The Northern Elite Academy program is the result of decades of our coach’s experience growing up, playing, watching and coaching soccer around the world.  So let’s cut to the chase, how is this program different and why is it better?

This program will develop disciplined athletes and foster creative application of their skills.  These athletes will become skilled soccer players.  In our view there are 7 attributes to a well developed athlete:

• Speed – practice at game speed displays coachable weaknesses that can be helped
• Strength – core advantages to all athletes, apply the strength appropriately for greatest effect
• Flexibility – reduces likelihood of injury and allows greater freedom of motion
• Coordination – balance and touch are supremely important for effective players
• Endurance – there are no timeouts in soccer and few stoppages
• Intelligence – deeper understanding of the game creates Cinderella stories
• Competitiveness - a desire to be better is a healthy approach to so much in life

Young players in our program will progressively develop these attributes through time with the attention of coaches and support from family and friends.

The time breakdown of our training sessions are, often somewhat shorter for the youngest players:

• 15 min. - Warm ups and stretching with many touches of the ball.  Speed, Strength, Flexibility and Coordination all improve significantly over time with a well planned warm up.
• 20 min. - Technical session including introduction, demonstration and utility of a skill or set of skills required for competitive play.  Flexibility, Coordination and Intelligence improvements found here.
• 20 min. – Applied play executing in scenarios commonly seen in the game.  Speed, Coordination, Intelligence and Competitiveness are encouraged here.
• 30 min. – Scrimmage play with rules that promote use of the skills introduced. All attributes are practiced to deliver the desired outcome here.
• 15 min. – Fitness training performed using techniques to promote whole body fitness.  Speed, Strength, Endurance and Competitiveness are reinforced as departing themes.

For children from 4-7 years old we encourage the parent’s participation learning the skills.  Young children are often shy, reluctant to trust and need one-on-one reinforcement of the concepts.  Working with a coach or even a peer can often be challenging for reasons independent of the activity.

The players will get homework assignments to reinforce the skills and fitness goals appropriate for their level.  We would like to see sign off from parents for these activities to understand if challenges exist with the program or that perhaps a lack of practice is really slowing progress.  Few are naturally gifted and hard work will drive success for most.

The direction of the program’s structured activities is a progression plan organized similarly to a martial arts program.  Players will progressively elevate through skill levels in the program starting at the White Academy Jersey and progressing to a Black Academy Jersey.  This is designed to motivate the players and allow them recognition from their peers as they get promoted.   There is no fixed pace to the program but the objective is individual mastery of the ball combined with intelligence of the game.  These are not just check boxes of “I can do” rather a recognition of behaviors of “I do use” at the right time in a game or game-like scenarios.  So, there are objective guidelines with subjective evaluation criteria.

Academy participation is open to the public for children 4-15 years old. 

The Jr. Academy is for players 4-11 and the Sr. Academy is for players 11-16.  There are 4 sessions annually: