- April 25, 2024
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Florida Elite's U9 team. Courtesy photo
Florida Elite's U9 team celebrates winning the FIGO Super Cup. Courtesy photo
About 40 kids from the Palm Coast area tried out for Florida Elite Academy’s 9-and-under team. Nine kids made the squad.
After the season, the group was undefeated and made the finals of the FIGO Super Cup Florida this October in Lakewood Ranch.
They had beaten two teams from Miami and one team from Tampa to earn the right to compete against Paris Saint-Germain Academy’s 9-and-under squad. PSG, a professional club that plays in the highest-tier of French soccer, has an academy in Miami. They also are free to choose who is on their teams from a talent pool of thousands of kids.
Florida Elite won 4-1.
"I like playing with this team and winning games."
ALEX SICA, Florida Elite player
“It says a lot about the kind of players we have here,” said head coach Rodney Perry, who has coached youth soccer for 10 years following seven years as a professional soccer player. “This is my passion, and hopefully a little bit of that comes off in my coaching them. They push themselves. For them to go to these bigger tournaments and do what they’re doing is phenomenal.”
This was the second full season this team was together. The boys, many of whom had either never played competitive soccer or hadn’t played at all, struggled competing in an older age group.
They won five games, lost four and tied one in 2018.
“We took a few lumps, but we learned about the game,” Perry said. “Now it’s about fine tuning it. They’re kicking butt now.”
As champions, the team is invited to compete in Spain against teams from Europe and Africa next summer.
“I’m just excited for the kids,” said Keith Lagocki, whose son Tanner plays for the team. “It was a big deal for them. To see them do so well made me feel really good about where they are.”
