You Will Be Tested: VE Mountaineers prep for Eastern Presidents Cup

Vereinigung Erzgebirge Mountaineers head coach Billy Hartman has his 2007 boys team back in the regionals for the Presidents Cup and with the US Youth Soccer competition returning to the area U-18 team will be one of the local teams represented in the competition being held for the second time at The Proving Grounds and nearby Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School.

The back-to-back Eastern Pennsylvania Presidents Cup winners aren’t the only team in the historic club (founded in 1931) competing on a bigger stage in the coming weeks. The club’s U-12 boys (known as Aue) won the NCS State Cup final to book a ticket into the Eastern regional championships in Loudoun County, Va. and the U-23 team is back in the Region 1 U-23 tournament happening next weekend at Ukrainian National Sport Center.

“Any cup run is special, especially in this club,” said Hartman, who was an assistant on the VE team that made the Eastern Presidents Cup final the last time it was in the area in 2023. “We really do try to do well in cups and it’s one of our goals every season. Last year we did very well and we made it to the semifinals in West Virginia. We saw our opportunities and we fell a little bit short but this year our goal when we started the year was we’re going to make another run and we did and we’re back.”

Part of the preparation for the competition, which kicks off on June 13, was a scrimmage on Wednesday night against the club’s U-23 team, which included two of Hartman’s sons, Moravian-bound forward Brady Hartman and Bloomsburg midfielder Liam Hartman. Other players in the team included current college players at West Chester, Holy Family, East Stroudsburg and others on summer break from college.

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“I told them to go at you hard,” Hartman told his team before the scrimmage. “You will be tested tonight; that’s why we’re out here.”

Hartman played at VE in his youth soccer days and returned with his kids when they were starting out in the game. Once back at the club, he took up coaching, developing within the club much the way he developed as a player while embracing the history, culture and community around an organization that has seen its youth soccer program grow in size and stature in recent years.

“I always wanted to come back,” Hartman said. “As soon as I walked in the door there’s people who recognized me still…Coming back and giving back to this club is something all of our coaches do and they’re here because they wanna be and they love this club so much.”

Goalkeeper Keegan Courduff is part of a core of players who have been part of the team for 8-plus years. Like many on the team, Courduff, whose dad Brian “Monk” Courduff is an assistant coach, is coming to the end of his youth soccer career before heading to Penn State Abington to play in the fall.

“I’ve played with half of them my whole life,” Courduff said. “To be able to do this one more time with everyone is great; it’s awesome.”

The competition with the older group of players at times leaned heavily in the direction you would expect but there were plenty of positive moments for the younger group and confidence builders going into a bigger knockout tournament stage next week.

VE teams have made runs to the semifinals and final of the regional competition in each of the last two years but can really hang their hat on the U-16 boys team (Green Gunners) that won the National Presidents Cup in 2018 in Indiana. The National Presidents Cup finals will be held in Tampa this year July 11-15.

“I just think it’s an honor to play with these guys, come out here and train hard, play hard,” said Ryan Shenko, a center back on the team who is one of the few in the squad who isn’t graduating from high school. “Stuff like this gets us prepared, gets us better.”

While many within the team are going on to play in college, the cup run marks an ending for Andrew Markman who has been with the group for the past five years. Markman recently graduated from La Salle College High School.

“The culture here is awesome; everyone is family here,” Markman said. “When we were little we used to watch the big guys so it’s a lot of progression through the years starting as a Mighty Mite going all the way up to where we are now. The club just gets the player right, helps you progress the right way.”