One Juneau teenager lived out an experience most youth soccer players only dream about.
Wallace Adams, a rising sophomore at Thunder Mountain High School, played on the world stage this summer as a defenseman on Rush USA, one of over 1,000 youth teams playing in the world’s largest youth soccer tournament known as the Gothia Cup.
“It was just an incredible experience overall,” said Adams, who returned on Saturday from Gothenburg, Sweden, the tournament host city. “It was definitely unforgettable.”
The lone Alaskan on the squad, the Rush USA players came from all over the country, including Connecticut, Michigan and Iowa. The Juneau Soccer Club partnered last year with the Rush Soccer Club, an international youth soccer organization, giving Juneau players the opportunity to try out for all-star teams with the Rush Select program.
Juneau’s Wallace Adams (back row, third from left) is pictured with the Rush USA soccer team. (Courtesy Photo | Wallace Adams)
“Since this relationship is fairly new for JSC, this is the first big Rush Select trip for a Juneau player,” JSC coaching director Matt Dusenberry said. “However, with this new relationship, we’ve been able to help line up quite a few guest play options for our Juneau kids.”
JSC’s John Newell has coached Adams for about the last four years, and said Adams was well deserving to play on the select team.
“He’s a phenomenal athlete,” Newell said. “His work ethic is off the charts. He’s one of those kids that he will give everything he’s got and then some. He just never quits and is extremely coachable.”
The Rush USA team ended the tournament at 2-2, splitting their contests against a pair of Swedish and Icelandic teams.
Adam’s team placed second in Group 33, rebounding from an early loss by defeating an Icelandic team 5-1 and Swedish team 3-1 to advance to the knockout round. In the first game of the knockout round, Rush lost to Volsungur, another Icelandic team, 3-2.
“They were just amazing players,” Adams said. “The size difference — they weren’t much bigger — but they were very talented, and the team play was just incredible. They were very fast and they were able to move off the ball and they just knew how to play soccer.”
Adams said one of the coolest parts of the tournament getting to experience a brand new culture. Prior to the trip, Adams had never left the West Coast for a soccer tournament.
“My favorite part was hearing the languages,” he said. “There was so many different languages and almost every person there knew three different languages.”
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.
