Pick-up games, formal club team practices, tournaments and inter-school competitions: Flagler Grove Park, located off 104 St. in Pinecrest, Fla., is home to the spirit of youth soccer culture. The Flagler Cup, brought to life by two friends, sought to use a bustling soccer scene for good and aimed to provide an outlet for teens and giving back. Alexander Berberich and Markus Nobell, seniors at Coral Reef High School and soccer enthusiasts, made this idea a reality.
On Sept. 1, the first Flagler Cup tournament took place: three groups and a knockout round, Miami Palmetto Senior High soccer players on team Avengers took home a win. The tournament’s rewards — a pair of new cleats and an official Inter-Miami Football Club jersey for the winning team — provided an incentive for the pay-to-play tournament, raising $500 for the United Nations Children’s Fund.
“[There are] always tournaments. But the thing is that with these tournaments, they don’t [host] for charity. We’re one of the first, if not the first, to [host a tournament] for charity. What we realized is that that means that we’re not going to have prize money because it’s all going to charity, so we needed to have another sort of grabber to people that are willing to participate,” Berberich said. “The charity that we chose is UNICEF because we like what they do and we like their goals and ambitions.”
Berberich’s connection with Tomas Yarala, owner of soccer apparel brand jy.kickz, provided the rewards. The tournament brought in around 60 players, with 12 teams of five making up the group stage, and the Avengers team winning.
“I reached out to my friend Tomas Yarala because he [has] a cleat company. I asked him if I could have a pair of cleats, a pair of gloves, a pair of backpacks, shin guards, an Inter-Miami shirt, and then multiple pairs of socks, just to hand out to everyone,” Berberich said.
For MPSH senior and tournament winner Giovanni Mercier, playing soccer his whole life has allowed him to appreciate the spirit of service behind the tournament.
“I’ve been playing soccer pretty much my whole life. I started at two years old, and I’ve been playing it ever since, I definitely want to pursue it. Talking to a few colleges, I have my own personal training camp,” Mercier said. “Our team was called the Avengers. [The team was] a bunch of our boys and we just pulled up randomly to Flagler. We were going to go to train and then we saw the tournament going on and decided to join, it seemed like a really good cause.”
With plans to further their efforts, The Flagler Cup is set to take place once again on Oct. 27 and Nov. 3. The microculture of pickup soccer at locations like Flagler only grows, with passionate patrons and motives for good.
“This tournament was very unique in the way that this is for charity, and this is a very unique idea. Most tournaments are usually for money, but this one was for charity and to help kids in need. But I’m glad that people showed up and were willing to contribute to this cause … We had microphones, we had judges, interviewers, an Instagram account with stories, overall, it was a very great tournament,” Berberich said.
