Conroy, Kayem, Hernandez, Weil Earn Soccer Stars

Four outstanding soccer players from Culver City Middle School – Marilyn Hernandez, Charlie Kayem, Cara Conroy and Allegra Weil – will lead their 13-and-under team, Santa Monica United, to Kansas City next month to play for the National President’s Cup.

The more they succeed, the more of America they are seeing.

Under the banner Santa Monica United FC G01, the Culver City girls won Southern California playoffs before adding the Far West Regional President’s Cup in Seattle last Sunday.

With Southern California and Far West championships going into their trophy case, the girls are taking Santa Monica United to unprecedented heights.

By way of introduction, center forward Kayem is going into the eighth grade at the Middle School as are defender Weil and goalie Conroy. Forward Hernandez, meanwhile, will advance to the next building, Culver City High School, in August.

One of the parents, Helene Kayem, wants the community to know that sponsorship opportunities are available, as are donor openings.

“We have non-profit status,” she said. “We have found out that it is costly to be successful, fun but expensive.”

Here is an update on what the Santa Monica United soccer team has accomplished most recently:

On Tuesday, June 9, Santa Monica United and Coach Fabian Amezaga traveled to Snohomish, Wa, where Far West Regional pool play consisted of  three brackets representing 10 states. Santa Monica played in the strongest bracket since three of the four semifinalists came out of this grouping.

After taking first in pool play with the state champions from Alaska (a 1-0 loss), Arizona (3-1 win) and Utah (3-0 win), the team moved on to the quarterfinals against Washington, winning 1-0.

That was followed by a tough semifinal matchup with Nevada, whose running offense had scored 16 times in the last four matches.

Santa Monica United shut down Nevada and won 2-1 on goals by Sadie Holt, who headed in a corner kick delivered by Giulia Trevellin, and by Marilyn Hernandez, who scored the winning goal on a sliding kick inside the 18. The win set up a rematch with Alaska, Santa Monica’s opening opponent, who handed the team its only loss.

The rematch required two 10-minute overtimes. One minute into the first overtime, Collette Nassir let loose with an impressive cross and Trevellin headed it into the corner past the Alaska goalie for the 1-0 lead. Santa Monica’s defense doubled down and held the lead for the remaining 19 minutes of overtime to clinch the championship. The midfield and offense

As Santa Monica rolled into the national finals, the team scored three shutouts in six matches as goalkeeper Cara Conroy was nearly perfect.

Trevellin led Santa Monica United with five goals,  Holt had three, Kayem and Hernandez one apiece.