THE DC STODDERT SOCCER GIRLS ACADEMY PROGRAM
DC Stoddert's Girls Academy has evolved tremendously over recent years, and continues to evolve. The program is tailored to young developing young female athletes and provides a wonderful balance between success and challenge with the aim of creating skillful, insightful and confident players.
THERE ARE 4 LEVELS IN THE GIRLS ACADEMY:
The BLUE team is the top team. Its athletes must be strong, fast, driven, and motivated to learn and to compete. They do a lot of extra training, beyond the "old school" two practices a week. This team is being built to earn placement in a top WAGS
division (DI or II). Winning at this level is more important than at the other levels. But player development is heavily emphasized, as development of athletes is paramount and leads to winning.
The RED team is the second team. This team generally is comprised of players who have tremendous potential but are not quite ready for the BLUE team. Our goal is to develop these players so they can 1) move up to BLUE, and
2) have the most competitive team possible. They also do extra training. However, the emphasis is patient and persistent player development. RED players are expected to train in order to make up ground and propel their games forward.
The FUSION team is the third team. They start off playing in rec, often in a year-older age group. When they have a sound foundation and have too much success in rec, players have the opportunity to move into MSI Classic, which provides more fields for our games and opportunities to play against other developing teams. These FUSION players are investments
in the age group's future and key members of the talent pool. Later, when the three smaller teams fuse into two larger teams, we need a player pool that is properly trained and developed, so both teams in WAGS have the depth necessary to be
competitive and have good experiences.
The GIRLS ACADEMY MONDAY SKILL CLINICS are weekly training sessions, in-season fall and spring, that give
players an opportunity to develop skill in the same curriculum as the other Girls Academy players, without the same time commitment. It begins at GU7-8 and is offered through GU13.
EXPECTATIONS:
Players at ALL levels are expected to train with their highest effort all the time, because PLAYER DEVELOPMENT HAPPENS AT PRACTICE.
We have had all Girls Academy teams training at the same site for winter and spring, which not only builds camaraderie and team spirit, but is great for carpools and make-up practices.
RED and BLUE teams always practice at the same time, together. We try very hard to get FUSION teams to train at the same time as the RED and BLUE. But the practice schedule for FUSION teams' sessions depend largely on their respective coach's schedules.
Beyond the regularly scheduled practices, players are expected to work on their skills and/or fitness. Coaches provide detailed feedback in the assigned skills homework, and through the written annual player evaluations, as to what each player needs to work on to take her game to the next level.
Beyond the field, players learn how to take care of themselves to promote optimal performance, considering
sleep needs, time management, nutrition and hydration, care of injuries and mental preparation for games.
Players are expected to attend every session, on time and prepared, true for practices and games. Illness, and school and religious conflicts are the only acceptable reasons for missing practices or games. Players are strongly encouraged to make-up all missed sessions at one of the academy team's practices, to be arranged by the coaches with the parents.
Make-ups: This training across age groups or levels exposes players to new skills and highlights players with different
strengths, and/or provides players with maximum touches on the ball for repetition in skill and decision-making, all of which facilitate learning.
Players are encouraged to remain with their school and neighborhood friends on recreational teams. In the event of a conflict, travel events take priority.
PLAYER MOVEMENT WITHIN THE ACADEMY
Players in the Academy move from team to team as they mature.
There are lots of examples of player movement from CLINICS onto teams, FUSION to RED and BLUE, from RED to BLUE, and from BLUE to RED. And we view ALL movement as an opportunity.
If a player works hard and develops the areas necessary to be successful at the next level, she will be moved "up" within her age group, or can guest up, within the group and/or with other age groups. She will get the challenge she needs to continue her development, and will give something new to her new team. If a player plateaus, or
falls behind, then moving to an environment where she will have success or play more is also an opportunity.
We treat every team as part of the age group. And, every team and age group is part of a developmentally similar age band. It is like a soccer Montessori environment, where the players can learn from each other and aspire to a higher level, based on their motivation and where they see other players performing, in their age group, and in other age
groups in the Academy.
