Rosevelt Soccer Club co-founder and U18 boys head coach John C. L. Morgan closed Friday morning’s practice on the back field at Westbrook Middle School with a crossbar challenge: His players lined up and took shots at the metal tube connecting the goal-cage posts.

“Of all the years to represent, this is probably one of the toughest,” said Morgan. “We’re a first-year club, and Region I starts in Maine and goes all the way down to West Virginia.”

Which means the annual regional tournament – which the Rosevelt U18 boys are participating in from June 25-30 in Barboursville, W.V. – could be held in a number of places along the eastern seaboard. It just so happens that this year it’s set for practically the farthest point possible from Westbrook.

“From a logistics standpoint, it’s been difficult – you’re talking about a day of travel. We’re leaving Wednesday at 6 a.m., and hopefully checking into our hotel by 10 at night.”

Rosevelt is an affiliate of the Westbrook Soccer League, Soccer Maine and U.S. Youth Soccer – the governing body that stages the regional tournament. The club got its start in mid-2014, after Morgan stepped away from his position as head coach of the Westbrook High School varsity team for personal reasons, but wanted to nevertheless stay involved with coaching, and especially with coaching the kids he’d already gotten to know.

Ten members of the team will be traveling to West Virginia with Morgan in a rented, 15-passenger van; six more will be traveling with their parents.

Typically, premier soccer leagues play between the high school fall seasons and the high school summer seasons. They fill in that gap to give the kids whose sole sport is soccer – who love it that much, and want to work only on their soccer skills – the opportunity to stay on the field essentially year-round.

“We started some session in December, but really we started our programming in January. Most clubs go through this weekend,” said Morgan.

The U18 boys team consists of Westbrookers Noor Abdulabas, Sajjad Abdulabas, Mazin Ahmed, Shammah Gahomera, Leif Graffam, Ahmed Hadi, DJ Henrikson, Varney Kai, Jonathan Lapika, Omar Mohammed, Jean Claude Ndayisabye and Orry Nihangame, as well as Bonny Eaglers Nick Bean and Devin Borchard, Fryeburgers Sean Chase and Evan Wadsworth, and Deeringers Mustafa Kadhim and Kevin Segal.

Most of those boys will be heading to West Virginia; only Mazin, Mustafa, Kevin and Evan won’t be able to make the trip. In their steads, Bonny Eaglers Ben Steeves and Maccoy Freeman, and Scarboroughite Thomas Krouskup will go, playing up from RSC’s U16 squad.

Premier soccer in Maine was formerly a more unified undertaking than it is now. For a long time, only Soccer Maine, associated with U.S. Youth Soccer, ran the sport statewide. Then another organization, U.S. Club, splintered off – and took two of the biggest Maine clubs, namely Seacoast United and Global Premier Soccer, with it.

“They probably have 75 percent of premier players in southern Maine; probably more,” said Morgan. “They basically took all their teams out of the competition, so it was left to the smaller clubs, such as ourselves, to step up and represent Soccer Maine in U.S. Youth Soccer.”

That’s OK, from Morgan’s point of view; if the bigger trees in the forest get knocked down, the smaller, remaining trees get more sunlight.

“Those two large clubs are no longer part of the organization, so it’s given us smaller clubs some opportunities they probably wouldn’t have.”

Bigger clubs will often have multiple teams at each age level, from U12 all the way up to U18, for both boys and girls. At the moment, fledgling Rosevelt has just three teams altogether.

Rosevelt is not the only new club around, though. Other new clubs, and some established ones, comprise Rosevelt’s competition. “There’s a new club up in Bangor called River City; there’s a club, Riptide, based out of Falmouth – they’ve been around for a little bit, but they’re a smaller club, so that’s who we’ve played. There’s a club from Acadia, called Acadia Fire. DSA – Dutch Soccer Academy – United is from the Camden Area. Then you have Central Maine United out of Lewiston-Auburn.”

Rosevelt plays through the winter, yes – but during that particular stretch, they mostly face off with pickup high school teams, mostly organized by parents. In the spring, they start in the Maine State Premier League, where they have one game a week against the aforementioned clubs.

Through Rosevelt’s first real season in existence, they fared roughly .500 – not normally enough, perhaps, to shuttle a team on to a regional-level tournament. But all the political machinations in premier soccer in recent years meant the field of competitors wasn’t especially deep for this year’s state tournament. The Rosevelt U18 boys were the only entry in their division, and so the default choice to travel to West Virginia.

“I’m calling us ‘Maine’s Representatives,’” said Morgan. “It’s a case where we didn’t have to necessarily play any games to [get there].”

Morgan is happy to report, “we have been playing well throughout the spring and winter,” but also notes that “Maine teams are always at a competitive disadvantage, just because of our relative size.

“Maine teams don’t have a lot of success overall at Regionals, but it’s a really good opportunity for our players to…play against the best teams they’ve played against so far, and hopefully get some exposure to some college coaches.”

The team is guaranteed three games in West Virginia, and if they do well enough to qualify for the next round, could play anywhere from one to four more.

An impressive number of shots (hey, it’s a small target, and 18 yards is nothing to scoff at) actually found their mark in Friday’s crossbar challenge.

Others sailed high, reaching the fence behind the goal, or even clearing the fence to land in the tall grasses beyond, where Leif Graffam – injured and unable to take his shots – nosed about, looking for the errant balls and returning them.

After several rounds, Orry Nihangame won. That’s important because the U18 boys team needs a player at this week’s Regionals to represent Maine in exactly the same sort of competition, a part of the tournament’s opening ceremonies.

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DJ Henrikson takes a shot in a so-called “crossbar challenge” at the end of practice with his Rosevelt Soccer Club U18 boys team on Friday.Luther Williams takes a shot in Friday’s crossbar challenge.JC Ndayisabye participates in a “crossbar challenge” at the U18 boys practice on Friday.Jonathan Lapika takes a shot at the crossbar at U18 boys practice on Friday.Orry Nihangame won Friday’s crossbar challenge and will rep for the Rosevelt U18 boys team in the opening ceremonies at Regionals this week.