Fort Myers Florida- GPS Florida West are pleased to bring you our inaugural newsletter covering some of our Clubs successes throughout January, some expansive knowledge on GPS and Bayern Munich and how they have been performing as a whole as well as a Parent/Player education piece that focuses on sideline demeanor this month. GPS Florida West January Events The end of December/beginning of January allowed some of our Premier teams to compete on one the biggest College Showcase stages in the USA at Disney. The U18 Boys came out of their bracket 1-1-1 after facing some good competition from Michigan, New York and getting their win against Sporting Kansas Citys Pre Academy Team. The U16 Boys were extremely unlucky not to make the finals after winning two games against Michigan and Georgia teams but a slow start and a loss to Louisiana 3-2 in the first game it wasn t enough. Our U15 Boys also went 1-1-1 in their bracket with a tie against Tampa Bay United and their win coming on the final day in emphatic fashion beating the Dallas Texans 5-3. The boys showing was followed by the U17 Girls, playing in the very top Showcase division in the event, the highlight coming when they beat opponents from New Jersey (currently ranked #12 in the Nation) 3-1 in front of a host of eager and impressed College Coaches. Their efforts were superseded by a wonderful showing by our U16 Girls as they went undefeated through to the Championship final before being narrowly beaten 1-0 in a very tight game vs a very tough Virginia team. Congratulations to our Showcase teams on not only qualifying for such a prestigious event but showcasing well for the on looking College recruiters.
As the year turned the focus turned somewhat to some of our younger age groups as Technical Director Danny Fahey was fortunate enough to take 7 of GPS Florida West very own U13 Boys (Cooper Banks, Thurburn Botterill, Tyler Dwyer, Lucas Galvis, Adrian Mojica, Antonio Portes and Jack Ross) across the country to Los Angeles California in order to represent GPS Florida at the FC Bayern Munich Junior Showcase. The FCB Junior Showcase is a GPS event designed to put all of GPS's top players from all over the United States in one place in order for the Bayern Munich Youth staff (Sebastian Dremmler and Thomas Dollner) to evaluate the best of what GPS has to offer. After sweeping away the competition it was clear that some of our Florida players had done enough to be selected for the GPS Bayern National team due to compete in The Super Cup Northern Ireland this Summer. Watch the video below for a quick rundown on this prestigious and inaugural event! CLICK HERE TO WATCH HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FC BAYERN Jr. SHOWCASE
STAY TUNED FOR INFO ON THOSE THAT MADE THE SQUAD IN NEXT MONTHS ISSUE The end of January saw our Club travel to Orlando to compete in the GPS Pre Season Classic where as a Club we showed very well as usual. All in all we had 8 finalists, 3 Champions and 5 Runners Up. Congratulations to all the teams and in particular to our 2008 Girls, 2003 and 2004 Boys for claiming the Championship at this wonderful tournament. GPS as a whole During January GPS's main event was that of The FC Bayern Showcase as covered above. This year the event covered Boys and Girls born in 2003 and 2004. With our 2004 Boys competing for spots on the GPS Bayern National Team some of them will be lucky enough to follow in the footsteps of GPS Florida West players Tobias Mckay, Andy Echemendia and Kevin Berrios who all competed for The National Team last year at The Super Cup in Northern Ireland. Our very own Kevin Berrios was in fact the player that scored the last minute goal against Liverpool's Professional Academy to tie the game. Tune in at around 35 seconds to see this famous goal and celebration! CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH KEVIN'S GOAL AGAINST LIVERPOOL F.C.
The Boys that are lucky enough to follow this path will be considered as and play amongst GPS's very best 04 Boys. One of which, Jack Panayotou teamed up with our GPS Soccer Assassin's to put together the below video that having already gone viral has been viewed worldwide over different platforms by millions of people as well as GPS Soccer Assassin's boasting over 283k followers of their own. CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO THAT PUT YOUNG JACK INTO THE SPOTLIGHT. Jack also visited Germany and trained with The Bayern Munich Youth Team along with fellow GPS Florida player Luke Alexander last year. Here's his feature by Fox Sports. Hopefully GPS Florida West will soon have our very own Social Media sensation!
CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH FOX SPORTS REPORT ON JACK Parent/Player Education As part of our ongoing Parent/Player education piece we wanted to give you an insight into sideline behaviors and how we expect our members to conduct themselves before/during/after games. Although we all sign Code of Conducts at the beginning of each season we feel as though maintaining high standards throughout the year and we hope this helps remind our members of some of the things we (as an Elite Level professionally run Soccer club) expect of our members throughout the season: Absolutely no sideline (parent) Coaching- Although this can sometimes be a grey area with what can and cannot be said it is better to keep all sideline communication to positive and uplifting statements, cheering and most importantly encouragement in order to breed confidence! Any instructions can confuse the players due to the instructions being counterproductive or sometimes just plain wrong. Let the players make the decisions, it s LITERALLY the only way to learn. Parents to remain on the opposite sideline to the Coaches/Players- Not behind the Goals and most certainly not on the Coach/Player sideline. This includes siblings of players on the team! Parents/Siblings/Friends are not to approach the bench area unless specifically invited by the Coach or a genuine emergency has occurred. Let the Coaches Coach, Let the referees Referee, Let the Players Play and Parents should concentrate on being Parents (as above, encouraging, supportive, loving and enjoying) Never under any circumstances get into a verbal or physical altercation with the referees or anybody from the opposition whether that be Players, Coaches or Parents. We have witnessed some unsavory characters being less than appropriate towards our own
Players/Coaches during games but as GPS Florida West we are to rise well above that behavior. Do not question/abuse/disrespect the refereeing crew under any circumstances. If there is an inquiry to be made at any point during the game it is the Coaches job to do so. Below is a short video that was released during the FA s (English Football Association s) RESPECT campaign. It features the well-known actor Ray Winstone and although it is an entertaining clip there lies some truth in some of the behaviors that may be witnessed on a sideline. CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH RAY'S TAKE ON QUESTIONABLE SIDELINE DEMEANOR We appreciate your continued support and diligence in these areas as we look forward to more exciting months ahead as GPS Florida West Directors, Coaches, Players, Parents and Supporters! Next Month Our next feature will include all of the exciting things GPS Florida West Players and Staff experienced throughout February including: GPS Florida West represented in South Carolina at the GPS National Team Camp. Announcements on GPS Florida Players that were selected for the GPS National Teams. More info on the exciting pathway GPS Florida West is following in order to propel us to the very top!