Skyrocket Soccer is directed by Doug Lucas, who acquired a love for ‘futbol’ while serving as a missionary with his wife, Penny, in South America. He has played on the streets of Madrid, the shores of Uruguay, and with a national champion club soccer team in Kentucky. He is a FIFA-certified referee and received his National Coaching License in Nashville, TN at Lipscomb University. For the past 3 years, he has served as Head Coach of Christian Academy’s men’s varsity team.  Interestingly, in each of those years, the team has managed to knock off state-ranked teams that were undefeated in conference play, thereby progressing on to their Regional Tournament. In previous years, CAL had never made it out of Districts.

"Leading Skyrocket is one of the most challenging and, at the same time, most gratifying weeks of my summer," reports Coach Lucas. "Our goal is to focus on skills, fitness, knowledge, and fun. We would like to think that finding that magical mix is a Skyrocket speciality." Coach Lucas must be on track... since Skyrocket Soccer has become one of the most popular summer soccer camps in the region!

So what does he do when he's not coaching soccer? He leads a mission organization called Team Expansion, which has over 300 full-time missionaries in 40 countries. Doug is Team Expansion's founder and President. He also writes a weekly ejournal called Brigada Today, which features resources and strategies for missionaries and those who send them. Some believe that Brigada is the longest-running missions-oriented journal existing today. Since January 25th, 1995, Doug has written a Brigada Today for every week of the year, all 11+ years without a single missing edition. With over 10,000 subscribers, some believe Brigada Today also has the largest base of subscribers of any missions newsletter on the web. Brigada is a free service; Brigada Today is a free magazine.

Coach Lucas is married to Penny, who faithfully washes the team's "pennies" (practice vests) and helps in lots of other ways too. Doug's sons are Chris and Caleb. Chris has played soccer at the highest college level (NCAA Division I) and Caleb is a Senior in high school -- who loves soccer, track, cross-country. He's been accepted into the U.S. Army and ships out this summer.

In his spare time :-), Coach Lucas has just finished writing his dissertation for a Ph.D. degree in Management, plays keyboards for his church worship team, enjoys anything related to the outdoors, loves photography, and all the sciences. And yes... the rumor is true... the first week in their new home, Coach Lucas built an indoor soccer practice area in their basement, 14' x 27', complete with dasher boards, goals, and real indoor soccer arena turf.

Coach Lucas loves leading Skyrocket Soccer Academy. "Our first priority is to give our players solid goals to work on over the summer," he explains. "Above all, we hope they can come to their tryouts fit." To learn more about Skyrocket Soccer, read on.