Tag: soccer

Jonny’s Dream Of Playing Pro Soccer Will Take Him To Spain

Wesley Chapel resident Jonny Robinson talks almost as fast as he runs.

As the 10-year-old finishes up putting another ball in the back of the net during a camp at the Wesley Chapel District Park, he races over to his mother Alena to breathlessly tell her he scored a free kick, and a penalty kick, and five other goals.

A few minutes later, he is talking about how dribbling is his favorite part of soccer. When it’s pointed out that he couldn’t wait to tell Alena about his goals, he points out that, “Yes, but of four of those goals, three were from dribbling.”

Jonny is a whirling dervish of activity — chatty, happy and eager to keep moving around, a soccer ball always at his feet.

“He is always happy when he’s on the pitch,” says Alena. “I’ve never seen him not happy when he’s playing.”

Which is, well, pretty much always.

His dedication to the game has helped lead Jonny to what will probably make him happiest of all — a spot in the 2020 Real Madrid Foundation Clinics World Challenge in early April of 2020.

Jonny was one of two boys selected to represent the United States from April 2-10, 2020, on the grounds of the Real Madrid soccer team training facility in Madrid, Spain.

Alena says Jonny was named MVP of the camp in Orlando, where he was picked from a group of roughly 50 other 10-year-old kids to go to Madrid.

The Madrid tournament will cover four days, with 64 teams and 700 players from around the world competing.

“I feel very motivated and very excited,” Jonny says.

Ironically, Jonny’s favorite soccer team is Real Madrid’s most bitter rival – Barcelona FC.

When Jonny was 6, he happened across the 2015 UEF Champions League Final between Barcelona and Juventus (Italy), and he was hooked.

Neymar became his favorite player after scoring the last goal in a 3-1 win, and Barcelona became Jonny’s favorite soccer team. He wanted to learn how to play himself.

“I was playing tee ball, and didn’t really like it,” Jonny says. “My grandma said, “you guys got Jonny wrong, he’s supposed to be playing soccer.’”

At first, it was a difficult transition. Alena says that Jonny’s first season was nearly a disaster.

“He was just running after kids, having fun,” she says. “We told him to go take the ball away (from the other players), and one time he literally took the ball with his hands and said ‘Look, Mom, I got the ball!’”

Jonny stuck with it, however. A summer league at the Wesley Chapel District Park unlocked his fervor for the game, and ever since, he has been working hard at perfecting his skills.

Alena says Jonny will sometimes wake up and immediately run some shuttle cone drills (to improve his bursts of speed), go to his private coach, head off to camp, work on his shots at home in his front yard and then go to a team practice.

“He lives and breathes soccer,” she says. “He never once says he’s tired, or that he doesn’t want to do it.”

A fifth-grader at Watergrass Elementary, Jonny’s bedroom walls are decorated with pictures and posters of his favorite team and player.

“There is no room anywhere for anything else,” he says proudly.

Alena and Jonny’s father Sean have fed their son’s love of the game. They never miss an international friendly when one is played nearby, and two years ago, they took Jonny to Russia to watch Neymar play for Brazil, his native country, against Costa Rica.

“That was a joy,” Jonny says. “He scored a last-minute goal to win the game. I like that Brazilian style, where he dribbles the whole field and then there’s this crazy goal. Inside, I’m like, ‘Wow.’”

Jonny would like to follow in Neymar’s footsteps, which is why his trip in April is so exciting for him. He plays club soccer for Florida Premier, but thinks it would be awesome to play at one of the youth academies in Europe.

He will get more than a little taste of that next year in Madrid.

“We think this is a huge honor,” Alena says. “It’s a huge responsibility to represent your country, and such a unique opportunity. We are all super excited.”

Jonny nods his head in agreement.

Then he drops his soccer ball to his feet, and they are off, dribbling towards the next challenge.

jonny soccer

Cypress Creek Girls Soccer Ends Second Season With First Trophy

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Congratulations to the Cypress Creek Middle/High girls soccer team, which won the Sunshine Athletic Conference East Championship.

The Cypress Creek girls soccer team played its inaugural season last year, and like you might imagine any first-year program with a first-time coach working with a roster of freshmen and sophomores would, struggled and won only three matches.

While that first season may have created modest expectations for this year, the Coyotes blew those to smithereens this past season, which they put a stamp on with a regular-season ending win over a 16-4 Wiregrass Ranch squad.

That win gave the Coyotes the county’s Sunshine Athletic Conference East championship. It is the first title, and sports trophy, for the second-year school.

“We just kept winning and the stakes kept getting higher,” says Coyotes coach Jennifer Richardson. “We were hoping to have something to put in the trophy case.”

Right now, the trophy case at Cypress Creek has a picture of the team and a ball in it. Thanks to goals from juniors Abby Murphy and Sophia Mitchell, who combined on a corner kick with two minutes left to beat the Bulls 2-1, that is about to change.

