As Lakewood Ranch has grown, so has Chargers youth soccer

No one expected the crowds. 

The year was 2011, and the Lakewood Ranch Chargers youth soccer organization was hosting its first-ever tournament at the newly-built Premier Sports Campus. It was the club's now annual Labor Day Tournament, but back then, it was simply designed to give the kids in the organization something fun to do. 

It proved to be more popular than anyone anticipated. By the day of the tournament, so many teams had signed up that traffic became the stuff of nightmares, with cars lining State Road 70 from Premier down to the intersection with Lorraine Road where there is a Dunkin' — which became so inundated with parents looking for a caffeine buzz before the tournament that it ran out of coffee. 

"I think one of the pizza places ran out of pizza, too," said Antonio Saviano, the club's technical director. "It was just crazy."

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Saviano was running Premier Sports Campus at the time, and remembered well the stir the tournament caused. Saviano said it was a sign that soccer was going to stick in the area, something that has proven true to this day, when 98% of the club's participants live in areas with Lakewood Ranch zip codes. 

But the club was not always a foundation of the community. The Chargers Soccer Club was founded in the Clearwater area in the 1970s and established the Lakewood Ranch Chargers program in the late 2000s after hosting a tournament at the Sarasota Polo Club in 2005 and determining the area to be filled with untapped talent. It was so long ago, Saviano said, that stretches of University Parkway were still unpaved. 

The Chargers played at the Sarasota Polo Club until 2011 when Premier opened. It looked different than it does now. Saviano, who helped build the Premier facilities, said there were no buildings, just open fields, except for one small trailer where business operations were conducted. The club's tournaments drew well, but at the time, the club itself was small — part of the reason why the initial Labor Day tournament caught everyone off guard with its popularity. 

It stayed that way for a while. Saviano said when his son Francesco Saviano joined the club's recreational program at 6 years old in 2014, there were only 47 kids in his age range, barely enough for four teams' worth of 11-on-11 soccer. Today, the Chargers have approximately 1,000 kids in their program, between recreational soccer, a youth academy that preps athletes for higher levels of players, and multiple competitive travel teams, including a team in Major League Soccer's MLS Next league and a team in the United Premier Soccer League, which is affiliated with the U.S. Soccer Federation. 

"We do not try to be greedy and say 'Well, we'll just grow it as much as we can (no matter what),'" Saviano said. "The number of kids that remain in our program after trying it is high, and our coaching staff, we try to get them as educated as possible. You add those two things together and you get coaches who teach kids the right way to play, and you offer them a good program for them to grow their skills." 

Saviano said 22 of the club's 24 coaches have at least a D-level license with the U.S. Soccer Learning Center. Matt Cook, 20, is one of those coaches, teaching with the club's youth academy. He was in their shoes once, as one of the first players to join the Chargers back in the day. Cook said he joined the club in 2012 at 9 years old, having just moved to the area from Colorado. There were few bells and whistles to the experience back then, which was perhaps a good thing. It allowed the club's focus to be on the sport itself. 

"It was small," Cook said of the club. "And there wasn't much to this area yet, so all we could do was play soccer. But I liked playing here. I still know some of the people I played with as a kid, we're still friendly. Playing for the club helped me love the game." 

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Cook said he stuck with soccer as a player through the U19 level when a tibia injury sidelined him. Instead of intense rehab to quickly get back on the field, Cook, who was inspired by his past coaches, including his U12 coach Chrystian Angelletta, decided to try coaching himself. He's still new to it, Cook said, but he's enjoying imparting his wisdom on the kids. It has also allowed him to come full-circle. He is now coaching Sandon Angelletta, Chrystian Angelletta's son. 

The Chargers' growth is consistent with how Lakewood Ranch itself has grown over the years. Saviano said the amount of people moving to the area is one cause of the Chargers' rise, but it is not the only reason. The sports itself has also become more popular nationally as the U.S. Men's and Women's teams have success during global events like the World Cup. The Lakewood Ranch area has tried to capitalize on the international aspects of soccer, too. From 2011 through 2019, Premier Sports Campus played host to the Nike International Friendlies, where young fans could come and watch the U.S. U16 and U17 teams play international competition for free. 

Saviano said the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to the friendlies in 2020, and they have yet to return. Bringing events like those back to the area would give the club, and sport, and even greater boost, he said. Cook said the U.S. hosting the 2026 World Cup alongside Mexico and Canada will provide the biggest boost of all, on a national level. The more exposure the sport gets, he said, the better. 

As Lakewood Ranch continues to gain residents and soccer's popularity soars, the Chargers will continue to grow. But Cook said the club has not lost the dedication to the game that it instilled in him a decade ago, and it is something he tries to pass on to the kids in the youth academy. 

"Kids are used to hearing about soccer now," Cook said. "They want to go out and play it during recess with their friends. The Chargers is a great community to do that, from the parents to the kids to the coaches. Everyone's nice and there's a hungry atmosphere. It's a great organization and it's only going to get better."