Club Ohio boys soccer team celebrates 1st national title
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
By Jarrod Ulrey
julrey@cbussports.com
The sting from one of its few setbacks in recent years proved to be a productive motivator for the Club Ohio 14U boys soccer team this summer.
Many members of the team that features athletes mostly from the Dublin, Hilliard, Olentangy and Upper Arlington school districts have been playing on the same travel squad for nearly half of their lives.
Club Ohio emerged to reach the championship game of the Elite Academy League tournament last summer in Dallas but settled for a runner-up finish.
In what is considered by many to be the highest youth travel soccer tournament in the nation, the US Youth Soccer National Championship, Club Ohio defeated Sporting Columbus 1-0 on July 23 at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando.
It was Club Ohio’s first title at any age group in the USYS tournament.
“I will say I’ve never experienced it before,” said Lincoln Justice, a Hilliard Davidson rising freshman. “Last year we got second place in the national championship game (in Dallas), so there was almost a little bit of revenge, but it felt good. It’s just been the team’s togetherness. We’ve been a family the whole season. Some of us have been together since we were 7 or 8 years old.”
Club Ohio defeated Sporting Columbus 2-0 in late May for the Ohio South State Cup championship.
Sporting Columbus, which featured athletes mostly from the New Albany Plain Local School district, and Club Ohio showed their state success wasn’t a fluke with their respective runs to the championship game at the USYS event which began July 18.
Justice scored the only goal in the championship game with about 20 minutes remaining when he smashed a shot into the top left corner of the net in the championship game off a pass from Carson Burch, who will be a freshman at Dublin Scioto.
“I beat one player, looked up and shot the ball, and I didn’t really have to look back at it,” Justice said.
Justice finished with two goals and three assists during the USYS tournament which featured three pool-play games and five tournament contests.
Justice and Zach Lloyd, who will be a freshman at Upper Arlington, each will compete for the Columbus Crew Academy team this fall.
Jamil Danjaji, who joined Club Ohio for the national tournament after competing for another of the program’s teams earlier this summer, is another who will play for Crew Academy.
The Club Ohio 14U team is coached by Ika Khutsidze, who originally is from the Republic of Georgia. He previously played professionally and is in his third year coaching for Club Ohio after previously serving as a coach with the Barcelona United travel team from Pickerington.
“This is something I’ll always remember,” Khutsidze said. “It was an incredible journey. We’ve been working so hard during every training session and every game, and to achieve something like this is an amazing feeling.
“We went to Orlando with the top 16 teams in the nation, so we had a very tough bracket. We had two bracket winners with us and also another No. 1 team from Virginia, so it was like a group of death. We knew we were getting tough competition and we would be challenged, so we were preparing for these games.”
The Club Ohio 14U boys soccer team celebrates their USYS National championship in Orlando. Photo courtesy of Club Ohio soccer
Mike Hickey, who originally is from Northwest Ohio, has been coaching in central Ohio for about a decade and serves as an assistant.
“This has been just a tremendous year that has culminated in such a rewarding experience of being able to reach the pinnacle of US Youth soccer, being able to compete on a national stage against great competition,” Hickey said. “As a coach, it’s about all you could ask for from your team and players to perform at such a high level and capture the national title.
“It was very rewarding. This past week down in Orlando, we faced a lot of adversity at times, but it was a great, great experience for the boys.”
According to Hickey, Club Ohio could best be described as a “complete team.”
His son, Keegan Hickey, will be a freshman at Olentangy Berlin and served as the team’s goalie.
“We were pretty excited to go back to the championship game this year,” Keegan Hickey said. “(Last) year we came in second in the final (of the Elite Academy League tournament) so we were all pretty sad about that. It was just about all the hard work we did in the offseason. We were all just focused on getting back to that spot.”
Club Ohio had 16 players on its regular roster and added three for the national tournament.
Center back Jacob Dahi, who will be a freshman at Dublin Jerome, and outside back Sebastian Conrad, who will be a freshman at DeSales, were other key defenders according to coach Hickey.
Dylan Houser, who is an eighth-grader from Dublin, was another of the team’s key offensive players alongside Burch and Justice in the midfield.
Adam Jones, who coaches one of Club Ohio’s other age-group teams, provided strong emotional support to the team according to coach Hickey.
“Starting in the back with the goalkeeper position, we’re very strong,” coach Hickey said. “We have a wonderful back line and we don’t concede a lot of goals. It’s a matter of putting the right talent in the right spaces, and that comes through midfield play. This was the last week for us for a couple of our players who have signed with the Crew Academy, so we’re obviously happy for them.
“The best way I can convey it is the boys accepted their roles that we asked them to do and that culminated in a complete team experience. We were pretty balanced. We should have our core nucleus back next year so we’re obviously very excited for what the future holds for this team, and hopefully we’ll make it back to defend our title next year.”