Evergreen's Timur Zhividze Signs with Concordia Men's Soccer
PORTLAND, Ore.—Timur Zhividze of Evergreen High School in Vancouver, Wash. has signed to play for the Concordia men's soccer program, head coach Dan Birkey announced on Tuesday
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Zhividze would become the second graduate of Evergreen High School on the 2013 Concordia men's soccer team as 2012 CCC Player of the Year Septi Danciu also graduated from Evergreen.
“Timur has done very well in his academic work at Evergreen high school,” said Birkey. “He is a hard-working, disciplined young man. He comes from a strong family and wanted very much to attend a university close to home. We feel he is a fantastic fit for our program and especially at this time in our recruiting priorities for players in 2013.”
Also like Danciu, Zhividze came to Evergreen after being born overseas. In Zhividze's case, he was born in Bobrov, Russia and didn't move over to the United States until he was 13 years old at which point he had not played any soccer in his life.
Zhividze picked the game up quickly though, and was named the MVP of Evergreen's league as a junior. Zhividze set a school record with 21 assists in just 13 games that season when he also scored 16 goals. Put together, Zhividze totaled 53 points in his junior season for an average of 4.08 points per game.
“Timur has the gift of goal scoring, which we believe will get even sharper as he trains and competes with the level of players in the CU program,” said Birkey. “We see him learning quickly due to his maturity and desire. He can be a national tournament level attacker if he enjoys his craft and applies himself.”
Zhividze was also a first-team all-league selection as a sophomore at Evergreen when he totaled 10 goals and 15 assists.
He will not be playing for EHS this spring due to his commitment in the Portland Timbers U-18 Academy team where he was named the Outstanding Player of the Year after leading the team in total points.
“Timur is a very exciting player in every phase of the game. He takes pride in leading by example and not being out worked by anybody on or off the field,” Evergreen head coach Keenan Burris said. “He has become one of the best players to play at Evergreen and will continue this success at the next level. We are very excited to add Timur to the Cavalier soccer family. He will not disappoint.”