Carr leading women's soccer program into seventh straight National Tournament

Eastern Florida State College women's soccer coach Jeff Carr will be leading his Titans into the NJCAA National Championship Tournament for the seventh straight season.

It will also be his final season as the head coach. Carr announced earlier in the season that he will be stepping down as head coach following the season. The Newcastle, Ontario native has built the Eastern Florida State College women's soccer program from the ground up, literally.

"That first year we went all over the place, we had an old field where the stadium is now that had a big tree on it. It was really rough and had fire ants all over it. We practiced there once or twice and realized that wasn't going to work," Carr said. "So sometimes we would practice in the outfield of the baseball field and we finally ended up getting permission to practice at Wickham Park but I had to haul all of the balls, water and everything in my car. … We were just nomads."

Eight seasons later, Carr has won 116 games, eight Region 8 championships, seven district championships and the program has one of the best facilities in junior college. 

"We have come so far in such a short amount of time, it's rewarding to see the young ladies graduate from here and go to UCLA, Tennessee, Alabama, all over the place," Carr said. "After that first year we were really competitive right away and fortunate enough to get a break here and there. I feel the program is on sound footing and whoever the new coach is can carry that on and do even better."

But before he hands the clipboard off, Carr wants to add one more trophy to his case, a national championship. The Titans have made it to the national championship game in 2012 and 2015 and been to the national semifinals four times in the past six seasons.

Eastern Florida State College will open this year's national tournament in Foley, Alabama as the No. 5 seed, playing No. 9 seed Laramie County Community College Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m. The semifinals will be on Friday with the championship scheduled for Nov. 17. For more information about the NJCAA Division I National Championship Tournament, click here.