal differential. All six goals allowed came in splitting two games against second-place Wilson (N.C.) Youth Soccer Association Explosion Blue (6-2-0, 18 points, plus-16).

 

The other six contests were shutouts by a 26-0 margin.

 

“(Melich) started playing defense and then she was a wing and then she was striker,” Singleton said of her teammate’s journey since joining the select squad about four years ago. “She was all over the place. Once she found goalie, I think she knew that’s her position. Throughout the years, she’s gotten much better. She started playing goalie – she was good – but the way that we’ve seen her grow as a goalie, it’s just outstanding.”

 

The 14-U girls squad, coached by Jeff Storey-Pitts, went 4-0 at the State Cup with games spread across April and May. The team won by scores of 3-2, 7-0, 5-0 and 4-0 in Peachtree City.

 

For good measure, the squad – which has dealt with injuries -- showed its depth in winning its division at the host Savannah United Spring Invitational on May 18-19, outscoring the opposition 20-0 in four matches.

 

“This team is absolutely amazing,” said Melich, who started in the sport at age 2 and comes from a soccer family, including brother Martin Melich, 16, who plays at Savannah Arts Academy and at Savannah United. “At practices, they’re all silly and laughing. But at games, they’re serious.

 

“It’s just amazing how different they can be but still appreciate and love everything they do,” she added.

 

Melich said the girls are very close, “like a huge family,” and many have been on this select squad for several years. That includes in 2023, when they advanced to the Southern Regional quarterfinals in Baton Rouge, La.

 

Singleton said that the team was so used to constant winning and needed to be ready for a step up in competition because “the teams that we will play in regionals will be top notch.”

 

Her mother, team manager Tricia Singleton, sees a more mature squad that works better together as a team, particularly with passing and advancing the ball upfield.

 

“Last year being the first year, you kind of go into some of those tournaments not having quite as good an idea,” Tricia Singleton said. “This year going into it, I think they know what they need to do.”

2011 Boys Premier heading to Florida

It will be a new experience at Southern Regionals for the 2011 Boys, but they have answered each challenge along the way.

“It’s going to be pretty hard,” said striker London Lemus, 13, of Richmond Hill. “Probably some competition there like the same (we have played). I think we’ll do good.”

 

Joanna Rodenberg said they went 11-1 last fall in the Georgia Premier League to earn a promotion this spring to the National League. They went 9-1-1 for Piedmont Conference-bests with 28 points and a plus-24 goal differential (37-13).

TRAC Covered Bridge Soccer Club of Euharlee, Ga., handed Savannah United its only loss, 4-2, and placed second at 8-0-3 (27 points, plus-20 goal differential).

“I would consider them our rival now because that’s the only team that beat us,” Rodenberg said. 

As fate would have it, the teams met again in the Georgia State Cup final on May 12. Savannah United had momentum from victories of 8-1, 2-0 and 3-1 to reach the championship game.

Rodenberg said the match was tied 2-2 in regulation, and 3-3 after a scoreless first overtime period and each team netted a goal in the second OT.

“Every time we scored, they scored again and it just kept going,” Lemus recalled. “That led us to PKs.”

Goalie Brody Sheridan and his teammates won on penalty kicks by a 4-3 margin, Rodenberg said.

“Very emotional; I think the biggest, most emotional game that these guys have played in,” she said. “There definitely were some hoarse voices going into the week. They definitely were excited. They celebrated. It was a big win for them.”

 

The 2011 Boys have overcome adversity in losing wing Zachary Araya to injury before the spring, but reinforcements arrived in wing Yassin Elgendy and midfielder Brooks Storey-Pitts (son of Jeff Storey-Pitts, Savannah United’s select program director).

 

Rodenberg believes this squad, with its “track record of success,” work ethic and unselfishness became a State Cup champion.

 

“There’s no overwhelming one personality,” she said. “They all work hard together. They all support each other. I think with their hard work and talent, they earned it.”

 

Savannah United 2011 Boys Premier roster

Stefan Domazet, Theo Cohen, Maddox Farkas, London Lemus, Charlie Rodenberg, Jordan Schultz, Brooks Storey-Pitts, Ryder Perdue, Kyle Simpson, Yassin Elgendy, Brody Sheridan, Miles Holland, Zachary Araya, Solomon Benjamin, Gabriel Jenkins, Riley Jalosky, Brayden Clouse. Coach Declan Haughton.

Savannah United 2010 Girls Premier roster

Addison Locke, Alyssa Gibson, Kiley Singleton, Bella Turner, Julianna Kitchen, 

Brooklyn Linstrotth, Cali Griffith, Caroline Fuller, Elin Cerkoney, Eliza Reeves, Emilia Kowalski, Emily White, Olivia Melich, Reese Creeden, Ava Gower. Coach Jeff Storey-Pitts.

 

PHOTO CREDIT:  Savannah United 2010 Girls Premier squad by Tricia Singleton and the 2011 Boys Premier squad by Kirk Farkas. 

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