Youth Soccer update: The Force is with the Galaxy & more

*The Galaxy and South Bay youth soccer club South Bay Force have formed a “strategic partnership” that will see the Force “become one of the primary sources for developing youth players for the LA Galaxy’s youth teams.”

From the press release:

The LA Galaxy and South Bay Force organizations will share coaching resources and staff and create a common curriculum and methodology for developing young players. Top players from South Bay Force will be able to move onto LA Galaxy Youth Academy teams, and South Bay Force teams will be able to draw from a larger talent pool and prepare players to compete for the Galaxy.

Galaxy Academy and South Bay Force will share administrative resources for player registration, league participation, field inventory, and special events. They will also partner in developing regional training centers and creating community training opportunities for players throughout the Southland.

Galaxy youth teams play in the play in the Southern California Development Soccer League (SCDSL) and the elite U.S. Soccer Development Academy circuit.

Said Chris Klein, director of the Galaxy’s youth academy:

“When we first looked at forming alliances with different clubs around Southern California we immediately reached out to South Bay not just because of its excellent reputation, but more importantly for their focus on developing the next generation of soccer players.”

Said Greg Yorke, president of the Force:

“This is is part of a larger trend, which is the gradual shift away from the traditional American soccer model toward the global norm.”

*Related: Coincidentally, a story about the Galaxy’s youth academy just appeared on a well-known soccer website. Read it here.

*I reported last December about the plans of AYSO to move from its long-time Hawthorne home to a new Harbor Gateway site, just outside Torrance.

Well, the move was formally approved by the AYSO board in January and the move will begin in May and be completed by June 1.

From the AYSO press release:

The new AYSO space is more traditional office space so the converted school rooms will be left behind. But with a more efficient configuration, the new space will continue to include meeting and training facilities as well as work space for its 50 employees.

Communications and service to its national membership will be enhanced as staff will now be located in a single contiguous space, rather than spread among a number of small, unconnected buildings.

The address of the new AYSO offices is 19750 S. Vermont Ave. Suite 200, Torrance, Calif., 90502.

AYSO boats almost 600,000 youth players who play on nearly 65,000 teams.

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About Nick Green

South Bay-based Los Angeles News Group soccer columnist and blogger Nick Green writes at the 100 Percent Soccer blog at www.insidesocal.com/soccer and craft beer at the Beer Goggles blog at www.insidesocal.com/beer. Cheers!