Elite playing Saturday

SANDPOINT — It’s been both a busy and successful soccer season for Sandpoint 13 year-olds Jeffrey Rokstad and Shane Stanley, members of the Boys U13 Premier Spokane Elite team.

They recently won the 2008 National Cup Regional tournament in Boise, thus earning an invitation to this weekend’s 2008 National Cup VII Finals in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where they’ll compete against some of the top youth soccer players in the country.

The two have been playing soccer in Sandpoint since they were kids, moving from SSA to Strikers, both playing on the Olympic Development Program, and finally ending up on the Elite A team in Spokane.

Stanley recently returned from a soccer camp in Ireland, noting that seeing the Blarney Castle, along with plenty of soccer, were the highlights of the trip. So far this year he and Rokstad have played at tournaments in Canada, Seattle, Boise and now Virginia.

“Intensity, how competitive it gets,” explained Rokstad, who plays right mid, of what he loves most about soccer.

Stanley’s answer was much more specific, and goal oriented, if you’ll pardon the pun.

“Running at players and beating them,” he said.

The Elite’s first game is Saturday against San Francisco.