Hattiesburg, MS – As part of The Academy’s commitment to excellence and to bringing top quality guest coaches in to work with our players, Antonio Mariel surprised our Wednesday night practice teams at the 4.30 pm and 6.15 pm sessions. ‘Tony’ who is from Brazil, worked with the ’05-’08 age groups first before putting our goalkeepers through some tough drills. Tony is a long-time friend of our Director of Soccer Operations, Nigel Boulton. “Tony was the goalkeeper coach during my time in Boston with the old ‘A’ League professional franchise the Worcester Wildfire”. Nigel explained, “We were the farm team for the MLS New England Revolution during what was a very interesting time in U.S. soccer. There were lots of memories and old names to look back on. I moved on to Mississippi and Tony eventually left for Florida. We stayed in touch over the years and it was nice to be able to work together again if only for a night. Tony was impressed by the level saying it was better then he had expected”. Tony was given an open invitation to return and smiled, “I thoroughly enjoyed the visit. It is an amazing development going on both on and off the field here at The Oakes and from what I have heard also at the centers in Birmingham and Lucedale. I wish Southern States Soccer the very best as they go forward”.

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