- January 27, 2026
Averi Miller with her trophies for winning the local, district, region, state and Southeast Region titles in the 8U Elks Soccer Shoot Program. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Kevin Miller, Averi Miller, Kendall Miller and Rashawnda Lloyd-Miller. Photo by Brent Woronoff
From left, Palm Coast Elks Lodge's Ray Williams and Charlie Bensley, Kevin Miller, Averi Miller, Elks Lodge's Heather Thompson, Rashawnda Lloyd-Miller, Palm Coast Elks Lodge 2709 Exalted Ruler Pete Lehnertz, Kendall Miller and Elks Lodge's Gail Williams. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Averi Miller, 8, couldn’t remember when she started playing soccer. Her mother answered for her.
“She has been on a soccer field her whole life,” Rashawnda Lloyd-Miller said. “She started playing when she was 3, because her older sister (Kendall, now 12,) was playing.”
At age 8, Averi has a chance to become a national champ. She won the Elks Soccer Shoot U-8 Southeast Regional on Jan. 18 at the Florida Elks Youth Camp in Umatilla. Her competition included kids from Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. They had to shoot a soccer ball into five goals from 15 feet out. The goals varied in width from 48 inches down to 18 inches.
Averi won four previous competitions to get to the Southeast Region, starting with the local Palm Coast Elks Lodge 2709 competition on Oct. 18. She then won the district in DeLand, and the Florida region in mid-December and then the state championship on Jan. 3, both at the Elks Youth Camp.
At the Southeast Regional, she converted 24 of 25 shots, missing one on the 18-inch goal, to score 40 out of a possible 45 points. The national competition is virtual with all of the regions reporting their results by April, said Ray and Gail Williams, who administer the Soccer Shoot program for the Palm Coast lodge. After winning the region title, Averi participated in a tiebreaker round that could be used pending other national results. She scored on four of the five goals.
Averi posed with her collection of Elks Soccer Shoot trophies at Belle Terre Park on Thursday, Jan. 22. She is a third grader at Wadsworth Elementary School. She and Kendall both play up (for higher age-group teams) with Inter-United Soccer Club in Palm Coast. They also participate in the Flagler County Youth Soccer Association at Wadsworth Park.
When Averi competed in the local Elks Soccer Shoot event, she said she couldn’t believe how big the largest goal was and how small the 18-inch goal was. But she soon got the hang of it.
“When I missed a shot [on the small goal at the Southeast Regional], I thought I should have made it,” she said.
Averi also competes in track and field and Kendall also plays flag football, but Kendall said soccer “is better than all of the other sports.”
Their father, Kevin Miller, played football. He never played soccer, so when working out with the girls he said he concentrates on physical fitness and not the finer points of their favorite game.
