ORANGE PARK – Princeton-bound Kamy Loustau, a senior on the St. Johns Country Day School girls soccer team, had a lot to live up to what with the Lady Spartans only attempting to be the very best soccer team not only in Florida, not only in Class 1A, but in the USA.

Mission accomplished.

Loustau scored an amazing 32 goals for coach Mike Pickett against some of the top defenses in Florida with 22 assists to be the, proverbial point man on the Spartan attack and for that she leads the Clay Today SUPER 11 girls soccer team members.

The Clay Today SUPER 11 teams are chosen by the Clay Today sports A-team staff and represent the very best players of 2019.

Loustau being top of the list, the Lady Spartans, obviously with their eighth straight Class 1A title, their 11th title for Pickett and a few mentions in national lists, populated the Clay Today SUPER 11 with some amazing performances from relatively new players in a year that was supposed be a rebuild and reload year.

Eighth grader Lauryn Mateo emerged as a solid up and coming player for Pickett with 17 goals while freshman Kamyrn Towers popped off 13 goals with 22 assists; mainly to Loustau striking in from the center of the field to add two more Spartans to the list.

In goal, senior Maddie Wilkes, though not having the burden of fielding many shots on goal, just 55 (2.5 shots per game), due to the forward moving offensive sets of Pickett, still came away with 18 shutouts in the 21 win, two loss season. Wilkes’ only losing games; to both of the eventual Class 4A championship teams; Montverde Academy; the champions, and Archibishop McCarthy, the runnerups, in games of 2-1 and 3-0.

One of the more potent ‘no-stat’ players for Pickett and a candidate for ‘secret weapon’ is senior Payton Walton who, though scoring just eight goals, was the best sideline throw player in the state; maybe of all time. Walton was called in for nearly all throw-ins and had the ability; from far and from close, to find either Paige Crews or Loustau for header goals. Uncanny.

Down south in Keystone Heights, the Lady Indians graduated a ton of talent from the previous year, but that didn’t stop senior DeeDee Taylor from pushing 35 goals to the net in a district that was evenly strong from first to fourth with two unbeaten district slates; P.K. Yonge and Santa Fe, and a 5-2 slate from Crescent City. Keystone Heights, coached by the savvy Roger Laurent, was close to sneaking up into the playoffs if depth was not a factor.

At Clay High, senior outside midfielder Skye Paradise was a speedy sideline threat able to get deep quickly for the Blue Devils who also dealt with region finalist Ponte Vedra and district runnerup Pedro Menendez. Clay was one district loss and one 3-2 loss to Menendez in their district semifinal to getting a region playoff slot. Paradise was part of the dangerously quick Blue Devil ball movement.

At Fleming Island, with some great players in the hallways choosing club ball as their team, it was senior forward Maryssa Kosman who was top talent for coach Darrell Ivey and grinded her way to 14 goals as Fleming Island battled with three state ranked teams; Bartram Trail (Final Four), Creekside and Nease in one of the strongest districts in north Florida.

Kosman was the offensive mainstay while senior goalie Rachel Conomea was an athletic, agile front man for the defense with six shutouts on 138 saves and a scant 1.29 goals per game. With the Golden Eagles scoring production nearly two goals, the ratio of goals for and goals against was not wide. Bartram Trail was Fleming Island’s lone lopside loss, a 5-0 game, with the Golden Eagles going 1-0 versus Nease, 2-1 versus 3A-power Ponte Vedra (3A region finals), 2-0 versus Bartram Trail (4A state semi), 1-1 with Creekside and Tallahassee Leon (4A region semi) and even 2-1 against 2A champion Bolles.

Finally, at Oakleaf, junior forward Kylee Overstreet took over a fast forward front that had two senior graduates now in college and punched up seven goals and 15 assists in the same tough district at Fleming Island.