LIVE OAK — If there’s anybody more coachable than Rember Alonso, Suwannee coach Chris Joyner would like to meet them.
Alonso’s politeness makes for an easy-going demeanor, Joyner contends, one that is not matched by the intensity with which he plays.
The fuel that drives Alonso is pure. His love for the beautiful game shines brightest when he’s unlocking his creative potential in the attacking third.
Joyner said he knew these things since the first moments he knew Alonso back when the striker was in middle school.
“I said it when he was a freshman, we had this little saying,” Joyner said. “‘You gonna remember Rember.’”
Alonso’s passion and creativity were certainly memorable amid an extraordinary junior season, leading the Bulldogs to a Region 1-3A quarterfinal appearance. It also earned him the title of LCR Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
“It feels good,” Alonso said. “I feel like I put in the work.
“It’s just something that I’m good at, and being kind of good at it, I want to be the best.”
Alonso did net an area-best 19 goals on the year, often through feats of sheer, individual will. In the Bulldogs’ 2-1 loss to Santa Fe in the regional quarterfinals on Feb. 3, Alonso corralled a long pass near the top of the box. He fended off the defender leaning on his back before turning over his right shoulder toward the net and curling a shot, bending it into the top left corner to tie the match.
“When he took three touches, I was like, ‘come on,’” Joyner said that night. “Then as soon as it left his foot, I went, ‘that’s a goal.’ It picked the boys up.”
Picking his teammates up is one of Alonso’s specialties as well. He assisted on a team-high 11 goals this year, while also crediting them for a lot of his own success.
“I feel like we put in a good amount of work,” Alonso said of his teammates. “…We have a good group of boys, talented boys. We’ve just gotta put it all together.”
His latest season saw him sustain a key metric for soccer players: durability. He played a full 80 minutes in 17 of the Bulldogs’ 23 matches that didn’t end with a mercy rule. He played fewer than 75 minutes just twice and was one of four Bulldogs with over 1,900 minutes logged through 25 matches.
Alonso’s junior season couldn’t have gotten off to a much worse start. The Bulldogs dropped their first four matches, all shutouts, by a combined 20-0. That stretch included a 5-0 loss at Maclay to kick off the campaign.
But Alonso and Suwannee rebounded in a big way. He supplied the eventual game-winning goal in the first half of the Bulldogs’ 3-2 win over Gainesville to get off the streak. He supplied another game-winner over P.K. Yonge two games later before getting both a goal and an assist in a 3-3 draw against Williston.
In the middle of trying to right the ship, however, a 2-0 loss to rival Columbia set the Bulldogs further back. Alonso tied a season low with just one shot on goal in the shutout.
“I just didn’t play like I wanted to,” he said.
That moment could’ve broken many other teams or individuals. But Alonso thrived shortly after, along with the rest of his teammates. The Bulldogs went unbeaten over their next eight games, going 6-0-2. Alonso wound up scoring nine goals while contributing three assists over the stretch, including a pair of braces in the middle of everything. The first came in a 4-1 win over Middleburg, though the second was perhaps Alonso’s most memorable game.
After recording just one shot on goal in the season-opening loss at Maclay, Alonso needed just two to rack up both his team’s scores in the 2-1 revenge win.
“One was kind of easier I would say, but it was still a top-right, good shot,” Alonso said. “The other one was off a throw in, and I got probably my best goal of the whole season.
“It was probably my best goal of the whole season for me because it was against a good team. A goal like that, I can probably make it against a not-so-good team, but it just wouldn’t feel the same.”
Joyner emphatically agrees. He pointed to the Maclay rematch as a personal turning point for Alonso’s development.
“He finally listened,” Joyner said. “…He set himself up with a great little touch, and as soon as it left his foot, I knew it was in the back of the net.”
While the season-ending loss to Santa Fe was disappointing, Alonso and Joyner are ready to run it back along with the majority of the team after losing just one senior to graduation. Alonso is playing travel ball in Lake City over the offseason while working regularly from home on his cardio.
Joyner said Alonso’s newfound confidence near the box will serve him well as a senior.
“You can teach somebody how to score a goal, but you can’t teach them how to finish,” Joyner said. “It’s very, very difficult to teach them how to finish. (Alonso) did a very, very good job this year of finishing.
“I’ve got him for one more year, and I hope he has a memorable year.”
ALL-AREA TEAM
F/MF: Rember Alonso
Suwannee, junior
The LCR’s Player of the Year led the area with 19 goals and 11 assists to help the Bulldogs reach the playoffs.
F/MF: Colyn Weatherspoon
Columbia, freshman
Led the Tigers with 13 goals and four assists.
F/MF: Ethan Valencia
Suwannee, sophomore
Scored 11 goals and had two assists.
MF: Phillip Yaxon
Suwannee, sophomore
Scored 13 goals and had six assists.
MF: Maximo Perez
Fort White, junior
Led the Indians with 11 goals and had an assist.
MF: Aldo Francisco
Lafayette, sophomore
Led the Hornets with eight goals and had two assists.
MF: Scott Uribe
Suwannee, junior
Dished out seven assists while also scoring four goals.
DEF: Brendan Schwartz
Columbia, senior
Helped anchor the Tigers’ defense that only allowed 28 goals while also scoring two goals and dishing out a pair of assists.
DEF: David Gomez
Columbia, sophomore
Helped anchor the Tigers’ defense that only allowed 28 goals.
DEF: Josue Tellez
Suwannee, senior
Anchored a Bulldogs’ defense that allowed 2.2 goals per match.
GK: Logan Wheeldon
Columbia, junior
Made it tough on opposing teams to score, finishing the season with 106 saves and seven shutouts.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Chris Joyner, Suwannee
Led the Bulldogs to an 11-10-4 record and their first playoff berth since 2022. SHS overcame a 1-5 start to the season, posting an eight-game unbeaten streak in December as well as a four-game winning streak into the district tournament. The Bulldogs ultimately finished as the District 2-3A runners-up before falling to Santa Fe 2-1 in the Region 1-3A quarterfinals.