Great expectations: Bookend freshmen classes have energized FPC girls soccer team and veteran coach Pete Hald

The Bulldogs' seniors were impactful as freshmen. Now they see a new group that reminds them of themselves.

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Flagler Palm Coast’s girls soccer coaches have anticipated this year’s senior class since the players arrived on campus three years ago as freshmen.

It didn’t take long for that group to make an impact. Six freshmen on the 2023-24 team combined to score 30 goals.

But now that their senior year has arrived, another group of freshmen is dominating the conversation.

Pete Hald, who is entering his 36th season as the Bulldogs’ head coach, just finished his 26th Go to Goal Camp on July 30. Thirty-five players participated this year — enough to stock three soccer teams. Fourteen of the campers were incoming freshmen and two were eighth graders, still a year away from high school. For the youngest players, the camp is invitation only. They more than held their own.


I had 19 freshmen with their parents show up at our freshman meeting. I invited [most] of them. That’s a record for freshmen coming to camp.
— PETE HALD

“I had 19 freshmen with their parents show up at our freshman meeting,” Hald said. “I invited [most] of them. That’s a record for freshmen coming to camp. The rising senior group was a good group as freshmen, but there weren't that many of them, at least not at the level that some of these girls are at.

“There’s more of them at a higher level,” Hald said. “I'm not saying that they're like some of the rising seniors I have now, but definitely the potential is there. I can see three or four of them possibly being part of the first team right off the bat, and we’ve got a lot of upperclassmen coming back, too, so I don't think numbers are going to be a problem.”

The seniors are excited about the skill level of their new teammates.

“They're all really good players, so it's not going to be like, we're going to have a bad bench,” said Hailey Sammons, a returning captain. “We're going to have on-and-off amazing players throughout the game.”


LAST HURRAH

FPC has high expectations for its eight returning seniors, including Ivy Chen who missed last season because of ACL surgery after scoring a total of 27 goals in her freshman and sophomore seasons. Gianna Reyes, who was part of the freshman class three years ago, is also returning to the fold after playing at DME Academy last year.

“We’ve all played together over the years whether it was Ormond [Beach Soccer Club] or Inter-United [Soccer Club of Palm Coast],” said senior midfielder Skyler Strickland. “We had played together in seasons past to build up towards that freshman summer, so it was easy for us, because we had each other.”

Senior forward Lauralee Macleod, who scored a team-high 16 goals last season a year after she broke her collarbone, said the seniors on the team that first season warned them how quickly their high school years would fly by. They were unconvinced.


Our freshman year the seniors said it's going to go by fast, and we didn't believe them. It's gone by very fast.
— LAURALEE MACLEOD

“Our freshman year the seniors said it's going to go by fast, and we didn't believe them,” Macleod said. “It's gone by very fast.”

“We all talk about it,” Sammons said, “How it moves really quick and how everybody should just enjoy it.”

Strickland said Hald is calling their final season, which begins Nov. 2, their last hurrah.

“It’s definitely scary,” she said. “We were in Coach Hald’s office the other day looking at all of the photos on his wall from the past 35 years. And we were like, wow we’re going to be dust on the wall just like all of these photos. It’s definitely going to be a memory thing. We’re always going to have these memories with us, ones that shape your life and your personality. These are some of your best friends at the end of the day.”


GREAT SUMMER

As he prepares for season No. 36, Hald is excited, not because of his team’s experience, talent and depth, but because of the enthusiasm he’s seen all summer, led by the heady determination of the seniors and the youthful exuberance of the freshmen.

“It’s been a great summer,” Hald said. “Turnout has been awesome all summer. We've been averaging probably right around 25 every time, whether it's the weight room or the beach workouts or the 7v7 [summer league on Friday nights].”

Strickland has not missed a single session all summer.


I like to put a lot on soccer. I don't know if I'm going to continue at the college level, so I might as well finish strong with all I can and give it my all. And I just enjoy being out here with all these girls. They make it really fun. It's the best part of my day, every day. That's what I look forward to.
— SKYLER STRICKLAND

“I like to put a lot on soccer,” she said. “I don't know if I'm going to continue at the college level, so I might as well finish strong with all I can and give it my all. And I just enjoy being out here with all these girls. They make it really fun. It's the best part of my day, every day. That's what I look forward to.”

The Bulldogs finished 14-3-5 last year and won the Five Star Conference tournament for the first time.

“Knock on wood, if everything works out OK, we should have a very successful season with the program — both teams [JV and varsity],” Hald said. “I knew when this group was going to be seniors that they were going to be good. And we have some great additions, some pieces that we lost that we’ve replaced.”

The four-day camp ended with a full 11-on-11 game, followed by a catered barbecue dinner for about 100 people to end the team’s summer. Club season was scheduled to start the following week with players scattering to their various teams. Hald started his countdown.

“I told them, you got 10 weeks before tryout (on Oct. 12),” he said.

Then comes season No. 36 for Hald and his FPC program, season No. 4 for a group that showed great promise in its first Go To Goal Camp three years ago and season No. 1 for another promising freshman class ready to get started.

 

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