Recreational Youth Soccer in the Mansfield, Ohio area in partnership with Mansfield Christian School. 


What is Flames Academy?



What is “Academy-style” soccer training?

Webster’s dictionary defines an academy as “a school that provides training in special subjects or skills”. 

          Academy Style Soccer 
               “Soccer School”

The goal of the academy is to approach soccer from an educational perspective, where skills are taught and then practiced. Just like a school, the teachers in an academy are highly-trained coaches who are licensed by the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) and/or National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) in training young players. 

Every facet of the academy is focused on teaching and developing players’ skills so that, upon graduation, they are better prepared to play the game.

The Flames Academy is an 8 to 10 session program for U7 and under. It is offered in both the fall and the spring. All players receive the same skills training from our qualified coaching staff, with half of each session set aside for game play. 

Why is "Academy-style" training the way to go?
Academy style training is different because it is focused on player development first and foremost. The entire program is carefully designed by the academy director, to train the players on all of the fundamental skills of soccer, which are then reinforced through game-style scrimmages at the end of each training session. 

How does it work?

Rather than dividing players into teams for the season, players are united to train together, improving camaraderie and cohesion throughout the club. At each training session, players join a training group that they'll keep for the night - they'll train and play with this group. Then at the next practice, they'll get a whole new group to work with. This ensures that the players get to team up with all the other players throughout the season. These training groups are headed by volunteer parent-coaches and/or senior players (U13+) from the club, with each group executing the same carefully designed curriculum of training created by the academy director. 

Why is it better than "league play" format for the youngest players?

This allows us to not only train the players on all the fundamentals of soccer, but also train and mentor these parent-coaches so they will be familiar with how to set up and run a high-quality training session should they elect to stay on as coaches in the future, as well as grow the leadership skills of our senior players. 

Often the players of conventional recreational soccer programs, with their compressed season and relatively large number of games, find themselves so busy playing the game, they never have time to learn the game. With academy style training, the sole focus is on learning the game, then applying those new skills through playing the game! 

Please contact Dave Golias, Flames Registrar at (419) 610-1349 if you have questions about Flames Academy.