The placement of Elias Rieland at the Real Salt Lake Academy is the latest of our successes. Real Salt Lake has established one of the best recognized academies in Casa Grande, Arizona where former US National Team player and current US Men’s team Assistant Martin Vasques is the Director of Coaching. Coach Martin Vasquez was the best collegiate player that Boca Coaching Director Berhane Andeberhan ever coached; and was generous enough to offer an opening for our club to have an option of sending some of our best young players that are interested in exploring a professional career without compromising their high school education. To initiate this relationship, Boca was asked to recommend one player to try out for the training program. The Boca coaching staff recommended Elias and to his credit Elias impressed the coaches enough that they offered him a place in the Academy. Elias also happens to be an outstanding student so that part of the equation was of the highest importance in our recommendation. The players that attend the academy all attend one of two schools in addition to their daily soccer training. Elias was accepted to an excellent prep academy that was available to him. 

The success of Elias in qualifying for the academy is a major coup for Boca as now the Academy staff have more confidence in the level of our players and have already offered us tryout opportunities for two more of our players. Everyone’s academic and soccer goals are not the same and we do not expect everyone that is qualified to take advantage of this opportunity but, if all else fits, this will be a great chance for some of our players. We are gratified that we have opened one major avenue for those that are interested and we will do our best to keep that option available.

Elias has been a BOCA member for the majority of his young soccer career. He started as a 7 year old in our youth academy at the U9 level. At a young age Elias was always happy on the soccer field and dedicated a bunch of time and effort both physically and mentally to improve his soccer game. The goal at the younger ages is to try and get the players to fall in love with the soccer ball and feel comfortable with the ball at their feet. Elias along with other that have come through our youth academy have shown little resistance to making friends with the ball and make difficult techniques look easy during high levels of play. 

As Elias began to grow in size and talent, he became more attractive to bigger clubs here locally and even in the Bay Area. With a strong foundation established, his coaches in the older subgroups where able to continue his development adding a creative tactical flare to his impressive technical ability. Every year his talents would be requested and even recruited to go to other clubs, but Elias was content and very adamant about staying with BOCA. “I did get offers to play elsewhere, but I always knew my coaches at BOCA would get me where I needed to be.” We are happy that he put his trust in our club and its commitment to development and BOCA is proud to call Elias one of our own.

The training academy is about 40 miles south of Phoenix and has 8 top quality soccer fields, locker rooms and indoor facilities in the fashion of European professional clubs. Players live in dormitories and eat in the restaurant of the resort which in addition to the soccer training academy houses one of the oldest golf courses in Arizona. The facility is so conducive to soccer training that many of our national teams and professional MLS teams use it for training. The boys in the academy are in the care of highly qualified soccer coaches as well as academic advisors and supervisors and are provided with transportation to and from their high school campuses.  

The club wishes Elias the best of luck and continued success as he embarks on his new soccer quest.

• Compete at the highest level
• Develop each individual player technically, tactically, physically, and psychologically
• Promote a team-oriented constructive game
• Foster a life-long love for the game in each player
• Create a positive, challenging, competitive, and fun soccer environment
• Emphasize character traits valued in team sports such as dedication, teamwork, leadership, sportsmanship, work ethic, and loyalty
• Enhance the chances of our players to play in college and earn athletic scholarships
• Enhance the chances of all our youngsters to pursue college education, whether they choose to play soccer or not
• Promote players that are qualified to play professional soccer

The Coaching Program

• The coaching program follows the “Best Practices for Coaching Soccer” guidelines of US Soccer
• The club encourages and subsidizes the coaching staff to continuously upgrade their coaching licenses and continuing education
• Effort is made to expose players to different coaching styles and personalities
• Individual skill and tactical development are the focus of most of our training
• The style of play is a constructive football played in a possession-oriented team game

Raising the Level of Coaching

To accomplish these goals one needs coaches with the qualification and the philosophical approach that is consistent with the philosophy and committed to a unified curriculum. From the start Boca was blessed with some excellent coaches but we also had a great deal of room for growth. The club undertook a serious project to upgrade our coaching level and encourage and assist coaches to earn their coaching licenses and encourage those who were already licensed to continue their education by participation in various seminars and other opportunities to stay on top of their craft. The coaching program is directed by our Technical Director who has extensive National and Collegiate coaching experiences and has served as instructor in the USSoccer National Coaching schools for 26 years. In addition he holds the Brazilian Professional Coaching License. Our coaches’ list includes highly educated, highly qualified and experienced coaches who have professional, international, and collegiate playing experiences. We strive for our coaches to achieve the highest coaching licenses from USSoccer and/or NSCAA and the progress has been quite significant.

