U.S. Soccer Launches Girls Development Academy
The Girls’ Development Academy – often referred to as the “Girls DA”program – is U.S. Soccer’s effort to accelerate the development of world-class female players and will begin play in the fall of 2017. The Girls’ DA only involves the top 1% of the overall number of girls playing youth soccer in the United States and focuses on three combined age groups: U-14/15, U-16/17 and U-18/19.
Youth Soccer News: On July 9th, U.S. Soccer announced twenty-eight more youth soccer clubs will be a part of the Girls’ Development Academy. The first 25 teams of its Girls Development Academy had been announced on June 30th.
Set to kick off in fall of 2017, the Girls’ 10-month season of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy will offer a specific training environment designed to improve player development.
“U.S. Soccer is excited to announce the first group of clubs that will join the Academy program,” said Jared Micklos, Development Academy Director. “These clubs have made a serious commitment to the growth and development of female players in our country. Our staff look forward to supporting these clubs as we work together to continue producing world class female players.”
U.S. Soccer is excited to welcome the following clubs:
| Boca United (Boca Raton, Fla.) | FC Stars (Acton, Mass.) | San Juan Soccer Club (Rancho Cordova, Calif.) |
| Charlotte Soccer Academy (Matthews, N.C.) | FC Virginia (Chantilly, Va.) | Shattuck-St. Mary’s Rev SC (Faribault, Minn.) |
| Clay County Soccer Club (Fleming Island, Fla.) | IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) | Sting Soccer Club (Addison, Texas) |
| Dallas Texans (Plano, Texas) | Jacksonville Armada Youth Academy (JFC) (Jacksonville, Fla.) | TSC Hurricane (Tulsa, Okla.) |
| LA Galaxy San Diego (San Diego, Calif.) | ||
| Davis Legacy (Davis, Calif.) | LA Premier FC (La Canada, Calif.) | Virginia Development Academy (Woodbridge, Va.) |
| Eagles SC (Camarillo, Calif.) | Legends FC (Chino, Calif.) | West Florida Flames (Brandon, Fla.) |
| East Meadow SC (East Meadow, N.Y.) | Lonestar Soccer Club (Austin, Texas) | Weston FC (Weston, Fla.) |
| Eastside FC (Preston, Wash.) | Match Fit Academy (Morris Plains, N.J.) | World Class FC (Orangeburg, N.Y.) |
| Eclipse Select (Oak Brook, Ill.) | Midwest United FC (Grand Rapids, Mich.) | Washington Spirit-Maryland (Boyds, MD.) |
Many of the youth soccer clubs in the Girls’ DA have produced championship and or finalist teams in ECNL competitions and players selected for the National Youth Teams.
To maximize elite female youth player development, the Girls DA increases the training to game ratio — with players playing fewer but more meaningful games and providing assistance for coaching education and development. These are just some of the standards and best practices the program promotes.
Club applications were evaluated and accepted by U.S. Soccer’s technical staff based on the following criteria:
- Leadership of the club and quality of the coaching staff
- Desire to embrace and promote the core values of the program
- US. Soccer license levels of coaching staff
- Infrastructure of the club and the resources currently being invested in development (facilities, scholarships, staff to player ratio, etc.)
- History of player production for Youth National Teams, the senior Women’s National Team and professional leagues
- Market and depth of the player pool, geographic location and travel implications and proximity to other elite clubs
To maximize elite female youth player development, the Girls DA increases the training to game ratio — with players playing fewer but more meaningful games and providing assistance for coaching education and development. These are just some of the standards and best practices the program promotes.
The goal of the Girls DA is to positively impact the everyday youth soccer club environment and to develop world-class players.
According to U.S. Soccer, “For the elite player, the Development Academy provides a more focused environment for player development through more training, fewer matches but against better competition.”
The program will feature three combined age groups: U-14/15, U-16/17 and U-18/19. Clubs will be expected to train a minimum of four times per week. The combined age groups will require clubs to form teams with a balanced roster of players from two distinct birth years and encourage clubs to provide “play up” opportunities. The games will be scouted by U.S. Soccer and the program will serve as the primary pathway to the Youth National Teams.
