Undefeated Madison soccer team wins championship

Undefeated Madison soccer team wins championship

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MADISON — Kevin Crothers said he had the honor of coaching an undefeated soccer team in the Madison Futbol Club and Mississippi Soccer Association (MSA) that not only won every game but also the championship last weekend.

For the last year, Crothers has been the head coach of the 2021-2022 Maroon Power Rangers, a U-12 boys soccer team in Madison.

“We had an undefeated 11-0 season in the fall of 2021, an undefeated 8-0 season in spring 2022, and from April 8 through April 10, we went undefeated 4-0 to take first place in Mississippi Soccer Association's Recreational Open Cup 2022 at Ballard Park in Tupelo, Mississippi,” Crothers said.

According to the Madison Futbol Club’s website, teams are community-based and they offer a Jackson, Madison, and Rankin Division.

Instead of fiercely competing for players, the Directors of Coaches for each club continue to work together to coordinate the formation of teams and placement of all players who want to participate in Division 1 soccer in these age groups. 

The goal of this agreement has always been to better serve all players, from the youth level through their college career, at a higher level than now possible for individual clubs in this area.

Crothers and his assistant coaches Wilson Morataya and Benjamin Voborsky coached players that had never played on a soccer team before, and only five of them had played more than a year of soccer.

“Wilson and I started twice-a-week practices as I got our rosters in the spring and fall of 2021, almost eight weeks before our first game in the fall, and six and a half weeks before our first game this spring,” Crothers said. “We practiced twice each week between our last regular spring season game and the state Open Cup tournament. All those practices are so valuable and helped our players learn how to not only kick the soccer ball and learn how to play positioned soccer but to get to know each other and become a very close team.” 

He said out of the 13 players he had for the entire spring 2022 season, 100 percent of them made up the roster for this year's MSA Recreational Open Cup 2022.  

“That's very rare since most teams are not usually able to have all their players attend due to scheduling conflicts, player injuries and/or illnesses, the costs of taking part in the tournament, or changing out players in an attempt to ‘stack’ their team,” Crothers said.

Out of the 23 games the Maroon Power Rangers won this year, they only had a total of 12 goals scored against them. 

“As for staying together as a team, all our players and their parents stayed at the same hotel in Tupelo for the tournament last weekend,” Crothers said. “The kids had so much fun working out in the fitness facility, swimming in the indoor pool, eating front desk snacks, playing games on the hotel's lobby computers, and most of all, enjoying a huge pizza and cinnamon twists meal at Tupelo's Lost Pizza on Saturday evening.”

11-year-old center midfielder Quest Crothers expressed his excitement about winning the gold.

“Tupelo's super strong winds sure tested our ball control,” he said. “But we dominated and finished the year undefeated with 23 wins in a row!”

Correy Elder, an 11-year-old forward for the Maroon Power Rangers, is all about working hard to achieve your goals.

“Work hard in school to be a champion in sports,” he said.

To learn more about the Mississippi Futbol Club, visit www.mfcsoccer.com. 






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