...once upon a time long long ago there was a National All Star Soccer Tournament for graduating High School Seniors sponsored by Puma called the Puma Cup. The first year of the Puma Cup the Event was held at the National Soccer Hall of Fame in New York and apparently it was pretty poorly attended. The next 2 years the event was held in St. Louis and oh what a fantastic time we all had. Attendance was great with about 2500 fans coming out each day. High School Seniors that were interested in the tourney had to apply to Puma months in advance. To be selected you needed to be a HS All American per Parade or Gatorade or be a High Level ODP or Youth National team Player. There were 4 teams, North, South, Midwest and West. They played round robin games of full 90 minutes and the teams were made up of 17 or so players per squad. The players would also hold free soccer clinics for the young children of the St. Louis soccer community each morning of the event which was 3 days long if I recall corectly. Many of the Puma Cup Players went on to star in College, MLS and for the National Team. Some of the Puma Cup players who went on to MLS include the following, Wade Barrett Keith Beach Danny Care Matt Chulis Jamie Clark Judah Cooks Leo Cullen Joey DiGiamarino Joe Franchino Nick Garcia Seth George Ray Goodlett Andrew Gregor Jay Heaps Danny Hernandez Tahj Jakins Steve Jolley Josh Keller Brian Kelly Chris Klein Richie Kotschau Wojtek Krakowiak Clint Mathis Chad McCarty Jason Moore Richard Mulrooney Leighton O'Brien Ben Olsen Ross Paule Tim Sahaydak Tony Soto Carey Talley Johnny Torres Scott Vermillion Sasha Victorine Petter Villegas Pete Vagenas One Puma Cup Player who was voted the Most Valuable Player at the second St. Louis Puma Cup didn't get the chance to go on to MLS and beyond. Mark Filla was the kid's name out of Saint Louis Aquinas High School and Mark did win the MVP Award in the last PUMA Cup. Filla was extremely fast. Think Demarcus Beasley type fast and Mark was extremely powerful, think Ryan Nelson type power only stronger and bigger than Nelson. Filla was a man among boys so to speak. Mark had it all going for him on the soccer field. Mark Filla and his St Louis Scott Gallagher teammates won the Under 19 National Championship the next year beating a team led by Ben Olsen called FC Delco out of Philadelphia. Mark went on to play @ Saint Louis U were he was starring his Freshman season until a very serious facial injury suffered against Indiana U knocked him out for the rest of the season. Mark came back the next season at SLU and played well and the following off season Mark Filla was involved in a horrible train/automobile accident nearly costing him his life and definitely ending his playing career. I often wonder what might have happened with Mark Filla had that accident not occurred...
i remember the Puma Cup, Mark Filla, and the accident. Filla was outstanding. talk to people that played for that gallagher team or aquinas-mercy in the mid-90's. they'll tell you how great a player Filla was. it's a shame what happened to him. he was every bit as good as the other top players to come out of stl in the last 10 years.
Tom, I certainly remember reading about the accident in the SLU paper after x-mas break teh year it happened...96 or 97(?). Tough, tough break. I also talked to other guys who had played with/against Filla during high school and they usually just talked about how they simply couldn't stop the guy. Fast and powerful. The guy would have had an unbelievable college career if not for the accident.