Southern California Seahorses

Football club infobox
clubname = Southern California Seahorses


fullname = Southern California Seahorses
nickname = The Seahorses
founded = 2001
ground = Goodman Stadium
capacity = 8,000
chairman = flagicon|USA Paul Gizzi
manager = flagicon|USA Todd Elkins
league = USL Premier Development League
season = 2008
position = 9th, Southwest Division

pattern_la1=
pattern_b1=_thinwhitesides
pattern_ra1=
leftarm1=002060
body1=002060
rightarm1=002060
shorts1=002060
socks1=002060

pattern_la2=
pattern_b2=
pattern_ra2=
leftarm2=FFFFFF
body2=FFFFFF
rightarm2=FFFFFF
shorts2=FFFFFF
socks2=FFFFFF

Southern California Seahorses are an American soccer team, founded in 2001. The team is a member of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, and plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference against teams from Azusa, Bakersfield, Calabasas, Fresno, Irvine, Lancaster, San Francisco, San Jose and Ventura.

They play their home games at Goodman Stadium on the grounds of La Mirada High School in the city of La Mirada, California, 22 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. The team's home colors are navy blue, white and orange. Their away colors are all white. The Seahorses are a division of Missionary Athletes International (MAI), an organization committed to sharing the message of Christianity through the environment of soccer, which is accomplished through sports ministry, and are a sister organisation of the USL2 side Charlotte Eagles.

2008 Roster

Year-by-year

Honors

* USL PDL Southwest Division Champions 2006
* USL PDL Western Conference Champions 2002

Competition History

The Seahorses, which had previously been in existence as a youth soccer club since 1983, joined the PDL in 2001, and were successful immediately, finishing second to Orange County Blue Star with an impressive 13-6-1 record. 2002 continued the trend, when the Seahorses again finished second in the Southwest Division, this time behind Chico Rooks, with an 11-7-0 record. Their first trip to the playoffs was also a successful one, when they beat Spokane Shadow and Cascade Surge to advanced to the national final four, where they were defeated in the semi-finals by Boulder Rapids Reserve.

The Seahorses missed the playoffs in 2003, finishing third behind divisional champions Fresno Fuego, and just missed out again in 2004, finishing third behind Orange County Blue Star, despite posting some impressive victories in the regular season, including 4-1 defeat of Nevada Wonders and a 5-1 demolition of San Diego Gauchos.

The developing rivalry between the Seahorses and Orange County Blue Star continued in 2005, when yet again the men from La Mirada finished a close second to their all-conquering Southland neighbors in the Southwest Division standings. The Seahorses began the season with a 5-game winning streak that included a 3-0 trouncing of California Gold; however, they did not manage defeat - or even score a goal on - their rivals in their 3 games, losing 4-0, 3-0 and 3-0 to the eventual divisional champs. Nevertheless, the Seahorses were clearly the next best thing in the southwest, and enjoyed several impressive wins (including a trio of 3-0s over San Diego Gauchos, Nevada Wonders and Fresno Fuego) in the second half of the season. Their trip to the playoffs was a short one, however, as the Seahorses lost to Cascade Surge first time out. Striker Anthony Stovall registered an impressive 7 goals on the season, and Dylan Martinez led the team in assists.

2006 saw the Seahorses finally capture their first divisional title, besting Orange County Blue Star by seven points at season's end. The year was one of solid consistency, and included a hugely impressive 9-game winning streak which stretched from early June to the end of July, and included two 4-0 victories (over Los Angeles Storm and California Gold), and a hard-fought finale against the San Fernando Valley Quakes. However, for the second year in a row, the Seahorses' playoff excursion ended quickly with a 2-1 defeat to BYU Cougars. MLS-bound striker Josh Hansen scored an impressive 8 goals and 4 assists on the season, closely followed by Romanian import Cristian Rus with 6. Keeper Eric Reed enjoyed the best goalkeeping statistics in the PDL, with a goals-against average of 0.621 per game, and keeping 10 clean sheets in his 15 games.

However, much like their crosstown rivals Blue Star, everything went wrong for the Seahorses in 2007. With Eric Reed having gone to new USL-1 franchise California Victory, the Seahorses defence became incredibly leaky; the team suffered four defeats in their first five games - including a chaotic 4-3 loss to the San Fernando Valley Quakes - and although things began to sure up towards the second half of the season, they found themselves unable to actually WIN any games. Five ties in their last ten games put an end to their playoff hopes early, although the team did finish with a flourish with a resounding 4-0 thrashing of Bakersfield Brigade on the final day, and eventually finished 7th. Midfielder Conan Hawkins led the scoring stats, tallying 4 goals on the season, while Chris Leiva registered 6 assists.

Notable former players

* Josh Hansen
* Patrick Ianni
* Steven Lenhart
* Kiel McClung
* Eric Reed
* Josiah Snelgrove
* Brent Whitfield

Coaches

* Todd Elkins 2005-date

tadia

* Stadium at La Habra High School, La Habra, California 2003-04
* Goodman Stadium, La Mirada, California 2004-date

Average Attendance

*2008: 328
*2007: 263
*2006: 279
*2005: 300

External links

* [http://www.seahorsesoccer.com Southern California Seahorses]
* [http://www.maisoccer.com Missionary Athletes International]