Lakeland United, Florida Tropics join forces to develop Polk County soccer talent
After realizing that both programs together actually complete a full pathway, the Florida Tropics and Lakeland United soccer organizations decided to move forward with an official partnership that will help develop local talent.
Becoming official this past January, Florida Tropics x Lakeland United: College Soccer Partnership will kick off in August with the start of the new school and youth soccer calendar year.“It feels like bridging a missing gap,” Lakeland United head coach Tauan Salgado said. “Our dream at Lakeland United FC, since our official inception in 2021, was to always create a full pathway for soccer in our community, from early age all the way to the college soccer and pro soccer careers. As our immediate focus has been the gap year and college prep program, we’ve always felt like we were missing a big piece of the puzzle: the earlier and deeper development of young soccer athletes.
“Up until today, our job was to find/recruit talented 17-18 (year old) kids and take them to their next step, which is a college soccer scholarship. Starting in August, we will have a partner who does an amazing job creating a culture of true development for the kids, both on and off the field. We will have a feeder program that will serve as our academy, and that will propel these young men and women for a successful college career with Lakeland United FC serving as the last preparation step.”
How did the Lakeland United get to this partnership? Salgado said his program took notice of many soccer programs being very segmented. In other words, those programs are only good or even experts in one or two areas, but they never comprise the system in its entirety. Salgado said he believes that, in joining forces, both the Lakeland United and Florida Tropics will be unique in the sense of creating a full pathway for competitive soccer.
This new program will start at the usual competitive earliest ages (7-8 years old), passing through the middle and high school years, all the way to college years and even focusing on providing guidance for the post-college careers. While soccer is only a part of each kid’s story, there is a world of opportunities beyond the world’s most popular sport, and Salgado said that the Lakeland United and the Florida Tropics want to ensure they are creating this unique timeline that will guide them in full.“Polk County is the fastest growing county in our country right now, and a common thread that we see happening today is that the top local talent from our county is scattered around Tampa, Orlando and the Greater Central Florida area. The reason given by many is the lack of a comprehensive soccer program that is designed to meet the full pathway,” Salgado said. “Both Lakeland United FC and the Florida Tropics Academy need each other in order to be able to fulfill this complete pathway.”
Lakeland United is known to have an enormous pool of international players, while the Florida Tropics Academy has the heart of the Lakeland and Polk County communities. Salgado said the aim is to foster a special cultural exchange system within the Polk County community, which will range from languages, personalities, physical traits, style of play, among many other aspects.As for the Florida Tropics Academy, it will continue to work with the current age groups that range from 7-8 years old all the way to 16-17 years old, which are the usual ages within the youth soccer timeline. Lakeland United FC will continue to work with student-athletes that range from 16-17 all the way to 22-23 years of age. How it works in unison is that once these young student-athletes complete their full pathway through the youth soccer system with the Tropics, Lakeland United will take over and guide them through the college placement process, as well as the semi-professional level of competition.Both parties encourage the young boys and girls from Polk County to sign up for the Florida Tropics Academy tryouts that are coming up in April and May. And from this point on, Lakeland United FC’s coaching staff and directors of recruitment will be actively participating in the evaluations of top local talent prior and during their official youth soccer seasons and together, the programs will create a system to guide each player individually.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland United, Florida Tropics join forces to develop Polk County soccer talent
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