It’s been a full year of being Brave SC and what a year it’s been! One year ago today, we announced our new name and so many things have happened in the last 365 days.We played in our seventh Open Cup, announced the first affiliate club in the international Brave SC Network, won another Southeast Division title, and continued to grow in many different ways.What has truly made it such an amazing year, though, is having our BuffaloFamily along for the ride, so thank you for your unending support of our club and we’re looking forward to the next year of Brave SC and many more to come!Meanwhile, here’s what’s been happening elsewhere:
Several of our players picked up right where they left off at the end of summerwith outstanding college seasons.Leo Andrade and Breno Correia were both standouts for Gardner-Webb thisseason, earning All-Conference honors. Leo Tallied four goals and an assistand Breno assisted on three tallies en route to the Big South title. The Runnin’Bulldogs defeated Oregon State in the first round of the NCAA tournamentbefore bowing out to third-seeded Denver.Niclas Wittur appeared in 12 matches for Duke University while playing hisgraduate year for the Blue Devils, who reached the second round of the NCAAchampionship bracket.
Nicolai Muench completed another successful season at Southern IllinoisEvansville where he earned MVP awards in the Ohio Valley Conferencetournament. Winning the tournament sent the Cougars to the NCAA tournamentfor the first time since they returned to Division I competition in 2022. In his first year at Georgia State, Yuki Nakamura played the fourth-mostminutes of any Panther. He assisted on the team’s biggest goal of the year —and 89th-minute tying score against #4 Marshall.
Down the coast at Palm Beach Atlantic, Agustin Iusem tied for the team lead in goals with four and Agustin Belgiorno notched one while taking just two shots all season long. Further up Florida’s Atlantic coast, Oscar Resano also led histeam in scoring with four goals for Jacksonville University.
Alvaro Carrera made an immediate impression in his first year of collegiatesoccer, earning USCAA Men’s Soccer Player of the Year at Bryant & StrattonCollege. Alvaro scored 17 goals in just 13 games, third most in Division I.
In his third year at Montgomery College, Joao Ribeiro was voted a captain byhis teammates and paid back that honor with four assists while helping lead theRaptors to a 13-1-4 mark and a 10-0-1 conference record.
Around the Brave SC Complex...
We've kept plenty busy at our place here in Summerfield. We wrapped up avery successful youth season in November with several teams vying for topspots in their divisions.Our U19 Elite team, full of future USL2 stars, sits atop the National LeagueSunshine Conference table after making it to the midseason break undefeated.Also, our U13 Elite Team is battling for a top spot its first season in the FloridaState Premier League after playing the hardest part of the schedule in the fall!We also hosted a referee certification clinic in November and will host two U.S.Soccer Coaching Grassroots certification courses in January.
To 2025 and beyond!
Summer may seem far away as the cold weather has just arrived in Florida, butwe’re already making preparations for the 2025 USL League Two campaign.This year, Brave SC has declined its invitation to the Lamar Hunt U.S. OpenCup. While we’re proud of our club’s history in North America’s oldest soccer tournament, the format of the Cup has made it unreasonable for us to compete without the players who will be on our League Two team. College players aren't released to play for clubs until May and, with the start of the tournament shifting earlier and earlier, we have very few players available and we don’t want to represent our club and our fans with anything less than the standard that we uphold during the season.We hope that the format will once again make it feasible for us to compete, but we will take this year off and hope the prestige and sporting excitement of the tournament will return in future editions.We’re in talks now about scheduling events for the season and the league’s annual meeting is coming soon. We’ll start scheduling talks in about five weeks and then it’s off to the races with tryouts in January and February!
We can't wait to see you all again soon. Thank you again for being part of ourclub and continuing to make what we do worthwhile!
Go Buffalo!