According to the press release from U.S. Soccer Development Academy, “While we considered the option of working with existing programs in the girl’s youth landscape, we determined creating the Girl’s Academy was the best step to provide players with the best environment to accelerate their development.”
U.S. Soccer believes the Development Academy will have a profound impact on those elite youth soccer players who are selected to play in this specially focused environment with increased exposure to top coaches in the United States and from around the world.
“As the landscape of youth soccer in the United States has changed over the last few years, the emphasis at Legends FC has been to concentrate on what we can control,” said Josh Hodges, Legends FC Director. “For us, that means focusing on the development of each player and helping them reach their full potential. We are excited and honored to be included in the Girls’ Development Academy and look forward to what it can do for the continued growth and development of the players within our Club.”
“This is a fantastic day,” said Michael Duggan, Director of Operations for LA Galaxy San Diego. “Having our youth soccer club included in the Girls DA is total validation for all the hard work everyone has done over the years. I want to thank everyone who has helped our club reach this goal — especially my fellow coaching directors who have never stopped believing that with hard work, honesty and self-belief, we can achieve everything we wish for.”
Carl Higham, LA Galaxy San Diego’s Girls Director said, “I have been the director of the girls program for the last 18 years and in that time we have had some big achievements, but to be recognized by U.S. Soccer is the icing on the cake. All of our hard work has finally paid off. I am really looking forward to launching the program and training the best players around.”
“It is an honor to be selected to be a part of the U.S. Soccer Girls’ DA,” said Tim Bauman, Eastside FC President. “Our club’s vision has always been focused on building champions in life. At Eastside, we take great pride in developing excellent soccer players who distinguish themselves off the soccer field as well. We are thrilled to kick off the Girls DA in our area.”
The first batch of 25 youth soccer clubs accepted into the the Girls Development Academy are:
| Beach FC (Torrance, Calif.) | FC Dallas (Frisco, Texas) | Real Colorado (Highlands Ranch, Co.) |
| Boston Breakers (Watertown, Mass.) | LAFC Slammers (Los Angeles, Calif.) | San Diego Surf (San Diego, Calif.) |
| CASL (Raleigh, N.C.) | Lamorinda (Moraga, Calif.) | Seattle Reign (Seattle, Wash.) |
| Cincinnati Development Academy (Cincinnati, Ohio) | Michigan Hawks (Livonia, Mich.) | Sky Blue FC-PDA (Bernardsville, N.J.) |
| Mustang (Danville, Calif.) | So Cal Blues (Rancho Capistrano, Calif.) | |
| Colorado Rush (Littleton, Co.) | Orlando Pride (Orlando, Fla.) | Sockers FC (Palatine, Ill.) |
| Concorde Fire (Atlanta, Ga.) | Penn Fusion SA (Westtown, Pa.) | Solar Chelsea SC (Dallas, Texas) |
| Crossfire (Redmond, Wash.) | Portland Thorns (Portland, Ore.) | Washington Spirit (Boyds, Md.) |
| De Anza Force (Saratoga, Calif.) | Tophat NTH (Atlanta, Ga.) |
The Development Academy program serves as pathway to the Youth National Teams with matches being scouted by U.S. Soccer.
The 25 teams accepted originally into the program have produced 307 players for U.S. Soccer’s National Teams (youth and senior) as well as 84 professional players. These clubs will provide 276 full scholarships with a total of $1.49 million of scholarship funds being contributed.
Creating the Girl’s Development Academy allows U.S. Soccer to continue to develop world class players because it supports an improved player development model in which players can focus solely on training together four times per week and play meaningful games on the weekend nearly year-round.
Every player has a choice to play high school soccer or be part of the Development Academy. High school soccer will continue to have an important place in the girls’ soccer landscape.
Source: U.S. Soccer Press Information and Interviews