“Becoming conference champions wasn’t an expectation for us in the beginning of the season,” said Mitchell, who scored nine goals this season. “I honestly would have been happy with just a winning record. We started out our season with an 8-1 win over Gulf, and both Emily Dominguez and I had hat tricks in the game. There couldn’t have been a better season opener. After that, we just kept on winning.”

Sophia Mitchell battles for a loose ball during a game this season.

The Cypress Creek girls were 7-0 in conference games — including a 3-2 win over Wesley Chapel and the 2-1 title clincher over Wiregrass Ranch — and 13-4 overall.

It was a 3-2 win in December, over county powerhouse Land O’Lakes, which had advanced to the state final four the previous three seasons, that convinced the young Coyotes something special might be in store for this season.

“That was a tough, physical game,” Richardson said. “After that, we realized that we could really accomplish something this season.”

While expectations were low to start the season, they grew quickly, as the wins piled up and Regan Bourne (team-high 13 goals), Mitchell (9) and Dominguez (9) began to rack up goals.

The team’s success in Pasco County, however, couldn’t be duplicated elsewhere, due to the misfortune of being placed in a brutal district, Class 2A District 9, with the likes of Berkeley Prep, Academy of the Holy Names and Clearwater Central Catholic. The Coyotes lost to all three during the season by a combined 15-1 score, but took Berkeley Prep the distance in the district playoffs, falling 1-0.

Of the 17 players on the varsity roster, only three are seniors and only senior Katelyn Leavines was a starter. The Coyotes are hoping to jump out of 2A-9 and into 3A-7 with Wesley Chapel and Pasco, or even 3A-8 with Land O’Lakes and Sunlake.

“I’m hoping they re-do the numbers and move us out of the classification,” Richardson said. “We’re sitting at around 1,100 students now for high school, and we’d like a chance to be more competitive in 3A.”

An FHSAA meeting in March will determine re-alignments for winter sports teams. Currently, the parameters for student population in 2A are 432-1,199 students. Class 3A’s range is 1,200-1,720.

“I can’t wait to see what next season will look like,” Bourne said.

Cypress Creek High soccer

WRH’s Ian Flores — Elite Midfielder, Faithful Teammate, Savvy Webmaster?

Ian Flores led Wiregrass Ranch High with 20 assists last season.

Certainly it was Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) senior Ian Flores’ prowess on the soccer pitch that made him such a highly sought-after recruit, but his character and knack for web design and self-promotion helped make him the most recruited soccer player to come out of the school…ever.

“Ian is the most highly recruited soccer player that has ever played at Wiregrass Ranch,” athletic director and head boys soccer coach David Wilson says. “We have had 14 players accept offers from colleges in the past five years, and all of them combined had fewer offers than Ian.”

In late March, he signed with Division III Oglethorpe University in Atlanta.

Flores’ resume is impressive.

He led the Bulls with 20 assists his senior year, which was second in all of Florida’s Class 5A. He was nominated to the All-State team both his junior and senior years, becoming the first Wiregrass athlete in 11 years to be nominated as a junior.

He was nominated as an All-American four times, and for the first team All-Conference by the Florida Coaches Association twice.

Flores was invited and tried out for the professional Major League Soccer club DC United, and also has participated in the U.S. Olympic Development Program (ODP). He had 20 scholarship offers and has been in talks with 60 different colleges over the course of his high school career.

Flores says he picked up some invaluable techniques working with DC United and the ODP.

“The competition level there is way high,” Flores says. “You learn a lot of small details like not just making passes but where to make a pass, like passing to the correct foot so the other person can make a better touch.”

Already drawing attention with his athletic exploits, Flores, after his sophomore year, took his recruiting endeavors to the world wide web. During the summer of 2016, he launched his recruiting website, IanFlores.com. He got some help putting it together from his proud father, Carlos, who owns and operates an online full-service creative agency called Milorian Studios, but Ian has since taken over control.

“He (dad) still helps with issues like posting videos from different platforms,” Flores says. “But I do all of the editing, creating content and posting articles that come out.”

The website is impressive. It has links to highlight videos he’s edited and stories written about him in different media outlets. He even publishes his own blog.

“It’s a first-class website,” says Eric Sims, who has coached Flores on the club team he plays for, Tampa Bay United. “Ian also has first-class communication with coaches. He does everything the right way and gives things all he’s got. It’s really opened doors for him.”

To top it all off, Flores is a consummate team player.

“You can play with teammates that are not necessarily your friends but when your teammates are your friends, there’s a big difference,” he says.

Flores says that was mentality was a big factor in choosing Oglethorpe over schools like Rutgers and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Flores felt welcomed and accepted not just by the coaching staff at Oglethorpe, but even more so by the players.

