By Charles Boehm
His controversial tenure as a professional club owner is over, at least for now, but Dan Borislow remains deeply involved – and, predictably, controversial – in women’s football.
The millionaire telecommunications tycoon and former owner of Magicjackthe South Florida-based women’s professional soccer franchise formerly known as the Washington Freedom still coaches and sponsors daughter Kylie’s youth club, Palm Beach (Fla.) Magicjacks 96/97.
Now an under-16 team, the Magicjacks have proven themselves to be one of the best teams in the country. They have won elite categories at prestigious events like the Jefferson Cup in Richmond, Virginia and in May they advanced to the quarterfinals of the United States Youth Soccer Region III U-15 Girls Championships, losing 1-0 to eventual regional champions Dallas Sting 97 (Tx.).
Gotsoccer.com currently ranks Magicjacks 96/97 as the #1 under-16 girls team in Florida and Region III, which encompasses the southeastern United States from Texas to North Carolina.
“We have good coaches, but the first thing we look for in our kids is heart,” Borislow told Soccer Wire after his team’s final match at the WAGS Rael Vodicka Memorial Tournament in Virginia, where they won got a score of 2-1. the event’s top showcase division and attracted the attention of many NCAA scouts.
“And it’s hard to find, so we have girls who want to be soccer players and have heart. And if they have that and they have athletic ability, it’s a lot easier after that.
Borislow also attracts the attention of opposing coaches and players, who regret the financial weight he can bring to his team’s advantage. The Magicjacks have their own strength and conditioning coach and regularly bring in top guest players from as far away as California. 
“MagicJacks is a great team. I mean, these are literally the best that money can buy,” said FC Bucks Fury (Pa.) Coach Rich Finneyfrock, whose team upset Borislow 2-1 in the WAGS tournament on Sunday, his first victory in three meetings with the Florida team. “And (when) it’s all said and done, it’s nice to know that a small amateur team like us can still rub shoulders with the pros.”
Finneyfrock explained that to defeat the Magicjacks, he had to offer his team a completely different tactical vision to their usual possession-based approach, bypassing Borislow’s athletic midfield with long balls.
While many in the US youth scene work under a “club-centric” philosophy intended to develop talent at all age levels, creating a system through which players can grow and progress from elementary school through ‘at university, Magicjacks are essentially a one-stop system. -off, a throwback to the days of the “Wild West,” where most teams existed on their own and were as ambitious as their parents’ dedication and wealth allowed them.
To make an awkward analogy with the professional game, teams like Magicjack – and there are others – are similar to England’s Chelsea FC, buying success with the wealth of their tycoon owner, while their club-centric counterparts are trying to develop it internally in the mold of FC Barcelona. (Spain) or Olympique Lyonnais (France).
So far, Borislow’s approach is working, and not just in terms of results. The quality of his team has made him a go-to for college coaches like Jonathan Morgan of the University of Maryland.
“He’s ultra-competitive, he wants to win and he brings a lot of kids from different parts of the country,” Morgan said of watching the Magicjacks lose. Massapequa SC explosion (NY) 4-0 at the WAGS tournament on Monday. “I don’t really know what the motivation is, but it seems to give kids the opportunity to play and build a collection of good players, which is great for those players. They get to play with other good talent.
“I don’t know if it’s because they don’t have one in their region that they can put together a team like this. But for his local kids, to be able to play with some of these kids from California and beyond, it’s pretty cool.
Penn State coach Erica Walsh also attended the game and spoke at length with Borislow afterward.
“There are different ways to skin a cat, right?” she told Soccer Wire. “What Dan Borislow did with MagicJack was create an environment where the best players play together. There are many examples of clubs like this – we have one in Philadelphia (FC Pennsylvania attackers) it does the same thing.
“And then there are other clubs that develop kids from a young age, and you see that all over the world too… So I think you’re going to see a hybrid of those models by the end of football, because they both work. There are proven examples of both systems working.
Borislow also coaches Magicjacks and can be a strong and powerful presence on the sidelines: “We didn’t come here to tie the game, we came here to win the game! he shouted to his team after scoring an equalizer against FC Bucks on Sunday — but the next day he instead spent much of the game talking with college coaches.
“They played well without me, so that’s a good thing, right?” » he said later, laughing. “We always bounce back. I’ve been part of this team for a long time. We never have two bad games in a row. I don’t need to talk to them in the next game because they’re pretty hard on themselves… They just did their own thing today.
Borislow says he pursues the same end goals as the vast majority of elite youth parents and coaches: providing his players with opportunities at the NCAA level.
“There are a lot of college coaches,” he said, “and we’re here to get girls to school.”
The majority of approved elite youth coaches believe the national player development system needs to be run in a radically different way. But Borislow, while its most prominent standard-bearer, is just one of many taking a more direct route to success and visibility.
Additional reporting for this article contributed by Jimmy LaRoue.
( +See the Palm Beach Magicjacks 96/97 Gotsoccer page here )
