Skills, accountability the soccer goal for Braden River SC

A quick announcement from Coach Nick Leduc that practice had begun was all it took for Braden River Soccer Club's U11 boys soccer team to get going. 

They went through warm-ups by themselves, drill to drill, as Leduc silently watched from afar. Before his nudge, the boys were chit-chatting and playing games with each other. Now there was nothing but determination on their faces. They worked diligently and never got off-task. That was the idea, Leduc told me. 

"I want this to be their team, not my team," Leduc said. "They lead themselves."

Well, almost.

Leduc still needs to act as an instructor. They're 11 years old and younger, after all and they have plenty of skills to learn. But as far as accountability and responsibility go, they have got that down pat.

The players takes each workout seriously, and it has paid dividends. The team is ranked by GotSoccer as the 60th-best in the U.S. as of Nov. 27 (and fourth in Florida). 

The team preaches communication on the field. I know this not because Leduc told me, but because almost all the players mentioned it when I pulled them aside. Clearly, they listen well. During practice, the team conducted a passing drill while confined to a small area of the field. It took a lot of communication to find open people. They succeeded again and again. Leduc said their sideline conversations sound like NFL sidelines in terms of holding each other accountable. He takes pride in that, and so do they. 

"We don't have one star player who juggles the ball through everybody," 9-year-old Gavin Petricca said. "There's no spotlight player. Our spotlight is the team and how we work together. That is what is so fun about playing with these guys."

It is Braden River's togetherness that has allowed the team to compete with much larger clubs. For context, Leduc said Braden River has approximately 2,000 kids in its system, while they routinely play clubs with 15,000 or more kids in their systems. It's a lot easier to find talent when you have that large a numbers advantage.

Yet they do compete. On Nov. 1, Braden River won the 29th-annual Largo Halloween Tournament, which featured 65 clubs. Braden River went 3-0, winning the championship game 8-0 over the Florida Celtic Soccer Club. Leduc said the team's success is a credit to the kids' hard work. 

Braden River's players are proud of their accomplishments, but that's not all they care about. 

"It's not just on the field," 10-year-old Ace Calvari said. "We have a connection outside of soccer, too. We have lot of cookouts and team dinners together and we have a lot of fun."

And isn't that what it's all about?

Winning is great, and Braden River does a lot of it, but they're still kids. All the success in the world wouldn't matter if they weren't enjoying themselves, but the players are all best friends. Most of them have played together in some form or another for three years now. They have built bonds that will hopefully last well beyond this season.