Alamance Gold U-13 reaches state cup finals in debut season

A boys under-13 soccer team that formed only last fall reached the finals of the US Youth Soccer North Carolina State Cup, and the run is already changing the conversation around youth soccer in Alamance County. Alamance Gold has gone 42-6-1 since August, a burst of success that now sends the group to the Southeast Regional in Greensboro from June 12 to June 14.

For families in Burlington, Graham and Mebane, the team’s rise is about more than one bracket. Alamance Gold plays inside Triangle United Soccer Association, the Chapel Hill-based club that absorbed Alamance County into its system after Burlington Soccer Club merged with NC Fusion. That made Alamance Gold the county’s only entry in the new structure, and it gave local players a shared path into higher-level competition.

Coach Jose Alvarenga, a 2019 Williams graduate and former Burlington Soccer Club player, said the accomplishment carries extra weight because the team is brand-new in its current form. Some of the boys have been with him for nearly six years, giving the roster a rare level of continuity even as the club structure around them changed. The program now reaches nearly 60 players across age groups from under-9 to soon-to-be under-14, making it a countywide pipeline rather than a single-town select team.

The move into Triangle United has also pushed the players upward in competition. Alamance Gold is headed into tougher fields, and the team is slated to move into the National 1 League next year. That matters for local parents weighing whether the new circuit is worth the tradeoffs: more demanding opponents, more travel, and more visibility for boys who want to test themselves beyond the county line.

The exposure could matter even more now that the state tournament sits at the top of the youth ladder. North Carolina Youth Soccer says its State Cup is the highest level of NCYSA competition for 13U through 19U teams, and beginning in 2026, winners advance directly to the USYS National Championships. Triangle United says its Alamance County programming began in the fall of 2025 and is expanding for the 2026-2027 year with classic teams and youth development academy teams, with Alamance squads typically training at Soccer.com, Graham Parks and Springwood. For Alamance County, this debut season has already become proof that a newly reorganized local pathway can produce statewide results.