Latest news with #Girls'SoccerCoachesoftheYear
Miami Herald
03-04-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Heritage's Marcial and Aquinas' Hantak are the Broward Girls' Soccer Coaches of the Year
St. Thomas Aquinas and American Heritage have long been the standard in girls' soccer in South Florida. In recent years, Heritage has been on one of the more memorable state championship runs in recent memory. And Aquinas, which still holds the most state titles in state history with 15, is inching closer to adding more to its trophy case. Heritage coach Cindy Marcial directed her squad to its third consecutive state championship and even greater heights as the Patriots went wire-to-wire as the nation's No. 1-ranked team. And at Aquinas, Hantak helped the Raiders reach the state championship game in Class 6A and achieve a top 10 national ranking as well. As such, Marcial and Hantak are the Miami Herald's Broward County Girls' Soccer Coaches of the Year. Marcial earns the honor for Classes 4A-1A after leading the Patriots to a 19-1 record and their 14th state title overall. Marcial has been a part of eight of those championships as head coach and this will be the first mythical national title won by Heritage since 2005. American Heritage's dominance was even more evident in the postseason where it beat all five regional and state opponents by a combined score of 30-0. The Patriots shut out their final 11 opponents. Marcial also recently won the Florida Dairy Farmers Association's State Coach of the Year award. 'We are all about tradition and we want to keep it going,' Marcial said. Aquinas nearly had its own dominant season end with a state championship after outscoring their own four playoff opponents 20-0 on the way to the state final. But the Raiders found themselves in a battle with St. Johns Bartram Trail and finished with a deflating 4-3 loss in overtime. Aquinas, however, returns several starters including Miami Herald 7A-5A Player of the Year Sophie Barnes, which should give it a great chance to make another run. 'It was a great game and Bartram is a great team,' Hantak said after the state final loss. 'We were looking forward to playing them all year and now we will look forward to playing them again next year.'
Miami Herald
19-03-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Ransom's Boada and Lourdes' Fique are the Miami-Dade Girls' Soccer Coaches of the Year
One of the two best teams in Miami-Dade County was a familiar face. The other was a newcomer to the upper echelon of Florida girls' soccer. After guiding each of their teams to the final four this year, Lourdes Academy's David Fique and Ransom Everglades' Antonio Boada are the Miami Herald's Miami-Dade County Girls' Soccer Coaches of the Year. After a one year absence from the state championship, Lourdes returned to the title game for the fifth time in six seasons and got to the Class 5A championship by dominating all other competition in Miami. The Bobcats went 9-0-1 against their Miami-Dade opponents and only lost two games all year, both to eventual team state champions. Fique, the Herald's Miami-Dade County Girls' Soccer Coach of the Year for Classes 7A-4A, has now been to the state championship in three of his four seasons as Lourdes' coach. He has been one of the Herald's Miami-Dade Girls' Soccer Coaches of the Year in all four seasons leading the Bobcats. Fique was an assistant coach at Lourdes prior to taking over as coach in 2021 and was part of the Bobcats' last state title in 2020. Boada, meanwhile, got the Raiders to the state semifinals for the first time by steadying Ransom Everglades through the expected ups and downs. After they slumped through a three-game winless streak to start 2025, the Raiders went undefeated the rest of the way until falling in the Class 2A semifinals. This is Boada's first time as one of the Herald's Girls' Soccer Coaches of the Year. Boada, the Herald's Miami-Dade County Girls' Soccer Coach of the Year for Classes 3A-1A, has turned Ransom Everglades into a perennial postseason fixture in his three years running the program. This year was a culmination, but also maybe the start of something new.
