Soccer clubs cut ties with coach
Six-time state champ accused of sexually abusing former player
South Florida youth soccer clubs are cutting ties with one of the region’s most decorated coaches following his arrest Thursday on charges that he sexually abused a former player starting when she was 13 years old.
Juan Ramos, 43, on Friday was suspended indefinitely from his job as director of coaching and player development at Plantation Eagles Soccer Club.
Florida Youth Soccer, where he served on the Olympic Development Program coaching staff, also suspended him. Also on Friday, Kendall Coalition Soccer Club— the only U.S. Soccer Development Academy member programin Miami-Dade— terminated him.
Ramos, a six-time state championship coach of the boys soccer teams at American
Heritage School and Cypress Bay High, remained in Broward County jail Monday, facing four counts of sexual battery against a minor.
Police say the abuse happened over a five-year span from2003 to 2008.
The victim, now 26 and living in South Florida, was in therapy when she decided to go to authorities on Aug. 13 with her allegations, Plantation police Detective Philip Toman said.
According to police, she was 10 years old when she first met Ramos, who coached her privately while she was a member of the Plantation club team.
The soccer lessons continued while she attended American Heritage. Ramos coached the boys team there from 2003-08, leading the Patriots to three state championships.
During private lessons, Ramos drove the girl to various Broward County parks in his Ford Expedition SUV. What started as tickling and wrestling during those sessions progressed to oral sex in 2003, when the girl, at 13, was in seventh grade and Ramos was 30, police said.
Intercourse followed when she was 14. From then on, Ramos and the victim would engage in sex acts during most private lessons, which took place weekly. At least once, when she was 16, Ramos and the girl had sexual intercourse on the campus at American Heritage, according to court documents.
Ramos acknowledged the sexual activity during a Wednesday meeting with the victim, which investigators audio- and video-recorded.
Ramos, of Plantation, was arrested the next day and on Friday appeared in court. His attorney’s request for bail and house arrest for Ramos was denied.
Ramos was fired in March 2008 at American Heritage, where he led the Patriots to Class 3A titles in 2003, 2004 and 2007, following a verbal run-in with the school’s girls soccer coach, according to Bob Davis, the former director of soccer at American Heritage. Ramos was later hired at Cypress Bay, where he coached the boys team from2009-2013.
He guided the Lightning to three Class 4A championships in 2010, 2011 and 2012, the last season finishing 23-0-2 and atop ESPN’s national rankings.
A graduate of J.P. Taravella High School, Ramos played soccer at Nova Southeastern University, where he was inducted into the school’s athletics hall of fame in 2013. After graduating from college, Ramos played professionally for nearly a decade, first in Germany and later for a string of domestic teams, including the Florida Strikers (1997) and Miami FC (2006).
The lawyer who spoke for Ramos in court Friday said no other allegations have been made against him. Broward County Judge Michael Davis ordered Ramos held without bond in the county jail.
American Heritage released a statement late Monday, saying the school has never received any abuse complaints against Ramos.
Boomer Bray, an assistant coach under Ramos at Cypress Bay and Plantation SC, said he was “blown away” by the allegations and arrest.
Ramos, Bray said, “is very well known throughout the south region of the United States. I hope it’s not true.”
Kendall SC treasurer Jorge Diaz de Villegas also expressed surprise about Ramos’ arrest.
“Therewas nothing in his behavior thatwould have led me to believe he would end up in a situation like this.”
Ramos does not have a criminal record in Florida, state records show.
Plantation police said their investigation is ongoing. “If there are other victims, we’d ask them to come forward,” Toman said Monday. “Call 954-797-2118, and ask for Detective Dan Hanes.”