Youth soccer association kicks off early season
Tamarac’s Andres Castano knows the importance of getting off to a good start.
The 17-year-old midfielder for the Parkland Soccer Club 2000 Boys Red team is excited for what the season may bring. His under-18 squad kicked off the season with a 1-0 win over host AC Delray at the Seacrest Soccer Complex.
Fabrice Remy scored with 40 seconds remaining in the 90-minute match and goalkeeper Kasey Laventure made six saves in the South Florida United Youth Soccer Association Early Season game.
“This helps a lot because it gets me in game rhythm,” said Castano, a senior at Taravella High School. This is his first year with Parkland after moving from Coral Springs United. “This is important because we want to start the season right. It is a lot of physical work and it gets us in shape.”
Lighthouse Point’s Samuel Orozco-Torres, 16, anchored the defense for Parkland. The junior at Calvary Christian Academy said the team has the potential to be really good once they get the new players to mesh with the old.
“We have a lot of new kids and it is different from last year,” he said. “This is really big because in the preseason we are trying to get the team in shape and together, before we start the season and get to the more important games where the games start counting.”
Laventure, 17, of Coral Springs, said it was good to get pressured in the first game of the season.
“There is a lot of pressure to keep the team in the game when they need you,” the Coral Springs Charter School senior said. “I just stay calm through it. I just love playing the game. It just gets me away from everything can just focus on this.”
Roger Thomas, who is in his third year as director of coaching for the Parkland Soccer Club, has seen a steady growth in his program. This is the first time in five years that it has had a team in the 18-Under age division.
“I think early season is about getting the team together,” Thomas said. “It is getting them match fit. … We are trying to get the kids ready for the bigger picture and more important events later in the year like the Weston Cup, College else and Showcases or State Cup.”
The South Florida United Youth Soccer Association has more than 15,000 players and 500 teams per year. It started as a boys’ league, adding a girls division in 2013.
Association President Barry Witlin said there are 214 teams — 147 boys’, 67 girls’ — playing in the August-to-October early season. Most of the early-season teams are high school-aged squads that play until high school soccer begins in mid-October.
“Depending on the age group, teams will play between a six- and 10-game season,” said Witlin, who is in his 14th year as president. “We have teams from eight or nine counties and from as far south as Key West to as far north as Port St. Lucie. We also have teams from Cape Coral on the west coast.
“We are certainly the largest league in the state, and probably one of the largest in the southeast United States,” he added. “We do a lot of referee support and coaches’ clinics to better the league.”
Witlin said the league is also looking into providing $50,000 in endowment scholarships of $2,000 to $3,000 to former SFUYSA players at Florida International, Florida Atlantic and Nova Southeastern universities.
“We are trying to give a lot back and this is the best way to give back,” he said. “We are in the process of working out the final details, but the players need to have played in our league and not received no more than one red card in their career. We are going to start with those three universities and expand from there.”
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