Kitsap Pumas players take their game to Bolivia

November 24, 11:39 AMSeattle Soccer ExaminerDavid Falk

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Kitsap Pumas centerback Max Lipset is in Bolivia with teammates Leon Abravanel and Taylor Hyde. (David Falk)

Three Kitsap Pumas players are currently in Bolivia training and playing with La Paz FC. Centerback Max Lipset and defender/midfielders Taylor Hyde and Leon Abravanel are in South America in an effort to stay in shape and raise their game.

Max is from Minnesota, and he has been communicating with Brian Quarstad of www.InsideMNSoccer.com over the last year.

Lipset has sent Brian an update from La Paz.

So far I’ve been here for three weeks. It’s been a great experience. The quality of the futbol is awesome in a myriad ways. I’m thrilled to be here and hoping to stay to play during the AeroSur tournament during January.

I’m here with a couple of my teammates from the Pumas, Leon Abravanel (Lake Tahoe, CA) and Taylor Hyde (Salt Lake City, UT). It’s been very interesting seeing how we fit in and how we stand out with the Bolivian/South American professionals. There are not too many guys down here with a lot of size or physicality, so it’s a good environment for me to work on really imposing my presence in the back as well as playing to the technical standard. We train everyday, sometimes twice: the quality of the trainings is first-class. The owner/president of the club is using our presence here to inspire a change in the work habits of the players–his impression is that coming from the US we have a more of a blue-collar work ethic that he’d like to make a trademark of his club. He calls it cross-fertilization.

Max later writes: Everybody assumes that we like fast food and have lots of money–we’ve been the target of several scams, nothing too serious–and in general the city is safe, the people are friendly, and it’d be an interesting place to be even if we weren’t playing great soccer everyday. That being said there’s no doubt about the fact that we’re here to play, and we’ve settled into a routine of training, working out, eating, sleeping, and…using the internet.

Read all of Lipset's reflection here.

La Paz, Bolivia. (En Las Americas photo)

In other Kitsap Pumas news from over the weekend, the club held an indoor soccer open house in Bremerton. Read more here from www.Hellcats.us and view the video below.

The Pumas also announced their first open tryout dates of 2010.

Pumas To Hold Open Tryouts February 13 and 14

Club also launches “Scarf Kitsap- and Beyond!!!” Contest


Bremerton, Wash. – The Kitsap Soccer Club will hold its second annual Open Tryouts for prospective professional players on the weekend of February 13 and 14, 2010 at Gordon Fields in Silverdale, Wash. on the Kitsap County Fairgrounds site. Note: Gordon Field is natural grass. 


The registration fee for trialists is $50 and is non-refundable. Demand is already high for trialist, reserve and first team positions, so prospects are strongly encouraged to pre-register via the club website prior to Feb. 5, 2010. Pre-payment options will become available shortly. 


The Kitsap Soccer Club - just barely a year old - is the defending Northwest Division champion of the United Soccer Club’s Premier Development League. The club, in its first season, reached the quarterfinal round of the league playoffs, falling in the last minute to the eventual league champion, the Ventura Fusion. The club finished the PDL regular season as the third-highest rated club out of the league’s 68 teams and encompasses all of North America. 


A reduced rate at the official team hotel is available for out-of-area trialists. Please consult the club website for further information regarding booking. 


Scarf Kitsap – And Beyond!!!

The club today also launched its “Scarf Kitsap – and Beyond!!!” contest. The fan that sends in the most creative photo incorporating an official Kitsap Pumas club scarf will receive four tickets to the 2010 regular season home opener, courtesy of the club. 


Fans must post their entries to the team’s official Facebook page not later than noon, April 22, 2010. Entrants’ photos will be posted on a special page on the official club website. Pumas players, coaches and staff will then determine the winner.


“This should be a lot of fun,” said the team’s executive director Ben Pecora. “We received a few shots from fans over the summer showing their scarves from different places around the region - and the globe – and it was this initiative that gave us the idea to hold this sort of contest.”