As one of the kids said to Vince after the semifinal, "Coach, it's our destiny!"
Ontario Jags won the CIF Div. 4 Final, 3-2 in overtime in a thrilling game between two very determined sides.
It is hard for me to convey how much this means to the Ontario HS community. Over the last week, the excitement was building and you could feel it throughout the school. Everyone was talking soccer.
Newbie Riot Squadder Chris de Jong made a power point with a picture of the Riot Squad scarves up and taught the students a few songs and chants with a few word changes and started his class two days with a song-a-long. Corny, but effective. I sold out the last of the scarves that my girls soccer team started selling a few years back. It was awesome watching so many people wearing their scarves and holding them up. It was a proper soccer atmosphere from our side of the stadium. Check out the pics.
This was prior to the corner kick that tied the score for O High early in the 2nd half at 1-1. A "We all cheer, we all cheer for O High" started from this crowd from some of the seniors in de Jong's class.
After this goal, I started the "We Love You" song. A bunch of teachers that have come to Galaxy games when Vince bought tickets and some of his buddies who are Galaxy regulars joined in and a bunch of people started waving their scarves. It was awesome.
At half time, I was talking to a couple of basketball players that had never been to a soccer game and wanted to know what O High had to do to turn it around. They were stressed out. Lots of kids were walking around in red wigs and O High gear, including scarves. There were so many.
Here's a pic with me and one of my girls varsity captains.
So many of the girls soccer team was there. I saw lots of kids that had graduated years ago, including former boys and girls soccer players. There were a lot of teachers, office staff there, including the district superintendent (who was an excellent soccer player and a champion youth coach to boot), but there were a lot of teachers and admn and district folks from the feeder schools, too. It was insane.
Here's a pic of the boys coming over to the stands after a wonderful free kick gave the Jags a short-lived 2-1 lead. Notice the empty stands from the South Torrance side. Props to the parents that came to support their sons, and probably a few friends and girlfriends. But nothing like our crowd. I wonder if the distance worked against a bigger crowd, as the final was about 20 minutes from our school and over 1 1/2 hours in traffic from Torrance. But I also wonder how far down the totem pole this team is in the overall South HS sports scene. This team has had great success, but I'm wondering if the average student there felt much about their team being in the final.
Check out our crowd. This is after the winning goal. I got called down to man the track to prevent a possible pitch invasion.
Here's a cool pic taken by the photographer from the Inland Valley papers. Pretty sure this is the celebration after the free kick goal.
http://photos.dailyb...school-history/
Here's the link to the story and the picture gallery. Pics 1 and 22 showing the winning moment give me chills. To come back from giving up a heartbreaking goal with about one minute to go (Pic 20) showed the heart and desire that this team has. Destiny indeed.
Here's Vince at the post-game celebration with the trophy.
Let me tell you--Vince LOVES his boys. He is definitely the kind of coach you'd want your kid to play for.
Congratulations, Vince. Good luck in regionals.