Diablo FC, MDSA teams win soccer winter titles
Diablo FC 2001 boys won the Super Black U19 bracket at the Copa Surf tournament earlier this month in San Jose. The team defeated Palo Alto FC in the championship game 3-1. Diablo FC 01 includes, bottom row from left, Anival Montes, Soran Grant, Felipe Magaña, Ryan Nguyen, Moises Limon, Jacob Craig, Danial Shanoda, Sammy Abas Hamiei, Fernando Escobedo; back row, Conor Lynch, Emiliano Garcia, Brandon Botello, Damian Garcia, Jose Haro, Jimmy Hernandez, Andrew Senna, Jose Carra, Christian Mattos, Griffin LaFleur and coach Zak Kaufman.
Diablo FC 2003 Premier boys captured the U16 Super Black bracket at the Copa Surf earlier this month in San Jose with a 2-1 win over Tahuichi FC. Coach Daniel Rednic’s team also took part in the Las Vegas College Showcase last weekend along with three other Diablo FC older boys teams. Diablo FC 2003 includes, front row from left, Elias Stimson, Danilo Mendoza, Isaac Morfin, Jonathan Wence, Marco Friio, Liam Verhoeven; back row, Matthew Grisanti, Jack Nunn, Marley Babb, Yousif Alani, Andre Vojtenyi, Hari Stoyanov, Gabriel Perez and Julian Montes. Not pictured, Adrian Rodriguez, Marcus Stich and Ryan Chand. (Photos courtesy Diablo FC)
MDSA Strikers 2007 boys elite took first at the Copita Surf tournament earlier this month by winning a penalty kick shootout in the U12 bronze/silver finals after rallying from a halftime deficit to tie the game and force the shootout. The Strikers include, front row from left, Grady Rose, Kai Parker, Robert Coronel, Samuel Rubalcava, Andres Watts; back row, coach Jorge Cordova, Javier Cordova, Austin Grove, Cooper Theunissen, Logan Knapp, Aiden Cunningham, Aidan Zingmark, Riley Gary, Marco Tredinnick and coach Brian Tredinnick. Not pictured, Isaac Escobar and Joshua Valdez. (Photo courtesy MDSA)
Jay Bedecarré
Jay Bedecarré is a long-time resident and writer in Concord and Clayton. He began his newspaper writing career while still a senior at Mt. Diablo High School and he has been part of The Pioneer since its inception in 2003. Jay also operates Bay Area Festivals, presenting events around the San Francisco Bay Area including Bay Area KidFest annually in Downtown Concord.