Aleks Balta believes he may have the distinction of coaching the best boys’ soccer team no one’s ever heard of.

“Yeah, I would say so,” said the 30-year-old Stoney Creek resident, who oversees the 1v1 Soccer FC under-16 boys.

“In terms of the level of this team, given its age, we’re right off the radar.”

That’s because 1v1 Soccer FC essentially leads a nomadic existence. The team of 1999-born players, many of whom are from Burlington and Oakville, has been without a true home club for the past year.

Balta began coaching the team when the players were youngsters in the Burlington Youth Soccer Club system, guiding the squad to BYSC’s first-ever provincial indoor title in 2013. But after Balta accepted a position as the competitive head coach at the Mount Hamilton Youth Soccer Club last fall, he could no longer coach the team due to the BYSC’s conflict-of-interest policy. Rather than have a new coach, Balta’s players and their parents followed him, even though it meant they’d no longer have a club affiliation.

“These guys spend a lot of time together, they’re very good together, they have a very positive dynamic and a good work ethic… but Aleks is certainly the core,” said Gerard Holmes, an Oakville resident whose son, Garrett, plays for 1v1. “They want to play for Aleks, and the parents… see Aleks as the best coach they could possibly find. He gets a lot out of them.”

Unable to get into local leagues that would offer enough competition, 1v1 Soccer FC ended up joining the under-20 division of the Toronto-based Soccer Academy Alliance Canada (SAAC) league. Despite playing against opponents as much as four years older, 1v1 won the spring season championship with a record of seven wins, two losses and one tie. This fall, the club has five wins and a draw in six outings, outscoring its opposition 20-3.

1v1 Soccer FC’s success has not been limited to the SAAC league, either. The team defeated Oakville Soccer Club’s U17 boys — a squad that won the Tier 1 Ontario Cup this year and finished third at U18 nationals — in a recent exhibition game.

1v1’s greatest highlight this year, however, came at the prestigious FC Delco tournament in Pennsylvania during the Memorial Day Weekend. Not only did the team advance out of group play at the competition for the first time in four years, it defeated the second-ranked U16 team in the United States, the New York Thunder, 3-0 on its way to the tournament title.

“Anyone who knows soccer in depth knows that’s a bigger (accomplishment) than winning a provincial championship,” said Balta, whose team scored 13 goals during the tournament while allowing just two. “The level of competition is so much higher… Success for me was just getting out of the group.”