(From left – Miguel, Abel, Jimmy, Akili)

Congratulations to four West Seattleites who are part of a regional soccer team that’s had a huge year, culminating in a trip to the national championships in Tulsa. From Nikki:

Would like to share that 3 local players from West Seattle are headed to the semifinals of the US Youth Soccer National Championship on Saturday.

Akili Kasim (goalkeeper from West Seattle High School), Abel Kidane, and Miguel Macias Garibay (field players from Chief Sealth International High School) are all part of Seattle United 98 Copa. The team is led by Coach Jason Farrell and Club Director (also a longtime resident of West Seattle) Jimmy McAlister.

Seattle should be proud: This team has won some great titles in the last 10 months. From the far west title, Division 1 state title, Dallas Cup champs, and in June, won US Youth Region 4 title, now headed to the semi-finals of the us youth soccer National Championship.

Seattle United is the group champs – they have won all three games this week and will head into the semi-finals Saturday at 8 am (6:00 am Seattle time).

The photo above was taken after today’s game, which was delayed for more than three hours because of thunder and lightning. You can see the scores and track their progress on this page of the national-championships website.