The Development Academy program is designed to provide a positive environment for the area’s most motivated and dedicated soccer players.

This program is positioned between our Community recreation soccer programs and our Academy travel soccer programs with the objective to serve as a “bridge” to our U8-U10 Academy travel soccer teams. This is also the next step for players participating in our Development Academy Juniors program. 

Our Development Academy Program is intended for players with a strong interest in soccer, open to the idea of playing travel soccer (Academy) in the future and for parents who are willing to make a stronger commitment to their child’s development in soccer.

This program offers several benefits:
- Curriculum developed and sessions are taught by professionally licensed coaches.
- Developmentally appropriate curriculum by age for boys and girls with a heavy emphasis on individual technique and creativity. 
- Two practices per week outdoor training in the Fall and Spring. 
- Weekend Intra- Academy games on Saturdays coached by professional staff.
- Potential cross-over matches with other local or regional clubs. 
- This program includes professional coaching at all Fall and Spring practices, games and potential cross-over games at no additional cost.

Optional; additional fee applies:
- Access to the Virginia Premier Cup for the U8 and U9 players 
- Access to our club winter Futsal program 
- Exclusive access to our affiliate semi professional team, Virginia Beach City FC through our Summer Academy Pro Experience program.

Format

The program aims to have approximately 72 players of each gender participate in this program. Players will be organized into groups of approximately 12 players each, who will train together during the week under the direction of our Development Academy professional coaches. 

For weekend games, each group will be organized into two squads to compete against each other on the weekend. Both squads will be professionally managed by an academy professional coach. The format will be 4v4, giving each teams two subs. The teams will play a small sided format without goalkeepers. 

The groups of players are likely to change or be mixed throughout the course of the season. The club will give families a notification about the updated group assignments along with other updates consistently throughout the season. 

Curriculum

The Development Academy curriculum is designed within the guidelines of US Soccer and United Soccer Coaches coaching education guidelines for players at the U6 to U10 ages. The program features a heavy emphasis on individual ball mastery, creativity and confidence all with in a fun and positive environment helping to maximum player development and enjoyment of the game.  Each session will feature a theme. Examples include:

- Shooting and Technique 
- Dribbling and Building Confidence - Basic Foundation and Change of Direction using different parts of the foot. 
- Dribbling and Attacking - Fun moves such as the scissors and step overs, combination moves, penetrating runs by dribbling with speed at goal
- First Touch
- Passing and learning to play with teammates. 

The theme of the week will continue into the weekend intra-squad game and will be encouraged by our professional coaching staff. 

The Development Academy program will train twice per week during the fall and spring seasons with an optional third training day available each week. All sessions are at Harrisonburg City or Rockingham County soccer fields. 

The Spring 2022 season will begin the week of April 4th and will run until the week of May 26th.
Training times will be on Mondays and Thursdays from 5:30-6:30pm.

League and match decisions are made on an individual team basis to ensure an appropriate and challenging environment.  The match environment can be a mix of league, tournament, and friendly play.  Each team will have a tailored match environment.