The North Shore Soccer Club travel team for boys 17 years old won the 2000 Long Island Waldbaum's Cup tournament with several decisive wins over some top notch LI Clubs.

After having won the lower divisions in the Long Island Junior Soccer League, the North Shore Tornadoes team this year earned a spot on the League's First Division. During the season the local boys team, made up of youngsters primarily from the Glen Head, Sea Cliff, Glen Cove, Locust Valley area, concluded its season among the top four teams in the division. During the state competition the team ranked among the top eight teams, and only due to a forfeit game was not able to advance further. However, after a spectacular overtime win over Huntington Boys Club, achieved with goals from Alex Alvarez, Herb Lazo and Michael Marino, the team went on to win the LI Waldbaum's Cup competition.

The top spot on this competition was earned through key wins, in addition to beating HBC, with wins over Oceanside 5 to 2, and by wining the finals over a top qualified Sachem team by the score of 2 to 1. During this game Mike Marino and Alex Alvarez who surprised the Sachem defenders with a very early goal from which they were unable to recover again scored the key goals.

The win of this tournament was a mirror reflection of the kind of season the team had. Worth mentioning are the following great efforts made by the members of the team. On goal, this year we had a new revelation from Mark Dellavecchia who evolved as a top league goalkeeper. Steve Petas demonstrated great defensive and goal keeping capabilities and defended our goal effectively early on in the season.

On defense there was a solid "wall" created by Chris Pombar on sweeper, who along with Fabio Murillo on stopper and Michael Santoli, became a defense not only difficult to penetrate but also one to deal with offensively as they continuously provided offensive attack on the opposing teams. Our defense counted with solid additional contributions from Nkrumer Pierre who during the cup games provided solid coverage, Selvin Mendez became one of our top defenders this year, and Michael Rabiner whose active participation and efforts completed the solid defense team.

In midfield the team became relentless in creating waves of attacks on opposing teams that often culminated with goals from our fast break away forwards. The key members of our midfield were: Mark Braithwaite, our key midfielder, who this year became the midfield organizer and scorer, Angelo DiMaggio whose strength and speed helped our team tremendously, Nick Alonso, Michael Kusz and Anthony Grella who alternated in providing great defensive/offensive attacks and were the organizers of waves of attack on opposing teams.

Lastly, our top notch forwards made it all happen with their speed, acute sense of field position, and great ball maneuvering. They are Herb Lazo, Andre Moskowitz, Alex Alvarez, and our very top scorer Mike Marino. These forwards became the nightmare of many of the teams that faced the North Shore Tornadoes.

The best for the upcoming 2000-2001 season to the Tornadoes.