JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Mike Pickett, one of the most successful girls soccer coaches in high school history, has stepped down from his position at St. Johns Country Day after nearly three decades of dominance that will be difficult to match.
Pickett leaves the Spartans as one of the most successful coaches in the history of the game. In 28 seasons, he went 571-72-41 and won 15 state championships, the final one coming in 2025. Of those titles, 11 of those were consecutive championships, a mark that is virtually untouchable in the major team sports. Pickett and St. Thomas Aquinas coach Carlos Giron are the only two in state history with 15 championships.
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Pickett, 61, said that the biggest reason for his resignation stems from perception of the program as long as he’s there, and that anything less than a championship is a disappointment.
“I’m stepping down because there’s too much pressure on these kids. We make a final four this year, we lose. All the questions after the game from the reporters are ‘what happened.’ That was shocking. And it’s not fair to the kids. So as long as I’m coaching here, it’s going to stay the same,” Pickett said.
“So, I’m stepping down because I don’t want my kids to continue to go through it. You can’t hide that pressure. It’s in the public. It’s talked about. And I can try to deflect it all I want. It’s not happening.”
The Spartans reached the Class 1A state semifinals this season where they were the heavy favorite to add another championship banner but lost 3-1 to Lakeland Victory Christian. The final four appearance was the 22nd for Pickett. The 2017 Spartans went 25-0 and claimed the school’s first national title. The 2018 team added a 26-0 record and second national title, part of a stretch where the Spartans won 78 consecutive games and went unbeaten through 87 straight. Pickett said that he always wanted to win, but not at the expense of players thinking that’s all the game was about.
He said he wanted players to enjoy the experience more than the result.
“When I started getting texts after the loss to VCA this year, it was girls telling me that they let me down, they let the legacy down, they let the program down, and that’s not the case,” Pickett said. “It’s a soccer game, and we didn’t win. That’s all it is.”
Pickett played at St. Johns Country Day when he was in school, leading the Spartans to back-to-back championships. He graduated in 1983 and played both college and professionally. Pickett returned to St. Johns in 1998 and built a program for the ages. He was the Florida Dairy Farmers classification coach of the year 14 times and earned the state’s overall coaching award three times (2013, ’17-18). Pickett was the United Soccer Coaches Coach of the Year six times. In 2022, Pickett was named the top girls soccer coach in the country by MaxPreps.
Pickett coached his daughter, Carson, to multiple championships, including as a senior in 2012. Carson, now 32, has logged more than 200 games in the NWSL, and she’s currently a defender for Denver. Pickett said his wife, Treasure, is a year away from retirement with the Clay County School District, and that the timing was just right. Pickett said there’s still a desire to coach and teach, and he’ll continue to do that at his North Florida Soccer Academy. Pickett said he’s been fortunate to have so many good memories and so many good players through the years at St. Johns.
“There was one kid that had been to college [on scholarship] when I got here, and now we’re at 50,” he said. “So I just hope that the culture and what they’ve learned life-wise is way more important than what they’ll take away with the championships. Those will all fade to dust.”