NONA Longhorns – NONA Football Club Season 1
By: Fabio Silva ~ August 2, 2022
I can not believe we have already reached the end of the USL-2 season with Nona Football Club, but to us at Nona, it’s just the beginning. We started with the goal to provide a connection between the next level and the youth community of NONA Soccer Academy. Now 3 months later, we can say how important and successful this project has been to our community and to the future of soccer in Lake Nona and in Central Florida.
Of course the title of the Southeastern Conference in the first year of existence for this program was extremely important, however the success of the first year has given us so many intangibles victories that will be extremely important to the future of our program and the Student Athletes.
This professional program led by Coach Gui Henry and his Coaching Staff, has opened relationships with top Collegial Soccer Programs in the country, schools such as Akron, Kentucky, Rollins College, UCF, Marshall, just to name a few. There are many schools across the country willing to extend players to NONA FC! And, just as important, NONA FC gives the college coaches a solid program to keep an eye on when looking into NONA players for their school future.
We participated in a great scrimmage against the Orlando City B squad which only enhanced the relationship with the Orlando City Academy even stronger. It’s exciting to share we have a professional relationship for exchanging ideas in regards to coaches and players alike.
But the most important by far is that we were able to do all of this with our OWN Coaches! Not only have we proven the quality of the coaches coming out of NONA Soccer Academy, but we will continue to provide a platform for coaches development, in my opinion, the most important success of NONA FC.
Lastly, but certainly not least, the connection between the youth and community to their young role models was impressive! Not only from the Nona Kids with the older guys but the other way around! Our Community deserves a team to represent them at the highest level in all aspects of the game, on and off the field, and these guys are willing to come back and do it all over again!
Thank you Sponsors. Thank you Community Members. Thank you Fans. Lake Nona, you now have a successful team to call your OWN!