GAME ENVIRONMENTS
LEAGUE PLAY
GU9 will play-up in GU10 Rec to get their foundation, playing 7v7
GU10 RED and BLUE go to WAGS, playing 7v7
GU10 FUSION will play GU10/11 Rec, 7v7/8v8 (depending on their strength)
GU11 RED and BLUE play in WAGS, 8v8 (preparing for GU12 ranking time)
GU11 FUSION will play GU11/12 Rec, 8v8/9v9
GU12
RED and BLUE play in WAGS, 8v8 (fall is last chance to gain good
results for ranking, spring GU12 they play in ranked divisions)
GU12 FUSION will be in MSI Classic
GU13 same, but rosters increase for 11v11 (the 3 smaller teams become 2 larger teams)
Playing time is generous in the GU9-10 age groups. Playing time is more earned at GU11-12, and above.
TOURNAMENTS
Playing fatigued, in as many as 5 games in 3 days, is not in the interest of player development. Tournaments are used as pre-season preparation for WAGS league participation, which is a promotion and relegation league.
Preseason tournaments can be helpful to coaches in assessing and building fitness. They are also useful in evaluation of game play which illuminates topics for individual and team development. Coaches use tournaments for analyzing performance and experimenting with player positions and team systems of play, plus in integrating new players.
Teams must attend tournaments fully staffed, for safe and effective performance.
SOCCERFESTS
Every season, the separate teams in the Girls Academy are combined and broken into mixed teams across developmentally similar age groups. They play a round robin tournament to highlight all they have learned though the training and game environments. A fun and effective way to display their progress!
GIRLS ACADEMY SUPPLEMENTAL PROGRAMS:
ADVANCED TRAINING is a program that was originally established to give our BLUE
players an advantage. The originally scheduled two days a week of practice was
obviously not enough to develop our top level players, especially when
most of the top level opponents are training 3-4 days a week, all year
round. The BLUE kids benefited tremendously, and the RED and FUSION
kids wanted to be able to do this training too. So, it is now offered
to all players on Girls Academy teams.
After attending the Elite Club Development Seminars, we decided to offer topic specific development, to more effectively address our players' needs.
The most beneficial and popular, recent topics have been: 1v1, First Touch, Shooting and Finishing, and Strength, Speed and Agility development.
The Strength, Speed and Agility sessions have been crucial for helping injured players return, and for increasing strength, mobility, presence and confidence in healthy players. It has also been key in helping players compete at high levels and prevent injuries while playing there.
SUMMER TRAINING CAMP and WINTER SKILLS TRAINING are off-season programs, administered through the Girls Academy.
Academy players are expected to train over the summer and winter to keep the edge they have worked so hard to gain.
Players who want to bump up levels, players who are behind, and players who want to keep their edge all take advantage of this training. The reality is that players who do not train in the curriculum during off-seasons do get left behind. And, we are trying to be competitive with the teams who are training rigorously all year round, so we need to consider the best ways to keep our kids at the tops of their games.
We do also understand the importance of rest and recovery, as it relates to burn out, health and overuse issues, and achieving optimal performance. We build rest and recovery into the schedule for each team, so we can help each player, each team and each age group achieve maximum success and enjoyment.
GIRLS ACADEMY LEAGUE AND TOURNAMENT RESULTS:
Spring 09
96 Metros BLUE Arlington Invitational, Premier Level, Runners Up
96 Metros RED Chesapeake Cup, Runners Up
96 Metros BLUE, WAGS, Division I Placement!
96 Metros FUSION, Undefeated Season, MSI Classic, Division I Placement
Fall 08
97 Metros RED August Cup, Champions
96 Metros BLUE August Cup, Runners Up
96 Metros BLUE WAGS, Division Runners Up in points
Winter 2008
96 Metros BLUE Disney Showcase, Champions
Fall 2007
95 Mischief BLUE August Cup, Runners Up
96 Metros RED White Water Cup, Champions
95 Mischief RED White Water Cup, Runners Up
95 Mischief BLUE WAGS, Division Champions
96 Mischief BLUE WAGS, Undefeated Season
97 Metros BLUE WAGS, Undefeated Season
Spring 2007
96 Metros BLUE Rush Cup, Champions
96 Metros BLUE WAGS Undefeated Season
Fall 2006
95 Mischief BLUE August Cup, Runners Up
96 Metros BLUE August Cup, Champions
96 Metros BLUE WAGS Undefeated Season
