First Coast News spoke with girls who could one day play on Jacksonville’s new professional girls soccer team.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Girls who could one day play on Jacksonville’s first major league women’s professional sports team say they are excited about the opportunity.
The girls practicing Tuesday in Florida Elite Soccer Academy jerseys were part of a new collaboration that officials are calling one of the largest youth soccer pathways to professional soccer in the country. An announcement was made Tuesday that the team is scheduled to play at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium and that the inaugural kickoff is scheduled for next fall.
“This is a game changer in every way,” said Sean Bubb, executive director of the Florida Elite Soccer Academy.
Bubb said girls and women were forced to leave the area if they wanted to play football professionally.
“Before here, it was playing in college, and then there was no path unless you left, went somewhere else in the country or a foreign country,” Bubb said.
Bubb said he expects some of the girls practicing Tuesday will play professional soccer. He said eight of them have turned professional in the past two years.
“For us to have world soccer here in Jacksonville and the support that it’s going to bring, the opportunities for our kids and this community, I think it’s just amazing,” Bubb said.
“Now I want to play for Sporting Jax,” Khloe Roberts said.
“I think it’s a good thing to admire this result and to be able to have stepping stones to get there,” Sara Franklin said.
“Before, I really thought all the clubs were going to be hard to get into,” Sydney Auxier said. “But once I heard that Sporting Jax was going to become a professional team, I was very happy.”
Team members are ready to be a game-changer for soccer and women’s sports in Jacksonville.
“It’s really fun, but you definitely have to work really hard,” Roberts said.
“I just feel like the opportunities keep coming and I hope to be on one of those teams one day,” Linder said.
Sporting Jax subscriptions are already on sale for the women’s and men’s teams.