Vestavia Hills Steamers reunion nets big rewards

Athletes begin their careers in elementary school, dreaming of playing in the pros one day. For most, that dream slowly fades and ends when they graduate high school. Maybe intramural sports or adult leagues will keep them in shape, but a real shot at glory has typically passed.

The Vestavia Hills Steamers 94 team, however, wasn’t quite ready to let that shot die. 

The travel soccer team, composed of players from around the state including former Vestavia Hills player Jack Hopkins, reunited after their freshman year of college and went to the Southern Region Championship Series in Edmund, Okla. The team, which was competing as the under-19 Alabama State Champion, advanced to the region championship and lost 2-1 to a team from Miami.

Only one other team in the history of the Vestavia Hills Soccer Club made it as far as the region championship. If the Steamers had won that game they would have advanced to the final four for the national championship. 

Hopkins, who was the 2012 Gatorade Player of the Year for Vestavia Hills High School, said he knew the team would exceed expectations. 

“Nobody really expected us to go that far,” Hopkins said. “I wasn’t surprised with how well we did. We had everybody from all over the state and I knew we were really good. But for us, it was disappointing because we finished short.”

Goalkeeper Lavares Stone agreed: “We worked hard all summer, so it was kind of tough to lose like that. I was more surprised when we lost the last game than surprised that we had gotten that far.”

The run to the region championship was certainly unexpected. In fact, some travel teams don’t even get back together for the U19 season. But after their first year of college, this team wanted one more shot.

“This is a team that has been traveling in a van together from U13 on,” coach Rocky Harmon said. “They forge these relationships, and oftentimes you hear college kids come back from their first year at college and they say they had so much more fun playing for their club team. Most soccer players look back on their later years of club soccer fondly, maybe more so than high school or even college.”

The team is composed of standout players from across the state. Most were coming off their first year of playing in college when the team got back together. 

“It’s a lot of fun to get a U19 team back together after they go to college for a year because it’s them wanting to do it,” said Harmon, who has coached at the Vestavia Hills Soccer Club for nearly seven years. “It’s not their parents making them, it’s them wanting to get together in the summer and work hard to go to an event that is a 12-hour drive away.”

The Steamers drove to the tournament as the U19 Alabama state champion, competing against a tough field of teams from an 11-state region. Joining them from Alabama were 6 other teams from the Vestavia Hills Soccer Club that had won the state championship in their age divisions.

The tournament began with a 2-0 win over the Concorde Fire Academy Team from Atlanta. The second game was a win over Plantation COPA by a score of 5-2. In the final game of pool play, the Steamers came away with a hard-fought 3-3 tie against the Lonestars from Texas. 

Their record of 2-0-1 let them advance to the semi-finals out of pool play, an accomplishment that not many expect from a team from Alabama. The Steamers were one of four teams from the Club to advance.

“When you come from Alabama, no one expects you to get out of your group,” Harmon said. “We’re known as one of the lesser states. So to get out of your group is a big accomplishment. This year [the Vestavia Hills Soccer Club] took 7 teams to regionals and 4 of the 7 got out of our group, which is the best we’ve ever had and the best anyone in Alabama has ever had.”

In the semi-finals, the Steamers faced the Dallas Texans, a soccer powerhouse. In the heat and strong winds, the Steamers came away with a 2-1 upset victory. In the region championship, a rematch with Plantation COPA, the Miami team came back to win and end the Steamers’ run. The Steamers were up 1-0 on a Hopkins penalty kick, but Plantation COPA immediately responded with an equalizer and scored the deciding goal in the 75th minute.

“I was very surprised by the success,” Harmon said. “Since we got that close, it’s been a hard one to get over. It’s been a few weeks, so ask me if I’m happy with what happened in a few months and maybe I’ll have a different answer.”

Hopkins, who now plays for Marshall University, was one of the team’s captains. He was part of the VHHS team that went 30-1, falling short of the national title by one game. In his junior and senior years, VHHS lost in the state high school semi-finals to Oak Mountain.

“Jack Hopkins was the heart and soul of the team,” Harmon said. “He scored a bunch of goals for us and hardly ever came off the field. Just a rock-solid leader.”

Although the Steamers would have preferred to advance and play for the national title, they stand as the most successful team in an unprecedented year of success for the Club. 

“I think the staff, the families, and the facilities, in that order, are what makes us so successful here in Vestavia Hills,” Harmon said.