EHS soccer pair in Tampa for travel ball national championship

Published 10:47 am Friday, July 11, 2025

Star Correspondent

Lady Cyclones Izzy Lewis and Abby Krawcyzk are with the Tri-Cities United traveling soccer squad in Tampa, Florida, to play for a national championship.

Head coach Wilfred Williams took his team to the Tennessee state championship in Plano, Texas, where a special play that hadn’t worked in two years provided the winning score and sent United to the national tournament.

“We named the play ‘Charlie’ in honor of a player we had here who passed away,” Williams said. “But with a little more than two minutes left in the match, we had a set piece corner kick and Izzy got the winning goal. Abby made several game-saving stops in the last frantic minutes to get us here.”

Things have not always gone smoothly for Coach Williams, as he brought his squad to the state championship in 2024 but lost. Williams thought that with such a good team they would have another shot this year, but things took a turn.

“Almost half the team left, and we needed the remaining kids to bring in their school teammates, and they recruited some good ones,” Williams said.

Lewis brought Krawcyzk into her first experience with travel ball, and she took to it well.

“Coach Williams has helped me so much in improving my game,” Krawcyzk said. “This is a great team, and with his coaching we are doing so well. It has been a total team effort in every game, but especially in the state game where Izzy got the winning goal.”

United began with the local tournament, winning eight consecutive games to get to the regional in Texas, where they took home top honors with their victory.

“It was gratifying to see these kids play so hard and get over the hump that we fell over last year,” Williams said. “I felt like they were coming together during the group state league, which is like high school conference play, and they won eight in a row to capture that trophy and moved us to the region.”

Lewis has been involved in travel ball for several seasons, and she has been a stabilizing force for the inexperienced ones.

“A lot of us have been together for a long time, and we all bonded on the same level over our love of the game,” Lewis said. “One thing that has been challenging has been the heat. It really can make you leg weary, but it’s the same for everyone, so you just have to fight through it. When you get this far, you don’t know much about your opponent, and that is challenging as well.”

The tournament runs from July 11 to 15, and if a team wins, they have to turn around and play the very next day, which is a challenge in itself.

“We play on Friday, and if we win, we play the next day, but we feel pretty confident,” Lewis said. “It’s just been a great experience.”