West Pines United proudly acknowledges the accomplishments of our sponsored and coached teams who emerged champions at the Kick-It 3 v 3 World Championships held last month at Disney’s Wide-World-Of-Sports. Of the 4 teams who qualified for the event, two emerged victorious in the U-9 and U-7 divisions respectively. Though not faring as well as the above-mentioned squads, our second U-9 Boys team and U-11 girls performed admirably and are looking forward to competing in next year’s events. 

The Florida Fire FC, led by former WPU player-turned-coach, Anderson Rico, won all 8 games played to win the title at the U9 Boys Gold Division. Seeded in mid-pack at the start of the competition and trailing 1-2 at half-time in the championship game, the squad of George Acosta, Nicholas Guilliod, Nathan Haynes, Luigi Cubeddu and Felipe Batista exploded for six unanswered goals against the Texas Gunners to claim top honors. The victory dethroned Chicago United Black, the undefeated champions for the past three years.  

Two-time National 3v3 champions, Future Legends FC, had the target squarely placed on their backs when competing in the Boys U-7 Gold Division. Displaying a maturity way past their age, the squad of Zach Haynes, Richard De La Fuente, Juan Pablo Pannunzio, Memphis Parker, Fabrizio Cubeddu and Sebastian Lago blew the competition away when also winning all 8 of their games. Down a goal early in the final game, the Cole Haynes coached team, ably assisted by coach Kraig Parker of North Florida, silenced their very vocal opposition when erupting for ten unanswered goals to take the championship.

Though the Future Legends are not currently registered with West Pines United because of their very young ages, they train, play and participate with the club at our offered venues throughout the year and will be eligible for club enrollment later this year. Third place finishers at last year’s event, the boys displayed the dedication, determination, desire and skill required to become champions.

Semi-finalists at the 3v3 Nationals, our second U-9 boys’ team played a total of five games, going down by the odd goal in four of their matches with their fifth ending in a tied affair. Members of the squad included Matthew Levy, Gage Richard, Nick Gama, Michael Reid, Yannick Blackman and guest, Ignacio. The team was coached by Keith Richard.

Not entering the team that had won the National title, coach Patrick Chin’s U-11 girls proved no match for the powerful competition faced at the World’s. Though fighting valiantly, the team exited after group play minus anything in the win column but vowing to return better prepared next time around were  Kristen Abreu, Isabella De Almagro, Taylor Deoro, Gabriella Moreira, Eve Pithey and Patricia Yordan.

Congratulations to all our teams who, once again, made us very proud of their accomplishments.