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Southwestern Youth Association Soccer Hosts Winter Gala

Members of the SYA U13 Red team.

Members of the SYA U13 Red team. Photo by Tom Manning/The Connection

By Tom Manning

Friday, March 6, 2020

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Photo by Tom Manning/The Connection

Jill Ellis offers remarks before presenting awards. She addressed the young players in the room by saying that club soccer, “Truly is a platform to help you build for the rest of your life.” Ellis went on to say that, “You’ve learned resilience. You’ve dealt with failure. You’ve cried. You’ve laughed. Sport is not sport, it’s a gift. And when you can play with your friends at club soccer, it truly is something that I think if you go forward, you’ll take those lessons with you.”

Southwestern Youth Association (SYA) Soccer hosted its inaugural Winter Gala on Friday, Feb. 28 at the International Country Club in Chantilly. The gala honored graduating high school seniors as well as new inductees into the SYA Soccer Hall of Fame. The keynote speaker and awards presenter was Jill Ellis, the former US Women’s National Team Coach and two-time FIFA World Coach of the Year, who grew up in Northern Virginia.