NEWS

A Los Gatos seventh-grader is heading to England next month for soccer training at the prestigious Sunderland Youth Academy. The English Premier League sponsors the academy.
This is the second year in a row 12-year-old Bryce Clark has been selected to make the trip across the pond.

"It's definitely a lot of fun," Bryce said. "The coaches there are the best you can get. They teach you a lot of stuff. It's a real learning experience."

In England, soccer players can turn pro when they reach 16 years old. "They make minimum money," Bryce said. "They live at Sunderland and study in between training. They have to get their high school degree."

Bryce says the coaches at Sunderland watch the boys develop their soccer skills

Source:Arabianbusiness.comuntil they are 15 or 16 before offering them a spot. He is hopeful he'll land one himself. "I'd do it in the blink of an eye," he said.
Bryce was selected for the Sunderland road trip by four coaches from the English Premier League who were in town last week observing players at the Center of Excellence program for youth soccer players. The Pacific Soccer Academy and the Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center sponsor the program.

"We bring the Sunderland coaches in for the Center of Excellence and hold them over for a week to train the academy players," coach Mike Karr said. "It's the only program of its kind in the nation."

One of the coaches is Wayne Walls, who is considered to be the No. 2 youth coach in Sunderland. "From our point of view, it's a chance to look for talent who can come and play in our league," Walls said. "We also get to see the boys again who have already been over to England."
When Bryce arrives in England, he will notice quite a difference from playing in Los Gatos. "Even the weather plays a role in the boys' development," Sunderland coach Les Shaw said. "They play faster in England because it's so cold."

Shaw says he and the other coaches notice a big difference in the player's ability just in the one week they're in town. "We do see an improvement over the course of the week," he said. "And it's worthwhile for us to come here because it helps build the game over here."

About 130 kids are attending the academy at the JCC. It is able to accommodate that many players in part because it now has a full-size grass soccer field.

"The field is primarily for the academy," Karr said. "It is open for rental to outside groups, but that's sort of a double-edged sword. We want it in use 24/7, but we also want to protect it from over-use. So we're trying to strike a balance."

Parents whose children are members of the academy raised nearly $30,000 to pay for the field. "We ripped out the old baseball field and re-sodded so now twice as many kids can play," Karr said.

Besides adding numbers, Karr also wants to keep kids interested in playing soccer longer. "In the past, Los Gatos has had about a 50 percent drop-off rate after the age of 12," he said. "But this year we had a 92 percent retention rate of 13-year-olds returning."

Karr said about 65 percent of the kids attending the soccer academy are from Los Gatos. "But you start getting a pretty good reputation and they start coming from elsewhere," he said.

This is the second year the academy has been run out of the JCC.

"What I like is it's the only program that takes kids at 3 1Ž2 and trains them all the way to the pro level if they're good enough," Laurie Weiss said. Her husband's 9-year-old nephew, who is from New Jersey, is staying with the Los Gatos couple while he attends the soccer camp.

"For kids to have access to the Sunderland coaches is a big deal," Karr said. "They don't hire themselves out."

Source:Mercurynews.com