Park City soccer keeper wins National Championship with Utah Avalanche team

Logan Cadman, goal keeper from Park City, took the title of national champs with his team of teenagers. Photo: Brian Cadman

RICHMOND, Virginia — After qualifying at a San Diego tournament, Utah Avalanche played and won the soccer tournament in Virginia. Park City local Logan Cadman and his teammates became ECNL National Champions.

Elite Clubs National League Championship was a season-long tournament where teams from all over the country compete to earn a spot in a final 36-team tournament, not unlike the World Cup.

After the group stage, the round of 16, and the quarterfinals in San Diego culminated June 25-July 2. Avalanche had to overcome teams like LAFC and Real Colorado Academy, which are staples in the National Championship and affiliated with professional academies.

Goalkeeper Cadman and his team went to Virginia to compete in the semifinals Jul 17-July 19, where they beat the third-ranked team in the country, Beach, out of California, 3-0.

In the final game, they were down 2-0 in the 75th minute and came back to win 4-2 at the end of full time to win the National Championship. 

“Our whole team was a little bit nervous; however, the day before we had two meetings throughout the day in which we did extensive film review as well as talked about our team mentally and tactically,” Cadman told TownLift. “One of the things we talked about was the concept of how elite athletes can process nerves as excitement. So, going into our final game we had this presence of mind and that helped a lot.”

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The 16-year-old was the only Parkite on the Utah Avalanche Soccer Club squad; he’s been a member of the Club for a couple of years.

“The experience of that finals game was surreal. We were down 2-0 with a quarter of the game left to play and at that point knew we needed to get the work done. And we knew that as soon as we scored one goal, the rest would follow,” Cadman continued. “And sure enough, after the first one we managed to score two more within eight minutes, giving us the lead thanks to a hat trick by our striker Alex Hernandez. We then went on to score one more to win the game 4-2 and at that moment we knew we’d done it and it was an incredible feeling. National Champions.”

Cadman will stay with this Avalanche Club as they prepare to host an annual national tournament in the Fall before he returns to play keeper for his Park City High School Miners Boys Soccer Team; all that’s in addition to his year-round competition on the Park City Ski & Snowboard Nordic Team.