ChievoVerona North American Academy Announces Partnership with Chula Vista Premier FC
South Bay club becomes fifth partner U.S. with Italian Serie A Club
ChievoVerona North American Academy has announced that it has entered into a partnership with Chula Vista Premier FC, a leading club in San Diego’s South Bay. The agreement will provide an exciting and high level of training for players in what is the largest club in Southern San Diego County.
A.C. ChievoVerona was founded in 1929 and reached Italy’s Serie A in 2000/2001. In September the club announced a partnership with Global Image Sports (GIS) to launch the ChievoVerona North American Soccer Academy. The program offers partner clubs insights into the philosophies of youth player development at the Serie A club.
The ChievoVerona North American Academy will host a series of Elite Player ID Events with partner clubs during the 2012-13 soccer season. The series will culminate in the Chievo Verona National Camp.
Chula Vista Premier FC was founded in 1982 by Jim Loughney as the Chula Vista Scorpions. Past president Hugo Molina provided the foundation to make the club the largest in Southern San Diego. In 2011 the club voted in current President Oscar Zamora and Vice President J. Hector Diaz, who helped polish the club into what it is today.
Today Chula Vista Premier FC has more Premier Division teams than all the other clubs in South Bay combined. They are also the only club in the region to have sent teams to the prestigious Gold and Premier Divisions of Coast Soccer League U23 on both the men’s and women’s sides.
Chula Vista Premier FC’s Vice-President and Director of Soccer Operations, J. Hector Diaz, is very excited about the partnership, saying, “I am glad to partner up with ChievoVerona. We look forward to building the relationship and hope we can provide more to the Italian Serie A club than what they expect.”
“We jumped on the offer in order to build a long term relationship rather then something short term,” Diaz continued. “We like that they’re a small club in comparison with Juventus, AC Milan, and Inter, very similar to where we started. Despite this, they have the right mind set with the best intentions, which have allowed them, like us, to grow into a successful club in the past decade.”
“Chula Vista Premier FC is always looking to provide as much through our program, and when this opportunity came up it was just a logical program to add to our club,” said Molina. “Our ultimate goal is to be able to provide the most complete program in the South Bay and on the same level as any in San Diego County. At the moment we already offer from the Juniors instructional program ages 4-6 to the men’s Premier team in the San Diego County League and just about everything in between. With Presidio, Coast, US Club, Far West and so on, Premier FC offers something for everybody.”
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Mike Kelleher, Chief Operating Officer of GIS and one of the key players in their partnership with ChievoVerona, said, “”We look forward to working with Chula Vista and their partnership with ChievoVerona of Italy’s Serie A. Having been to the first-class training facility and in weekly contact with Chievo, I know the players and coaches of Chula Vista who grasp this opportunity will be thrilled by this enriching experience.”
On a related topic, with the possibility of select players visiting the ChievoVerona facilities in Italy, Molina said, “For the elite player I think that travel is a natural part of development and provides a great experience for the kids that don’t often have that opportunity. Along with our partnership with ChievoVerona, we are also looking at organizing European trips with our technical director Jerzy Zyndlar with combined teams from Chula Vista and our Imperial Valley and Dallas affiliates. This would provide the same experience throughout the organization for our top athletes”.
