Team History

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Our Fairfield Strikers (Red) team has always been a strong Division I club (or "league") team in Connecticut, with excellent ball handling and tactical skills that more than offset a chronic size disadvantage due to our relative youth (only two players on the Spring '00 roster were born in 1985, and three of our 14 players were "playing up").

• In Fall '96 (U-11) our overall record (including tournaments and state cup games) was excellent at 10-2-3 (W-L-T), scoring 43 goals and allowing only 13.

• In Spring '97 (U-11) we also did well with an 11-6-2 overall record, again scoring 43 goals and allowing 20.

• In Fall '97 (U-12) we lost two players to Premier, but still finished #2 in our conference and recorded an overall record of 7-3-1, scoring 27 goals and allowing 20 (with Newtown, a team we had beaten consistently in prior years, but which suddenly surged in physical size, accounting for 11 of the 20 goals scored against us). This was the first season with our new coaching staff, led by Maria Piechocki, head coach of women's soccer at Fairfield University.

• In Spring '98 (U-12) we were less competitive because we lost two more players and began to suffer a major growth-hormone gap versus virtually all of our competitors. Our overall record was still a respectable 7-9-4, and we scored 37 goals and allowed 34. In three games against big teams we gave up 16 goals; the other losses were one- or two-goal games.

• In Fall '98 (U-13) we were strengthened by the addition of seven new players to our 16-person roster, and we finished second in our conference, with our only conference loss to the State-Cup champion, Newtown. Several of our new players came over from a second local team in the same age group (Fairfield Football Club), allowing us to field most of the best talent in our age group (only two girls were playing Premier instead of with us) from a town of around 50,000 people. Our overall record was 9-5-4; we scored 29 goals and allowed 22. The only lopsided loss (0-4) was to New Jersey State Champion, Ramapo. In State-Cup play, we lost in the quarter-finals to West Hartford in a 1-2 game in which the god of crossbars and posts was clearly angry with us.

• In Spring '99 (U-13) the growth hormones finally kicked in, and at last we began to close the size gap. Equally important, for the first time in our history, we acquired a dedicated goalkeeper. We also stepped up our training commitment, including our first full indoor season over the winter months. In our first ten games, we outscored the competition by 21 goals (30 vs. 9), including a first-place finish in the Glastonbury Warm-Up Tournament (with three wins against Glastonbury/Hartwell, Wallingford and North Kingston R.I. and a 0-2 loss to Simsbury). We then participated in the Massapequa (NY) Memorial Day Tournament where we were mismatched against five premier teams, including one current and one former N.Y. State champion; we gave up 20 goals, scored only one, and walked away with a great education. We closed out our CJSA-SW conference season as the champion (Newtown left our conference to play up in the U-14 division). In State-Cup play, we lost again in the quarter-finals in a very close 0-1 game to one of the eventual finalists (Simsbury). To end the season, we participated in the JAGS Tournament in Princeton, N.J., finishing second in our four-team group with a 1-1-1 record, but did not advance to the playoffs. Our overall record for the season was 10-10-1, having scored 39 goals and having allowed 42. Excluding the Massapequa tournament, our overall record was 10-5-1, with 38 goals scored and 22 goals allowed.

• In Fall '99 (U-14) we lost one player to premier and our goalie to high school, and we added three players. In early September, we participated in the Riverside Tournament in Agawam, MA, won our group-of-four, advanced to the playoffs, and lost both the semi-final and the consolation games, in very tight contests, leaving us the third runner-up among 16 teams. Over Columbus Day weekend, we participated in the Columbia-Windham (CT) tournament in the highest of three divisions for club teams, and won all of our five games and the championship, scoring 13 goals and allowing 2. In conference play, we won most of our games by comfortable margins (scoring 30 goals and allowing 4), and we also won two scrimmages. In State Cup play, we advanced into the final four and lost our semi-final match 0-2 to Stratford, which went on to win the championship. Our overall season record was 19-3-2, with 68 goals scored and 17 goals allowed (60 and 16 excluding one lopsided game).
• In Spring '00 (U-14), we lost two players to AAU basketball, and entered the season with only 14 players on the roster.  With schedule conflicts, illnesses and injuries, we played most of our games with only 12 players (i.e., one "sub"), and were at a clear disadvantage against the strongest teams we faced because of our lack of depth.  In April, we participated in the Colchester (CT) Spring Classic Tournament, where we tied both (a) our eventual State Cup semifinal opponent (Farmington), and (b) our eventual Conference fianl opponent and the eventual State Cup champion (Monroe).  Over Memorial Day weekend, we participated in the Nashua NH tournament, but did not advance to the playoffs.  In conference play, we dominated all of our games (27 goals scored and only 3 allowed) until the final, which we lost to Monroe.  In State Cup play, we again dominated in the early rounds and advanced to the semifinals, but lost in a very close (1-0) game in overtime (that neither team deserved to lose) to Farmington.  Our overall season record was 11-6-2 with 56 goals scored and 28 allowed.