Manchester United Premier Cup U.S.A. Finals

The Memorial Day Weekend is the traditional start of Summer. In Beaverton, Oregon on the Nike World Campus the long weekend is also the annual U.S.A. finals of the Manchester United Premier Cup, a premier youth soccer tournament for U-15 boys and girls. This year the tournament was expanded to 32 teams in each the boys and girls brackets with matches hosted on the pristine fields on the Nike campus and fields of equal caliber on the Catlin Gable School campus.

The San Diego Surf defeated Pateadores S.C. of Mission Viejo, CA to earn the honors to play in the Man U Premier Cup Finals at Old Trafford in Manchester, England. The going at the finals was a bit rough for the Surf as they managed one win out of five matches. For the girls, the Dallas Texans edged out Crossfire Premier from Seattle, WA in a penalty kick shoutout to win a trip to Gothenburg, Sweden to compete in the Gothia Cup. The Texans made the best of the opportunity and won the girls U-15 championship by defeating Bele Barkarby FF of Sweden 1-0 in the final.

Photos of the Man U Premier Cup U.S.A. Finals located in the Oregon Sports Photos Gallery.

He's Still Got It!

Former President Bill Clinton swung through Oregon in April to campaign for his wife Hillary's campaign bid for the Democratic ticket against Barack Obama. In one day, Clinton visited North Bend, Monmouth, Oregon City and Portland. Clinton met with about 2,000 enthusiastic supporters at Oregon City High School after running 90 minutes late from his three previous stops. No one seamed to care as the chance to be in the presence of the former President in an intimate setting in the Oregon City High gymnasium kept the energy level high as Clinton received cheers from the crowd.

Clinton spoke for over 30 minutes, covering the various points of Hillary's campaign with substantial amounts of data backing up his rhetoric. He never missed a beat as he spoke about her plans to deal with Iraq, health care, the economy and energy issues. Clinton speaks with elements of charm, often adding humor to keep his audience engaged. He dances from topic-to-topic with smooth eloquence and his energy level totally masked any hint of fatigue from the marathon day of speaking engagements. Whether or not you agree with the Clinton's politics, its hard to deny Bill Clinton's skills as a public speaker and gift for politics.

Passing the Bar

As I catch back up once again with blogging, below are some shots from early Spring dual track meets featuring jumpers and vaulters battling against the same foe...gravity. Milwaukie High School jumpers lost out by an inch to Oregon City High School as the OC top two of Alex Humpreys and Derek Hinkle both cleared 6'-1" followed by Milwaukie's Neo Smith at 6'-0". The Lake Oswego High School girls took the top two spots in dual action against Rex Putnam High as Morgan McGuire set a school record of 9'-7" followed in second place by Gabi d'Amoto at 8'-6".