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Florida - Palm Beach Pumas College Prep soccer team will travel to Haiti during Thanksgiving holiday and Play the Haitian U-23 team.

Palm Beach Pumas College Prep soccer coach knows the drill of how to get his players in college

LANTANA ? In the early hours of the morning, while many of their friends and classmates are still sleeping, players of the Palm Beach Pumas college prep team are on the soccer field at the Lantana Sports Complex.

Under the watch of coaches Bobby Lennon and Adam Parker, the Pumas start their morning with a couple of hours of drills and conditioning.

For the next several months and through the spring, it will be a familiar routine.

If Lennon, the director of the Pumas Soccer Academy, gets his wish, the players' hard work will pay off in the form of a roster spot with a four-year college men's soccer program.

Last year, seven Pumas went to Division I programs, including three local kids, Lennon said.

"Now these kids want to follow the same path," he said. "Our job is to get them to the Division I level."

Lennon, who once owned a professional soccer team in Richmond, Va., said he started the college prep program in Virginia after noticing several talented players who weren't going to college. He eventually sold the team and moved to Palm Beach County six years ago so that he could train players of various ages year-round. He has run the Pumas college prep program for five years and attracted players from various states.

"Basically, these kids come from all over the East Coast of the United States," Lennon said. "They come here to raise their level of soccer and to raise their level of academics."

When the school year starts, the team members find little time for anything but classes and soccer.

All of the players are enrolled at Palm Beach Community College, although the team is not affiliated with the school. Besides attending classes and study hall sessions in between two practices, the players spend their evenings volunteering as coaches and mentors to area middle school soccer players.

"Our philosophy is the more you keep them busy doing positive things, there's less time to waste," Lennon said.

Lennon said the players will spend about $13,000 to $14,000 a year for rent, tuition and fees for the soccer program.

Part of those expenses include travel as the team will play 40 to 60 games between now and the end of the school year. The Pumas typically compete against men's adult league teams during the fall and winter, and against college teams during the spring. The team will travel to Haiti to play the Haitian Under-23 national team during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Lennon said the main goal of the competitions is to give the players an opportunity to learn their strengths and weaknesses by playing against more experienced players, and to expose college scouts to their skills.

In the program's history, 35 players from the college prep program have gone on to play at a four-year college or university, Lennon said. Some former players who recently joined Division I teams are Wellington's Adam Dupere (Liberty University), Jupiter's Ben Ward (North Carolina State University) and Boca Raton's Dor Yasur (American University).

Pumas center midfielder Aaron Waldorf, a native of Baltimore, said the program has introduced many players to a new level of soccer.

"It's a step up from everything we're used to back home, I think for everyone," he said. "The whole point is to bring players to the next level and get ready for college or whatever is next for you. Personally for me, it's just made me aware of how much faster the next level is and how much quicker you have to think and react to things."

Said defender Nick Lippa of Rochester, N.Y.: "The competition we play is unlike anything I've ever played before I came down here. We play in the Under-23 men's league. The players there, they are incredible. The training sessions are the hardest I've ever done."

Lennon said the players typically won't receive an athletic scholarship from the colleges at first, but they have the chance to earn one once they start playing at the school.

"Getting them on a roster is key for them, because there's a lot of players that can't make those rosters," he said. "Once they get there, they've got to earn their way."