Brought Back to Earth:

At the Plantation Thanksgiving Tournament the team played U11 Div 2, and started in convincing fashion once again going unbeaten and without conceding a goal.  In the semi-finals the boys hung tough against a determined opponent with a 5-2 win to lead to the finals against Weston U11 White.  Then came the wake up call, even though they played tough for the whole game, the boys could not penetrate the U11 Whites strong defense resulting in a 2-0 loss.  Credit has to be given to the U11 Fury White team for their strong play and determination.

 

The Season:

Playing up in age created some new challenges for the team, they had always demonstrated skill and speed, but against the older, bigger and faster kids decision time would be shorter in games that where 10 minutes longer so they could no longer rely on their individual talents alone to be successful. Team work was the only way to be successful, and they proved to be quick learners as the team went on to a 13-1 season finishing 1st in U11 Div 2.  In the SFUYSA playoff’s the team was given a bye for the Quarter-finals and took advantage of the break to defeat North Miami Macabi in the Semi-finals.  This placed them against the Weston U11 White in the finals and the boys had to not let past ghosts come back to haunt them.  On a very windy day at the Weston Regional Park, the boys were able to stay one step ahead of the U11 White team and came away with the SFUYSA U11 Boys Div. 2 Championship.

Region A Cup Rollercoaster:  Region A Cup proved to be another exciting tournament where the team dominated the early rounds, but faced stiff competition in a Southern Soccer Team (the one loss during the regular season) that was hungry to prove their right to the cup. The team went up 1-0 in the first half but Southern Soccer did not give up and pushed the boys all the way to the final whistle. The Fury defense held firm to finish out the game 1-0 and crown the team Region A champs.

 

“The Luck of the Draw”:  To finish off the season, the team played two tournaments on the West Coast. The first was the Countryside tournament and the second was the Hackworth Davis Cup.  At Countryside the team defeated two Orlando based teams but lost to a strong Largo team in Pool Play.  Unfortunately due to some unlucky tie-break scenario’s the team did not qualify for the semi-finals and had a relaxing Easter for a change as they did not have to play on Easter Sunday. 

 

Running out of Gas: The Hackworth Davis Cup was a new tournament where Div 2 Region Cup winners from the four regions in Florida would play in Ft. Myers to determine the best Div 2 team in the state.  Because Region B and D did not have play-offs for U11 they did not send any teams so a second team from Region C was invited.  This meant that the 3 teams would play each other and the team with the best results from their two games would win. A tough draw saw that Weston would have to play against Oldsmar and Clearwater on Saturday, while the other two teams would play Weston on Saturday and each other on Sunday.  Weston started the day against the Oldsmar Lions -- Region C champs, and a very disciplined and skilled team.  Throughout the season they boys had gotten used to playing bigger players, but they had never had to play a team where every player on the opposing team was taller than every player on Weston.  It was almost comical in the box where our players only reached their opponents shoulders, and Oldsmar took advantage of this by scoring in the air.  Weston would hold their own after a slow start they put the ball on the ground and played The Fury came from behind to tie the Lions 2-2.  Having to fight for everything in the morning left the team physically and mentally drained.  This proved a significant disadvantage as a fresh Clearwater side walked onto the pitch after lunch on Saturday to warm up while the Weston team was still cooling down from the morning’s game against Oldsmar.  Soon after the game started it was apparent that Clearwater had a full tank and Weston was running on fumes.  The team fell behind early, and was never able to catch up to Clearwater.

 

Hearts of Giants, Skills of Champions and Body’s of 9 and 10 year olds.

It is without doubt that team had a fantastic season. They were able to demonstrate that even playing up against kids a year older they could survive and thrive. They proved to be very adaptable and were able to change their game to answer the questions that are posed when playing up a year to come out on top.  These boys gave their all at every game, the coaches are very privileged to have the opportunity to work with these kids, quite often we received complements on how the kids played, and nothing makes a coach prouder.

 

At the end of it all, through all the trials and tribulations, the victories and the heartbreaks, the practice sessions and the heat waves, the most important thing was that the kids had fun. Some times we forget that the boys were only 9 or 10 years old as we lived out our dreams through their successes, but the great team comradery and support helped make this a great season for players, coaches and of course the parents who without their love and support could not have made this happen.

 

The U10 Boys Blue Team is:

Gabriel Gongora, Gabriel Pedraza, Javier Clavijo, Alex Jarosik, Garek Maingot, Jonathan Nunez, Ismial Longo, Renzo Edery, Nikki Pappacena and Ricardo Castro. 

Technical Staff: Henry Pedraza, Gary Maingot & Dave Simeone