Of the teams set to battle in the semifinals of this year’s USASA Amateur Cup, only one is a repeat attendee. Tobacco Road FC won the Region III crown for the second year in a row and punched its ticket to Dekalb this week. It was no easy task, which required the North Carolina club to win four matches in three days, including the 5-0 win over Naples United FC in the Region III championship match.

That kind of tournament requires a tremendous amount of roster management and team shuffling to keep players healthy and ready to win. Cedric Burke, founder and coach of Tobacco Road talked about the unique challenges of a compressed tournament like the one his club faced and how the national finals is a different kind of war. “I look at each of these tournaments as a different challenge from a coaching perspective. In USL Two, you’re looking at a three-month period, it’s extremely fast-paced, players in and out, but trying to that consistency. At the qualifying tournament, we were playing four or five games in a weekend. You’re winning, but you’re also focused on resting players. But with this tournament, it all goes out the window. It’s two games, everyone is fresh. We’ll bring 18, but we may not even need 18. You don’t sub in a normal manner because it’s only two games and you’ve got a day in between.”

With a roster that extends through several leagues and levels, Tobacco Road has the kind of depth that will mean a healthy, well-rested, and focused group heading into Dekalb this week. All eyes will be on the prize: the national amateur crown.

Burke talked about why he and his friends created and grew Tobacco Road into the regional powerhouse it’s become. “I played with a lot of local guys who had either played professionally or graduated from college but still wanted to play at a high level. We saw a noticeable void in our market and we formed our club to fill it.” It developed over the years from a single team into a multi-league club, with rosters full of players playing high-level amateur soccer. “Our roots are in the amateur game, it’s where we started and it’s what we do.”

That foundation of the club inspires them to focus on the National Amateur Cup as an important crown to win. For Cedric, it takes him back to his own playing days and why he continues to do what he does. “Winning it would be everything. Before there was ever a semi-pro level, we were amateur soccer players. That is at the heart of who we are. It’s what we prioritized and what we grew into, playing at multiple levels, growing our academy, developing guys, but at the heart of who we are, we’re weekend warriors…Winning this would be a fulfillment of why we started this club.”

- Dan Vaughn