Louisiana College has found the man to lead its men's soccer team. It was announced officially on Monday that Prince Borde, currently coaching in the club and high school ranks in the greater Orlando, Fla., has been named the new men's soccer coach.
“We are so happy to have Prince join our program,” Acting Athletic Director Donnie Broussard said. “His talent and knowledge of the game of soccer are unbelievable and has an amazing faith and Christian spirit. We believe he will bring Louisiana College men's soccer to a new level. He comes to us fully aware of what our record has been here, traditionally, and accepts the challenge. His plan is to build us into a successful program and I am confident he will do a terrific job.”
In the history of the Louisiana College soccer program, the Wildcats have not yet posted a winning record not have they eclipsed five wins in a season. LC's men have won just one game over the past two seasons and were 0-18 in 2010.
Borde, who will be a first-time college head coach, said he hopes to change the fortunes of the LC program and plans on building from the ground up.
“As a coach, my first goal is to represent Christ,” Borde said. “I am the son of a pastor and I was raised that when you represent Christ, and I was saved at the age of nine, whatever you do, you do with excellence and to His glory. Whether you are playing soccer, doing homework, washing the dishes … you give it 100 percent effort.
“Right now, the plan is to go into every game, no matter the situation, ready to play our hardest and glorify God. If you start from that foundation, the soccer will come. Even if we go 0-18 again, we will fight every minute of every game. Even if we lose, every team we play will at least know that they were in a match. Maybe that is youthful ambition, but I don't feel that God put me in this position to fail.”
Borde, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who came to the United States as the son of missionaries, spent a portion of his childhood in Michigan but has called Orlando home for most of his life and was a four-year starter at NCAA Division II West Palm Beach Atlantic University.
“When I was at Palm Beach Atlantic, I played at every level of college athletics except Division I,” Borde said. “We were in the NAIA when I was a freshman, D-III my sophomore year and D-II junior and senior year.”
Borde, who also played semipro for the Palm Beach Pumas, has coach at the high school level and is a coach for the Florida Rush Club team, working with both boys and girls from ages 13-18.
He has also served as an assistant coach at Warner University, an NAIA school in Lake Wales, Fla.
“I've been looking for a head coaching job the last two years,” Borde said. “My dream is to be a successful coach at the college level and I began praying to God for guidance. Eventually, I realized that the only way I was going to get where I wanted to go was to pack a suitcase and fly out for an interview somewhere, wherever God might lead me.”
As if by design, while Borde was searching for potential interviews, Louisiana College women's coach Bruce Deaton, who had been placed in charge of the searching out a new men's coach, was scouring the Gulf South for a qualified, and Christian, leader.
“I was actually calling a friend of mine about a job here in Florida,” Borde said. “Coach Bruce was calling that same friend to ask him if he would be interested in the LC job. My friend told him he couldn't do it but that he knew the perfect guy and recommended me.”
From there it was academic as Deaton and later the Louisiana College administration, came to covet
Borde's services.
“Every conversation we had either on the phone or in person when he visited Louisiana College came back to faith and a commitment to God,” Deaton said. “Prince has a very good background both as a player and a coach and an amazing faith. From the standpoint of what we as a Christian college were looking for, he had all the pieces. He had an understanding of the game both from player's and a coach's perspective and a commitment to God.
“As I conducted out search, I asked myself, 'If I were looking for a coach for my son to play under, what kind of coach would he be?' The answer was, 'A visibly Christian coach who is looking to serve God first with soccer as a ministry.' Prince fits that description perfectly.”
Borde credits this to a strong upbringing and points to a moment in his youth at which his father taught him the value of prioritizing faith over athletic success.
“I was called up for national team tryouts in Trinidad and Tobago at 14,” Borde recalled. “I didn't get to go because one of the tryout days was a Sunday. I helped my father with the music ministry in our church and he wouldn't allow me to miss a Sunday service for the tryout.”