CHAMP Reaches New Heights With Eagles
Published on December 30, 2008 under United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Charlotte Eagles News Release
Matthews, NC - Charlotte Eagles Professional Soccer and Champ Sports Outreach announced the renewal of their partnership in 2009 as the two organizations unite in their vision to impact the community. The announcement comes on a day where CHAMP unveiled their new custom soccer kits for 2009 (pictured right), as well as the announcement that player registration for the Spring season will open on January 1st at www.ChampSportsInfo.com.
The revamped partnership will include several beneficial programs to youth soccer players that register in the CHAMP Sports Soccer Program in 2009. One of those benefits includes 2009 Eagles Season Tickets for all youth players that sign up for the CHAMP program.
One of the other major benefits of the partnership will be on the player/coach development side. The Eagles have committed a number of Eagles players to help in the coaching and development of the CHAMP Soccer Program. Eagles' Director of Soccer Programs, Nathan Krum stated that this was a very big step in helping the CHAMP program make an immediate impact. "We feel it is absolutely necessary that as Charlotte's professional soccer franchise, the Eagles must put a high priority on the development of the youth soccer player and the youth soccer coach," said Krum. "CHAMP is one of the programs in addition to many others we are assisting, where the Eagles can now provide the instruction and direction necessary to improve the overall development of the youth player. CHAMP realized that very quickly, and when they called on us for help we were happy to assist in that way."
Krum mentioned that the 2009 partnership was based on a trial run from 2008 where the Eagles provided three players to help in the development of the coaches and players. This trial run was lead by former MLS #1 draft pick and Eagles defender/assistant coach, Steve Shak. Shak, with the help of Eagles' Hall of Fame Head Coach Mark Steffens, formulated a curriculum and program that could be replicated to help large programs such as CHAMP. With over 900 players in their soccer program CHAMP is one of the largest recreational programs in the area. Shak and Krum, as did many others in the Eagles organization knew helping a program of that size would not be easy.
"We assist so many programs around the area from the recreational level all the way to the premier level that we knew the largest issue would be resources," remarked Krum. "We have around 26 players on both our men's and women's rosters, which means we can be spread thin sometimes when we try to assist programs of this size. Steve's (Shak) program has really enabled us to impact these programs very effectively by using our staff to train 6-8 coaches, who then use our curriculum to train 6-8 more each until the entire program has been impacted, and the program has been successfully replicated."
The trial this past fall worked so well that demand for it increased immediately, which lead to the revamped partnership. One of the main keys of that success was also visibility and accessibility to the Eagles players and programs. With that in mind, the Eagles will be committing more players in 2009 to be around practices and clinics at CHAMP's facilities at Calvary Church. "The last thing we want to do is give a manual to a father who has volunteered to coach a team, and then just disappear," said Krum. "We need to be walking with him every step of the way so he knows he can come to us anytime for help. That was one of the things that worked really well last fall, when our players would just be walking around at practices and providing assistance to coaches who needed it."
The other major provision the Eagles have committed is their popular camp program, Learn from the Prosâ¢. The Eagles will be offering the largest sports camp program in the area for kids 5-14 at CHAMP's facilities at Calvary Church on June 15-19 and July 6-10. The Eagles Elite Player Camp, which has been modified to a full day camp for players ages 10-17 will also be held at Calvary Church on July 13-17. Registration for all camps is now open at www.CharlotteEagles.com.
United Soccer League Championship Stories from December 30, 2008
- CHAMP Reaches New Heights With Eagles - Charlotte Eagles
- Palace Baltimore Announce 2009 Open Tryouts - Crystal Palace Baltimore
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
