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“When I was growing up playing high school soccer in Miami, we had a lot of local players being recruited by Division 1 schools,” reflected Coach Hart Baur, founder of Baurball, an award-winning youth soccer training program based in Palmetto Bay.
“Today, that’s just not the case,” Baur continued. “Fewer and fewer Miami players are making the jump from the club and high school levels to the collegiate ranks. Baurball is all about changing that trend.”
Baurball is the brainchild of Miamian Hart Baur, a former standout soccer player who graduated from Palmer Trinity High School and played for four years at the College of William and Mary. He then went on to coaching and became the head soccer coach of Christopher Columbus High School for more than 20 years.
Hart and his wife, Elena, founded Baurball in 2021 to develop local youth into competitive and versatile athletes. Their daughters Scarlett, 16, and Morgan, 14, play for Palmer Trinity and are among the top female athletes in the county. Scarlett was named the Miami Herald’s Player of the Year as a freshman in 2023.
Baurball’s teaching premise is that a player will flourish only when they have mastered a specific set of skills and techniques which nowadays are rarely taught. How to shoot and receive a ball properly, dribble, pass and tackle are obligatory for every soccer player, and Hart and his coaching team are expert at developing player mastery through dozens of drill evolutions at faster and faster speeds.
“Hart Baur is a master clinic guy who is a brilliant coach of ball control, which is the foundation skill of every great player,” said Jim Beverly, legendary former coach of Ransom Everglades, Palmer Trinity and Palmetto Senior High School boys’ soccer teams. “If you want to know how good he is as a coach, watch his daughters play. They’re the real deal.”
Baur and his right-hand coach Brian Hernandez, who played soccer at Boston University, focus on player development first and foremost. They create players who can kick with either foot accurately and with power; athletes who can defend against another player one-on-one at speed and shut them down. They become competitors with keen focus, good attitudes and high effort levels because Baur has taught them that those are the only factors within their control in soccer, and in life, for that matter.
“Coach Hart has been instrumental in our daughter Caro’s development over the past three years,” said John O’Brian, Caro’s father. “And not just as a soccer player, but as a human being. He focuses on the entire child and, as parents, we value that immensely.”
Baurball was named “Miami’s Best Camp” by the Miami Herald in December 2023 and also earned the “Palmetto Bay’s Got Talent Award” presented by Mayor Karyn Cunningham and the Village Council.
Baurball operates primarily at Coral Reef Park in Palmetto Bay, where they offer group clinics, individual training and camps throughout the year. They teach children of all ages and levels.
“It is a great atmosphere here at Baurball,” Coach Hernandez said. “Our Baurballers always have fun while they are becoming great players, and that is the most important thing.
Seeing each individual player improve evokes such a great feeling and it’s even better when we see how happy the kids feel, and their parents as well, about their improvement and progress.”
For more information, visit www.baurball.com and you can find Baurball on instagram at @baurball.
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