CFASA had another successful year supporting the Cuyahoga Falls community soccer efforts. It was a year where we were unsure as to whether there would even be a season, let alone one that would include a lot of what we do behind the scenes to make it memorable. In the end we were still able to host a virtual Teacher Appreciation Night, Senior Night, and the JV Night Under the Lights Game. We also rebooted our website and unveiled an archives section that is slowly growing. In fact, after you finish reading go check out new archives for 1967, 68, 69, and 2020 that we just posted! Last, but certainly not least, we were once again able to pay the $3450 Pay to Participate Fee that the school district requires. Your board of directors were awesome in their efforts this year, but quite frankly, none of this happens without our membership making the yearly donations to keep this whole thing going. Our lives were disrupted this year and sometimes even shattered, but I’m proud to say that CFASA stuck with the teams and made our members proud. Another exciting thing this year was that we began to work even closer with the women’s side of things. The ladies had some amazing fundraising efforts this year and we were able to help them channel those efforts into team pullovers and more. While our relationship with the women’s team is in its infancy, we are looking forward to helping them grow their alumni membership which will, in turn, support the high school girl’s team in the future.
At this point I will turn things over to Coach Dave Ortopan '99 for a few words. Dave took the reins from his brother Eric this year and led the Black Tigers through what was, by far, the most trying first year any coach has ever had to experience.
The year started with a lot of question marks… which unfortunately seemed to be ‘the theme’ all year long. Coach Eric Ortopan and the graduating class of 2019 left some big shoes to fill, along with the many many challenges COVID constantly presented to us. We were a young group with little experience at the varsity level and new leadership.
With a new coach at the helm and the help from an all CF Alum staff (Zach Hyatt '98, Andrew Albright '15, Tristan Lillquist '16) the boys eagerly took on every challenge, head on with hunger, all year long. A great group of Senior leaders helped guide the team through program direction, the ever-changing schedule (that gave us no preseason) and making everyone constantly adapt to rules and ways to keep everyone safe. The boys worked extremely hard early on as individuals and when we were finally allowed to bring that together as a group, that quickly turned into some great team chemistry.
JV finished 3-7-1. After a slow start going 0-6-1 the confidence and growth came together toward the end, and they finished 3-1 in the last 4 games. In fact, we finished suburban league play with a 1-0 win over rival Stow...a team and season highlight for sure.
After a hot start with Varsity play, we struggled to finish our chances and let games get away that we dominated play. We let some hard earned wins turn into draws and some very tough losses. However we battled hard in every single game and put together some beautiful soccer on the pitch. We won our first ever victories in the Suburban league, beating Wadsworth and Brecksville in back to back matches. These were the program’s first wins against these schools in over 20 years! We finished with an overall record of 4-9-3 and 2-4-1 in League play. Our final record did not indicate the run of play the boys displayed but we turned heads this year and the boys battled hard and improved every single day. We are extremely proud of the growth and resilience displayed by all and are excited to get back at it next year with this hungry group!
Season Awards
Senior Mason Akins- All-State Leadership Award Nomination, 1st Team All-Suburban League, 2nd Team All-District
Junior Joey Moening- 1st Team All Suburban League, 2nd Team All-District
As always… A Sincere thank you to all of our alumni for the continued contributions and making this program the best around!
