WETHERSFIELD - David Winton, Richard Keane and Jeffrey Bittner,Wethersfield residents who were killed working in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, made their presence felt in a variety of ways, and soccer their involvement in soccer was just one of them.

       And that is what brought eight teams from seven towns to Wethersfield High School this past Saturday for the 13th annual soccer jamboree held in their memory. There was a parade of Wethersfield youth soccer teams, free soccer clinics, and of course, the preseason round robin tournament.

       â€�"The town of Wethersfield and the visiting schools embrace the true spirit of the day, and also share in the tragic memory of 9-11,” wrote Donato Monaco, an event organizer and friend of Winton, Keane and Bittner in an email. â€�"David was one of my best friends; a classmate and teammate at WHS, class of ‘90. Timothy Keane, Richard Keane’s son, was also a good friend, teammate and classmate of ours. Mr. Keane was also David’s baseball coach, and David’s father was Tim’s soccer coach.”

       Winton, who Monaco described as an attacking-minded defender with â€�"a fierce left striking foot”, captained both the Wethersfield High School soccer team and baseball team. He worked as the vice president of the firm Keefe, Bruyett & Woods.

       Keane was a Marine officer and senior vice president in Risk Consulting for the firm Marsh McLennan. He also coached his five sons in a variety of sports in Wethersfield. Bittner played soccer and baseball in Wethersfield before enrolling in King Oxford High School, where he earned varsity letters in football, ice hockey, and lacrosse. He also worked at Keffe, Bruyett & Woods as an analyst.

       For the tournament, the boys division was made up of Wethersfield, Staples, King Oxford, and Fermi High Schools, while Wethersfield, Northwest Catholic, Plainville and Newington went at it in the girls division.

       After the Wethersfield High School boys soccer team edged Staples 1-0, the Wethersfield girls team took the field against Northwest Catholic to battle it out to a 0-0 tie. But the latter contest wasn’t without close calls for both sides.

       The Eagles almost got on the board with 19 minutes left when a shot from the left rang the Northwest Catholic crossbar. Wethersfield would get another accidental chance just two minutes later, when a blocked clear in the middle of the top of the box ricocheted back into the goalkeeper, bouncing off her hands, up against the bottom of the crossbar, and back into her grasp again.

       But in the end it was the visitors that would have the best opportunity-Northwest Catholic won a penalty kick with four minutes left after a Wethersfield mistimed tackle from behind took a player down. With Northwest Catholic almost sure to take the lead with virtually no time for the Eagles to respond, the Wethersfield goalkeeper made a diving save to deny a shot heading low to her right.