INDIALANTIC, Fla. — Indialantic Youth Soccer Association (IYSA) is a soccer team that has been building soccer champions in Florida for the past 40 years. When the club was founded in 1979, it took five years to organize itself. As of February 1984, everything was in place to get the club going.

The club is a member of the Florida Youth Soccer Association and Brevard Youth Soccer League. It comprises both competitive and recreational teams from ages 4 to 18 for both boys and girls. Its home ground is at South Cocoa Beach, central Florida’s Space Coast.

One thing that makes the IYSA stand out is that it has one of the lowest registration fees compared to other sports teams. With this small fee, you are guaranteed professional training sessions. In addition, they have more qualified trainers and coaches than most clubs around. Their coaches include goalie coaches and there are qualified trainers for all age groups.

With all these in place and more, the club has the country’s largest Kicks for Tots program. They have won two state championships and two consecutive regional championships in 2015 and 2016.

In March 2015, the Indialantic U13 girls won the regional cup championship in Palm Bay after trashing the Westside Jacksonville 5-1 in the semifinal and then Orlando City 4-1 in the finals.

“I couldn’t be more proud,” Coach Brendan McCarthy said after the girls won the championship. “To watch them compete against and ultimately defeat teams from huge soccer clubs like Jacksonville and Orlando is pretty awesome.”

This year alone, several of the teams in the club have won championships thanks to the professional trainers and coaches who work tirelessly to ensure that the players and the team are always at their best.

The U11 boys, under coaches Justine Hargreaves and Nate Gustafson, made the final of the Vero Winter Cup in December. The U14 boys won the Space Coast Cup in November and the Bazooka Soccer Classic Tournament Championship in October. Meanwhile, the U13 boys under Coach Austine Downie won the Florida State Premier League Championship in October.

In addition, three teams from the club, the U10, U11 and U14, won the Hurricane Classic Tournament Championship in each of their divisions.

The girls teams are not left behind. In May this year, the U12 girls made the finals of the Brevard Cup, while the U17 girls were the champions playing up in the U19 division.

The IYSA is not just in the business of winning trophies but also in the business of developing players, both boys and girls. In 2014, Emma Iorio, 15, and Melissa Marler, 13, were the two privileged soccer players from Florida to juggle a soccer ball on the helipad in Los Angeles with Mia Hamm.

“This was a really great experience,” Iorio said after meeting Hamm, a retired professional soccer player, a two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup Champion and a two-time Olympic gold medalist. “It really inspired me to become a better soccer player and leader on and off the field.”

Most recently, Tana Burgreen was selected in October 2021 to the Olympic Development Program Pool for Florida girls soccer. Several other players are making big waves in soccer just because they associated themselves with one of the best soccer teams in Florida.

The IYSA is indeed building soccer champions.

This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.