HS: FAB 50 clash highlights Smoky Mtn. Cup

by Sheldon Shealer

March 15, 2018

The 2018 High School Cup presented by Adidas kicks off Thursday with the Smoky Mountain Cup in Gatlinburg, Tenn.

And it could end with a match that determines the FAB 50 No. 1 ranking on Sunday.

This year’s event features schools from six of the 13 spring-playing boys soccer states and four of the spring-playing girls states. The marquee contest pits FAB 50 Spring Boys No. 1 Station Camp (Tenn.) and No. 3 McCallie School (Chattanooga, Tenn.) at 9 a.m.

Of course, to make the Station Camp-McCallie match nationally meaningful, both teams will have to get past a pair of stiff challengers – J.L. Mann (Greenville, S.C.) and Fort Gibson (Okla.) – in the round-robin event.

Station Camp and McCallie, both defending state champions, won their season-opening contests earlier this week.

Station Camp is led by Memphis signee Atakelti Gebregzabher. Other key players include forward Tyler Jessen, midfielders Josh Street and Riley Indermuehle, defender Stone Bresnahan and US Youth Soccer Region III ODP keeper Alex Sanchez.

McCallie counters with a lineup that includes defender Jonah Bryan, who has an offer from Memphis, Lipscomb signee Thomas Priest, Wheaton commit Logan Russell and Ben Brock. A senior transfer from Bolivia, Matias James, and Jordan Morris add punch to an attack that graduated star player Drew Viscomi from last year’s team.

Last year, J.L. Mann and Station Camp played to a draw at the Smoky Mountain Cup. That result was one of two blemishes on Station Camp’s 22-0-2 season that ended with a FAB 50 No. 4 ranking in 2017.

Interestingly, Station Camp, McCallie and J.L. Mann all went undefeated at last year’s Smoky Mountain Cup. J.L. Mann, the South Carolina Class 5A state runner-up last year, enters with a 4-2 record.

Fort Gibson is a newcomer to the event and trying to make a national name for this Oklahoma small-school power. Fort Gibson won its final 16 matches of the 2017 season to claim the school’s first state title, that coming in Class 4A – Oklahoma’s small-school group. Fort Gibson had a 1-0 win over 6A Jenks last year to help show it can compete with the state’s large-school programs.

This year’s girls bracket at the Smoky Mountain Cup features Tulsa Union (Tulsa, Okla.), the three-time defending state champion in Oklahoma. Union has finished No. 1, 1 and 2 in the last three final spring FAB 50s – the strongest three-year run by any girls program in any season in the 20-year FAB 50 history.

Past Smoky Mountain Cup events were split into two events featuring different teams at the Rocky Top Sports World complex. This year, however, event organizers have moved the second week to Foley, Ala., for the rebranded Southern Cast Cup. Grouped with the Thoroughbred Cup and the Hall of Fame Cup, both to debut in the fall, complete the newly created High School Cup series.

Click here for schedules and results from the Smoky Mountain Cup.

TopDrawerSoccer.com will provide daily updates and an all-tournament team from the event.

Related Topics: American Athletic, ASUN