Pumas Insider

A couple days ago, I said the Pumas were on the verge of announcing some player signings.

The club did that today, revealing that 10 players have been signed for the upcoming PDL season. Six of the players are returners from last year’s club, one has previous experience with Kitsap, and three are newcomers.

Here is the release from the club. I’ll be working on a story for the print edition today

BREMERTON — The 2011 USL PDL champion Kitsap Pumas announced the signing of 10 players today for the upcoming 2012 PDL season subject to 
USL and USSF approval.

Six of them are returners from last year’s squad – assistant coach 
Dustyn Brim, goalkeeper Zac Lubin, defender Taylor Hyde, defender
 Steve Mohn, midfielder Matt Friesen and midfielder/defender Kyle 
Johnson. Hyde and Mohn were part of a defense that kept 12 clean 
sheets, three of which were in the playoffs. Friesen scored eight
 goals and three assists while Johnson scored a goal and an assist. 
Lubin started two games, one of which was a first round U.S. Open Cup 
match against Chivas-El Paso where he held the Patriots to no goals 
and made two saves in the penalty kick shootout. Brim was a starter 
for the first two years before successive back surgeries put him on 
the sidelines. He was an assistant coach last season.

“We’re excited to get a core of the championship team back,” head
 coach James Ritchie said. “We think we can build around them. With the
 new boys coming in, we expect a high level of football from them. We 
think it’ll be an exciting year.”

“They are the foundation of our team,” owner Robin Waite said. “These
 guys know the system, they’re very talented players and we’re very
 happy to have them back.”

Brim will serve as a player/coach this season.

Goalkeeper Liviu Bird was a member of the team in the inaugural season
 and played on the Pumas reserves last year. He played two years for
 Highline Community College, then transferred to Seattle Pacific.

Two players – forward Christopher Bettencourt and defender Pierre
 Rappolt – were selected through the Bay Area talent finding excursion
in California.

A graduate of Sacramento State, Bettencourt earned first-team all
 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation honors last season. He scored seven
 goals to lead the team and also notched four assists. He set a school
 record in points his junior year with 27 and was named MPSF tournament 
MVP as the Hornets made the second round of the NCAA tournament.

“I think Bettencourt could be a hidden gem,” Brim said. “He seems to 
just have a knack for where the ball is going to be and how to put it
 in the back of the net. He had a lot of game winning goals (nine over
the last two seasons) so he knows how to show up at the right time on
 the big stage.”

Rappolt is a graduate of Skyline Community College and played last
 season for DV8, a men’s amateur team that plays in the Peninsula
 Soccer League in the Bay Area.

Midfielder Daniel Macleod rounds out the signings. A native of 
Scotland, Macleod played for the country’s U19 international team and
 played two years with Elgin City, a team that competes in the Scottish
 Football League Third Division.

More signings will be announced once paperwork is finalized.

 

This entry was posted on Friday, March 30th, 2012 at 10:46 pm by jeff graham and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.