Fall Academy Affiliate Observation Day Recap

Last week we hosted our annual Fall Academy Affiliate Observation Days here in Kansas City. This event that we’ve been doing for several years now, gives the Academy Affiliate coaches the opportunity to observe training sessions from the youth & professional teams of Sporting KC. The reason we invite all Academy Affiliate coaches down for this event is to give them a full day of coaching education with access to youth and adult professional technical staff.

A total of 24 coaches attended the Observation Day with a majority of them traveling an hour or more to attend. The 7 affiliate clubs that were represented at the event were Sporting Arkansas, Sporting Blue Valley, Sporting Columbia, Sporting Iowa, Sporting Kaw Valley, Sporting Lee’s Summit and Sporting Wichita.

The day started out at Pinnacle National Development Center where the coaches observed the first team training. They also received a tour of Pinnacle and sat down with Sporting KC Assistant Coach Kerry Zavagnin for a Q&A. After training they all participated in an Academy Affiliate driven discussion with SKC Youth Soccer staff and SKC Academy staff. Next the coaches headed over to Swope Soccer Village to observe Swope Park Rangers training in the afternoon where there also participated in a Q&A with SPR Assistant Coach Chris Martinez. Later that day the coaches viewed the various SKC Academy trainings; U17/19, U16, U15, U14, U13, U12 and Center of Excellence (COE).

Coaches experience a full day of activities and coaching education opportunities while interacted with various Sporting KC technical staff ranging from the pro level to youth. We hope the Academy Affiliate coaches enjoyed their day here in KC!