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Nearly 100 student athletes from Buffalo Public Schools played in a 7v7 tournament at Robert Rich Sr. All-High Stadium on Friday, as FC Buffalo awarded the inaugural Hector R. Vasquez Memorial Trophy as part of the BPS High School Showcase.
Representatives from several area colleges were on hand to check out student athletes from Hutch Tech, International Prep, MST, Riverside, and McKinley as they competed in three 35-minute short-sided games, refereed by FC Buffalo players Jordan Sinclair, Bayley Winkel, Jake Cooper, and Akean Shackleford.
[ PHOTO ALBUM: See tourney action at All-High ]
BPS athletic director Aubrey Lloyd helped to lead the event, as he did with 2014’s showcase training session, and FCB wishes to thank coaches Tony Alessi (I-Prep), Geoff Hurley (Riverside), John Jakiel (Hutch Tech), Roberto Calvaresi (MST), Michael Sorrentino (McKinley), and Frontier’s Rich Kozak for their help in the endeavor.
The tournament honored former FCB reserves coach Hector Vasquez, who was a teacher’s aide in Buffalo Public Schools for more than two decades and a celebrated coach in Western New York for his entire life.
“Hector’s wife Liz and family wanted the players to know what anyone who met him knew, that Hector stood for family, team spirit, education, and love of the game,” said FCB co-owner Nick Mendola. “We love knowing that the winners take home medals with Hector’s name emblazoned on them, and look forward to putting on an even better event next season.”
Here's the Hector R Vasquez Memorial Trophy for the winner of today's High School Showcase. pic.twitter.com/iUV1dPsvc4
— FC Buffalo (@FCBuffalo) June 2, 2017
As for the actual tournament, it was a fun competition with two teams each from I-Prep and McKinley and a combined team of players from Riverside, MST, and Southtowns participant Frontier.
There wasn’t a clean sheet to be found as talent was on display, and the deciding game couldn’t be, well, decided; After 10 minutes of sudden death, the spoils we shared between McKinley and the Riverside/MST/Frontier squad.
Many of the players stuck around to see FC Buffalo come back to draw the Rochester Lancers 1-1 on Friday night.
FCB is back in action on June 9 in Cleveland before returning home for a Sunday afternoon meeting with Syracuse FC. It’s a 2 p.m. kickoff, and you can get tickets here for just $7.
