Over on the Travel side of BRYC soccer, every team is simply called "Elite."  On the Recreational side of the BRYC soccer program, anything goes.  Especially among the younger age groups, suggested (and sometimes adopted) team names can be crazy, and fun.  The webmaster would love to do a feature story or two on team names so he’s looking for some of the better ones this season and how they were arrived at.  Whatever name your team has selected this season, be it traditional or "off the wall", drop an email to the webmaster at brycstars@aol.com with the subject "TEAM NAME" and let him know how it was chosen.  If you can attach a team photo, be it traditional or "off the wall", so much the better.

To start things off, one of the more traditional soccer team names is "Strikers".  Expecting to see lots of photos of union members carrying picket signs (left), the webmaster was amazed when he Googled the term looking for "Images" and found very few of those but dozens of different logos from soccer clubs from all over the world who are so named, like the one on the right from a team in Pennsylvania.  Indeed, no fewer than four BRYC squads are using the name this season, including the U6 Boys squad featured in the story below on opening day; a U5 and a U19 Boys squad both coached by long time BRYC coach John Kelleher; and a U10 Boys squad coached by Kaya Yaglou, one of John’s "protoges", the only girl ever to play on the U19 Boys Strykers. 

Interestingly, except for the U6 Boys, all of the other teams are using the spelling "Strykers".  When you Google that spelling you find just a couple of logos for soccer teams that got creative with the spelling, like John, but dozens of pictures of armored vehicles like the one on the right.  After this story is published you’ll also find this photo of John Kelleher’s U5 Strykers, the first entry in the webmaster’s search for interesting team names!  Helping John (third from left) coach the Strykers are parent coach Steve Terpak, current U19G player Kate Cashion, and former U19B/Stryker and recent UVA graduate, Nishant Trivedi.  (This might just be the best coached U5 team in the history of BRYC!)