Two Cedar Springs girls traveled with their soccer teams to Orlando, Florida to play in the Orlando City Winter Classic on January 26-27.

Kendal Brown, an 8th grader at Cedar Springs Middle School, plays on Midwest United 05 Royal Team, which is ranked #8 in the State of Michigan. Her team plays in the National League Conference with teams from Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois.

Olivia Sherman, a 10th grader at Cedar Springs High School, plays on Midwest United 03 White Team which is ranked #7 in the State of Michigan. Her team plays in the P1 Division of the Michigan State Premier Soccer League, which travels weekly to play teams from the Detroit area. Olivia’s team will be moving up into the National League Conference next fall, after winning the P1 Division last fall. Olivia also plays on the Cedar Springs Varsity Girls Soccer team in the spring.

Both girls began playing soccer at a young age with the local AYSO organization.

Emerson Andino and Karim Hussian both coach the teams the girls play on. Kendal has been training/playing for Emerson and Karim for 4-½ years, and this is the first year for Olivia.

The girls’ teams both came home Orlando City Winter Classic Champions. Kendal’s team beat the Orlando City 2005 ECNL team, which is ranked #2 in the State of Florida, 2-1 in the Championship game. Olivia’s team won all 4 of their games by scoring 9 goals, and not allowing any goals to be scored against them.