Good Sports: All-Star Soccer

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- School may be out but it's time for the best soccer players to take center stage.

"Just the speed of the game, just here in practice just to be here," North Boys All-Star coach Ramiro Teran exclaimed. "It is so fast, it is amazing. They are very skilled, talented players that we have."

That's to be expected when fielding an All-Star Team of the best soccer players in the Central Valley.

"Soccer in the valley is probably the best in the nation," Michael Miller of Edison said. "We all grow up with the love of the game and we want to do big things."

"You get a chance to play with the older players and this is the last game of competition," Juan Flores of McLane said. "They are playing all out and it makes you play all out."

Unlike most of the other All-Star games that feature only seniors, the Central Section Soccer All-Star Game is the best of the best at any grade level.

"There are scholarship opportunities for the players and I've heard of last year's a couple of players got picked up from this game alone because there are college recruits at this game," Teran said.

Easily the biggest all-star event in the Central Valley, the match is composed of 8 total teams, 4 boys and 4 girls teams

with more than 200 players.

"We all play against each other and represent for high school but when we come together," Miller said. "We are like brothers out here. We joke around, we laugh but we know when to have serious time, whenever we need to go out at it, we go at it."

The matches begin Friday with the boys playing at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. and run through Saturday with the girls matches being played at the same time.

All games are at Lindsay High School.