“I got a great vibe from the other players and from students at the school,” he says. “I felt like these people really wanted me to excel in what I do.”

Flores also picked Oglethorpe because of its proximity to one of the largest metropolitan areas in the southeastern U.S.

He plans to major in business and Atlanta seemed like a great place to start.

“Ian is an outstanding human being and a great kid,” Sims says. “He has set himself up for success, regardless of what he ends up choosing to do, because he’s such a well-rounded individual.”

Ian Flores soccer Wiregrass Ranch High School

Local Soccer Players Headed To England For A Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity

Tampa Palms resident Patrick Callahan (left) and former Liberty Middle School student Julio Plata both earned two-year scholarships to play soccer in England.

Like most serious soccer players, Tampa Palms’ Patrick Callahan has dreams of playing professionally, and there are few places better to do that than in England’s Premier League.

And, while he is still years away from playing at that level, the chance to play and study nearby in one of soccer’s hotbeds was too good for Callahan and recent Liberty Middle School student and Lutz resident Julio Plata to pass up.

Both players were recently awarded scholarships to Brooke House College football academy in Market Harborough, England, less than an hour north of London by train.

Brooke House College is similar to Bradenton’s IMG Academy and Saddlebrook Prep in Wesley Chapel, in that it attracts international athletes to board at the school while undergoing intensive training in their sport while maintaining high academic standards.

The two-year scholarships are valued at roughly $45,000 per year. That includes travel costs; the academy went to Budapest, Hungary, for a tournament last month.

“They have a lot of great facilities,’’ said Callahan, who completed his freshman year at King High last spring. “It’s a great school, they have a really nice gym and training facility. When you train, they have you wear a vest tracking everywhere you run, it’s state of the art. School is like 5-6 hours a day, with small classes, tutoring and you train like six days a week. That’s the amazing part, that you get to play that much.”

Callahan’s father, John, encouraged his son to accept the scholarship offer. John was pleased with both the athletic and academic aspects of the program.

“He will be SAT-ready when he’s done,’’ he said.

The 15-year-old Callahan currently plays club soccer for the Temple Terrace-based Florida Soccer Club (FSC) Spirit of Tampa Bay U16, and already has some experience playing soccer abroad. His mother, Grace Amparo Callahan, is from Ecuador, and on past family summer trips to her country, he would often practice and play with the college players there.

“That’s what I’m expecting at Brook House, a high level of play,’’ he said.

The first day of tryouts for this unique “futbol” academy consisted of soccer drills and scrimmages, with Brooke House College coaches Mickey Adams and Lawrie Dudfeld looking on.

Callahan, who is tall and fast for his age, said was nervous at first.

“I remember I messed up one or two times, and they were like, ‘All right, big guy, get back to it,’” Patrick said. “At first I was playing kind of iffy. But in the scrimmage, I felt I was doing good and standing out. I felt that’s what got me to the next day.”

Plata, 13, who has been playing for the FC Tampa Rangers club team, felt he did well in the drills. A midfielder, he said he just tried to keep the ball at his teammates’ feet.

“I really just wanted to pass the ball and not lose it,’’ he said, smiling.

Day 2 featured a number of games, and Callahan remembers scoring a particularly impressive goal — beating two defenders before depositing the ball into the upper corner — that caught the coaches’ attention

The coaches pared down the group, and announced they would be picking two players to receive the scholarships. Callahan and Plata were among more than 20 finalists at the final day interviews.

Callahan wasn’t sure he pulled it off in the interviews, but was relived to hear his name called.

“At first, I was so excited,’’ he says. “I called my grandma, she lives with my aunt, and I heard them screaming and excited on the other line. I posted a picture with the news on Instagram and, in an hour, gained like 100 followers. That was really cool, too.”

For Plata and Callahan, the Brooke House College football academy opportunity is a chance to hone their soccer skills with top, hand-selected competition.

Founded in 2008, the program boasts more than 70 players ages 13-19 filling four club teams that play in the Junior Premier League and other leagues, while also competing in various cups across Europe, and has produced 12 professional players.

Callahan and Plata, though, both say that if they can come back better players than when they left, it will help their chances to play collegiately in the U.S.

They are both awaiting their visas from the British Consulate in New York, and are eager to book their flights.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” Plata says, “but I’m excited to go.”

England soccer

WCH Soccer Girls’ Ferocious Forwards Also Are Pernicous Passers

After fighting through injuries her first season, Victoria Mitchell has emerged as one of Pasco County’s top strikers, leading Wesley Chapel with 32 goals heading into the District 3A-7 playoffs. (Photo courtesy of TheCSSN.com)

As the sun sets on the 2016-17 winter girls soccer regular season, the Wesley Chapel High (WCH) Wildcats are looking like a team poised to make a deep playoff run and possibly take home the first girls soccer district title in school history.

