On October 23, the Premier U9 Girls Gold Team traveled to Davis to participate in the NorCal State Cup. Against tough opposition, the girls won their third round and quarterfinal games to advance to the semi finals in November!

Ella Abey, Olivia Abey, Sydney Hansen, Savannah Walston and Rowan Weiss anchored Fusion's outstanding defense, with Bella Kirby, Savannah Walston and Rowan Weiss minding the net.
Isabelle Dunn, Lily Maier, Saniyah Lee, Bella Kirby and Addison Patubo led the offensive charge.

Great job girls, and continued success in the Semis! 

On October 15 at Bill Payne Park, the Fusion Soccer U9 Boys Messi Jr's earned their fifth consecutive win, a solid 6-2 victory over the Sling Shots.

Mason Pfeiffer scored two early goals for Fusion, but the Sling Shots scored minutes later to make the score 2-1. Scoring machine Ethan Lin then stepped up for Fusion, peppering multiple shots on goal, finally netting his 8th goal of the season in 8 games!

Led by Dylan Lopez and Leif Kavanagh, the Messi Jr's defense subdued the Sling Shots offense most of the game, allowing only two goals.

The boys played great soccer despite torrential rain throughout the 80 minute match,.

On Saturday, the boys played the Danville Mustangs at Kellman. Taking advantage of "Silent Saturday," the boys deployed excellent communication and teamwork skills to beat the Mustangs 6-2.

On Sunday, the team traveled to Dublin Sports Complex to take on Dublin United. The Fusion boys hustled their way to a 3-1 victory.

Tell us about your background, and how you got involved in soccer. 

I was born & raised in Livermore, and attended Sunset Elementary School, Mendenhall Middle School, and Granada High School. 

I have always loved competing with my friends and family. So naturally sports have always been my favorite thing to do. I played many sports as a kid but ultimately stuck with soccer because I've always liked being independent and my family didn't know much about the sport.

When did you start playing organized soccer? Tell us about your high school playing days, and any honors that you won.

I started playing for LYSL when I was four years old.

I played for Fusion all the way through high school. During high school, I played for both Fusion and the GHS team. 

I played varsity high school soccer for four years. I was voted team MVP as a junior, and Most Inspirational Player as a senior.  My senior year I was named second team All-East Bay Athletic League. I played Center Back for GHS and Left Back for Fusion.

What are your most memorable Fusion Soccer experiences?

My most memorable Fusion soccer moments are all of the late game winners with my team, and our coach Rob Hansen's speeches. They were really funny & inspirational, helped calm us down, and helped us believe in ourselves. One year we played in a national tournament in Chicago, and lots of my teammates hadn't flown in a plane before.

His attitude was right in line with what we as Fusion coaches look for in a player. Three words come to mind when I think of Nolan Parker: Inspiration, Development and Achievement. 

Nolan is an inspiration to his teammates, friends, & family.  He is a natural leader. All his teammates respected him. They all had his back, and he had theirs. He is dependable, consistent, and very coachable.

He always strived to become better. Whether training on his own or with teammates, going to the gym, or going to college camps, Nolan drove himself to play at the next level and become better and stronger.  I'm very proud of him for playing at the college level and expect a fantastic college career. Maybe someday he will want to play professionally too. I believe he can. 

Nolan was always looking to achieve success. He knew he had to perform well at school and on the pitch. Over the three years of being Nolan's coach, I don't ever remember him ever getting beat one on one. He always defended the other team's best scorer, and shut them down. It was awesome. I just know that his current college coach is loving him right now.  

It's not too often we as coaches get to coach a kid that has the total package. Nolan did. Nolan was special. " - Fusion Coach Rob Hansen

What was your recruitment experience like?

Getting recruited was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I sent hundreds of e-mails to college coaches all over the state. Before I sent the e-mails, I researched the colleges, and included information about the college in my e-mail to show that I had done my homework.  I made video recordings of my game highlights, photo-edited arrows to point out who I was in the video, and linked to the videos in my e-mails. I invited the coaches to my tournaments, in hopes that I would catch their eye.  The process was really like a job. I was basically my own agent.

Eventually I was recruited by SF State. The SF State Assistant Coach came to two of my tournaments and offered me a scholarship. I didn't meet my head coach until my first college practice.

 I also received offers from Sac State and Cal State Monterey.

How has your collegiate soccer experience been thus far?  

So far it has been a good one. I am extremely proud of what I have accomplished and I love being a part of the team. It's a whole new level of play and I can't get enough of it. The speed of play in college is a lot faster. On your team there is always someone ready to take your spot if you slip up. You always have to stay hungry for playing time. At the end of the day we're all great friends but we all love to compete and there's only so many spots on the field. 

What do you miss most about home?

What I miss most about home is all my brothers from my team! I've definitely made a lot more in college but those guys are my family and I miss being around them. Oh, and I also miss my mom's cooking! Hahaha