Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
While other high school students are passing their summer vacations with road trips and time spent with family, three Warsaw Community High School students are "kickin' it" in a different way.
Austin Evans, Adam Churchill and Brian Kolbe, players on coach Scott Bauer's Tiger boys soccer team, are spending their summer on the playing field.
The talented trio of Tiger soccer players are on the Fort Wayne Fever Academy 17-under team, a 15-person squad that recently won the regional round of the U.S. Club Soccer National Cup III to advance to the national finals.
"It's definitely well worth it," 16-year-old Evans said of giving up his summer vacation to focus on soccer. "Going to nationals is going to be awesome."
Evans, a midfielder, started playing soccer in the Kosciusko County Soccer League at the age of 6. Now, he and teammates Churchill and Kolbe, are headed to the state of New York to face some of the best soccer competition the nation has to offer.
The Fort Wayne Fever Academy 17-under team, which is made up of the three Warsaw players and 12 Fort Wayne-area players, will compete in Long Island and Stony Brook from Aug. 5-8.
"It means a lot to be going to nationals," said Churchill, a 17-year-old goalkeeper. "We've played a lot of good competition and there's gonna be a lot of good competition at nationals."
To advance to the national finals round in New York, the Fort Wayne Fever Academy team defeated teams from Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In the championship game of the regional round, the score was knotted at 1-all in the final minute of play before the Fort Wayne Fever Academy team scored the winning goal in exciting fashion and punched its ticket for New York.
"It's gonna be awesome," 17-year-old Kolbe said of making the trip out East. "I'm just excited about playing. We're gonna see some really good competition."
All three said playing for the Fort Wayne Fever Academy, which was founded by Bobby Poursanidis and is coached by John Hollowill, is vastly different from the high school competition they see in the Northern Lakes Conference and surrounding areas.
"It makes the high school game seem slow," said Kolbe. "It's not as physical as these games are."
All three agreed that playing this stiff competition in the summer would only benefit them for their upcoming high school season.
Warsaw's varsity boys soccer team compiled a 17-4-1 record a year ago and won its second straight sectional championship. The Tigers went on to win the regional and the semifinal game at semistate before falling to Merrillville in the semistate championship game. Kolbe scored Warsaw's lone goal in the title tilt.
Their quest for an IHSAA state championship will begin in a month. For now, Churchill, Evans and Kolbe and their Fort Wayne Fever Academy teammates have their sights set on New York and a national championship.