It’s thanks in large part to the team’s two high-scoring forwards, senior Bailey Hern and junior Tori Mitchell.

“It’s great to watch,” WCH head coach Michelle Clark says. “They know where the other one is going to be and even when I move them to different positions, they still play off of each other.”

Coming out of Christmas break as the team heads into the Class 3A, District 7 tournament this week as the No. 2 seed, Mitchell now has a team-best 32 goals in 14 games played, and Hern is right behind her with 30 (in 17 games) for the Wildcats, who are 13-3-2, including 10-1-2 in Class 3A, District 7 play.

Mitchell has notched seven hat tricks this season, including four in an 11-day span last month. Hern has four.

Their season totals rank both of them in the top 13 of all goal scorers in Florida’s Class 3A.

While 2016-17 has been the first full year that they’ve played together in high school, their connection dates back to their one season on the same team at Weightman Middle School, when Hern was an eighth-grader and Mitchell was in seventh. They only overlapped one season at Weightman, as Hern attended Stewart MS for her sixth and seventh-grade seasons, but the chemistry was in the air even then.

“It made the game easier for me, having someone like that playing forward with me,” Hern says. “That’s definitely where the chemistry started.”

Yet, it would take a few years before the pairing really started to come to fruition.

Hern played on a struggling 4-13-1 team her freshman year at WCH while Mitchell was still at Weightman.

Senior forward Bailey Hern has 30 goals, and has scored 82 in three years on varsity, with 45 assists. (Photo courtesy of TheCSSN.com)

The duo was reunited for Hern’s sophomore season, but an injury sidelined Mitchell and the two didn’t share the field much. Hern, however, burst onto the prep scene with 30 goals and 18 assists during the 2014-15 season.

“It was hard at first with Tori’s injury,” Clark says. “But, we knew what the future held with these two, one day.”

The knee injury that sidelined Mitchell for much of her freshman season also cut into her sophomore campaign last season as well. She managed to play in 11 of the team’s 14 games in 2015-16, and the pair combined for 41 goals, with Hern scoring 22 and Mitchell tallying 19.

WCH finished as the District 3A-7 runners up, dropping a 2-1 overtime loss to Pasco in the title game.

This season, the tenacious tandem is back together full time and devouring opposing defenses.

What’s more, they are both tallying up assists at a fairly impressive rate, too. Currently, Hern leads the team with 14, and Mitchell has eight.

“We know where the other one likes the ball, and we know where they’re going to run to get the ball,” Hern says.

Even when Hern has to drop back to the midfield, she still knows where Mitchell will be and where she is going.

“Bailey is so versatile, she can drop back and play midfield to help out if we have an injury,” Mitchell said. “I know she’s always looking for me and she really knows how to get me the ball.”

Both readily admit that most of their assists are to each other, but teammates like freshmen Sophia Mitchell (11 goals, six assists) and Sydney Martin (five goals, six assists) and seniors Kelly Vester (nine goals, 11 assists) and Lauren Campoe (three goals, nine assists) have helped make the offense one of the best in the Tampa Bay area.

Last season, the Wildcats scored 83 goals in 21 matches and made the 3A Regional semifinals. This season, they have found the back of the net 103 times in 18 matches, or more than 5.7 goals per game.

“Even if we make mistakes, we are able to come back from them,” Clark says. “Any time (we’ve fallen behind) 1-0 this season, it’s like we’ve come back even stronger.”

With the Mitchell-Hern combo up top, it can be tough for opponents to stay in the game. The Wildcats have won 11 of their 13 wins by at least five goals.

“This year, we have depth that we haven’t had in years past,” Clark says. “The girls that come off the bench this year, play at a higher level than the subs we’ve had in years past.”

Clark and her team hope that this pushes them over the top, namely against District 3A-7 rival Pasco. The Wildcats tied the Pirates earlier in the season and fell 5-3 two weeks later with an injury-plagued squad.

The Pirates, who went 12-0-1 in the district, will be the top seed in the 3A-7 tournament, which begins next week at Weeki Wachee High in Hernando County.

Bulls Prepping For Tough District Tourney

The Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) girls soccer team is 11-7-5 heading into the Class 5A, District 7 tournament this week at Steinbrenner High in Tampa.

The Bulls will play the Warriors (9-2-1) in the first round of the tournament.

They went into the Christmas break on a three-game winning streak, outscoring opponents Fivay, Hudson and Ridgewood by a combined 13-0. Freshman keeper Hanna Taugner post all three shutouts in net. The Bulls enter the 5A-7 tournament winners of seven of their past eight matches.

Junior Rylind Robinson leads the team with 13 goals and five assists, senior Sydney Chase has nine goals, and Kat Llanos has eight goals and nine assists.

Girls soccer wesley chapel high