One of our earliest intensive efforts has been to raise the level of our coaches. Boca invested funds to send many of our coaches to one of the two established Coaching Schools in the USA. Many of our coaches took advantage of that and as a result the overall level of qualification of our coaches has been raised dramatically.

Below is a graphic representation of the growth of our coaching staff and how the level has raised in the last few years. We have progressed from a point where most of our coaches had the minimum coaching certification, to where the majority now have the highest certifications available.

 

Having coaches that keep up with the latest practices in coaching is consistent with our using the “Best Practices for Coaching Soccer” as the basic guideline for our program. We also continue to learn from some of the best coaching programs including Spain, Brazil and Mexico and do our best to adapt some of the lessons learned. The focus is in teaching each player to become increasingly more competent technically and then using that base to build teams that are based on possession and constructive teamwork. Our coaches strive to keep up with the modern approaches to fitness that are relevant to our sport and use the ball in most of our fitness work. Hand in hand with that is the teaching of the mental game to raise the awareness of our players and improve their game based on understanding as well as good character and willingness to learn.  

The coaching staff meets regularly to discuss soccer issues and all are encouraged to attend more coaching schools and seminars. In addition to coaching certification our coaches are required to uphold the highest professional standards of personal conduct and are required to be constantly aware that they must set good examples for our players. One of the obvious manifestations of this is manifest at our games. One will note that our coaches will give some suggestions and direction as well as encouragement during our games but refrain from trying to direct every step of the game. We believe we must teach our players to make their own decisions; and yelling instructions from the sideline is contraindicated if one really believes in that.  This does not mean that we as coaches do everything right but that we believe in the right way and strive to get it across to our kids by word and by deed. As our players are learning to become better players, we are also learning to become better coaches!

Playing Experiences: The staff boasts extensive and impressive playing experiences including:

• 5 former United States U20 National Team members
• 1 former United States Full National Team member
• 13 coaches who have played professionally
• 4 who have played professional or semi-professional soccer overseas
• 13 who have played at major college programs

Coaching Experiences: The coaching staff includes:

• 1 Head Coach of the United States U20 National Team and an assistant to the Full National Team
• 3 Regional ODP coaches
• 6 State ODP coaches
• 4 college coaches
• 5 assistant college coaches
• Essentially everyone has coached at the youth and high school levels

Some Highlights of the Club

• Excellent home practice and game fields at Larchmont Community Park (maintained by the Club)
• New Boca Field Complex (initially three fields with lights, in progress)
• Large Financial Support commitment from philanthropic benefactors
• Boca U18 Development Academy Teams play for FREE and pay no fees
• Central Club office and full-time staff
• Off-season Club Futsal program provided at No Additional Cost
• Summer Intensive Training Camps to all teams at No Additional Cost
• Goalkeeping  Academy at No Additional Cost
• Functional Training at No Additional Cost

Benefits of Adidas Sponsorship

• Custom uniforms made especially for our Club.
• Priority acceptance to Adidas-sponsored tournaments (Northwest Showcase, Disney Cup, Nomads Tournament, WAGS etc.)
• Participation of our best athletes in Adidas ESP program.
• Participation of staff in Adidas-sponsored seminars.

In the last few years Boca has continued to put into practice its idea of teaching the game with the goal of helping players become competent technically and tactically. This was scoffed at by some circles with axes to grind, as something that was an alternative to winning or not conducive to winning. The fact of the matter is that Boca teams have not only established a stamp on the club’s constructive style of play but are also winning more than their share of games and tournaments. The trophy case is full and we need to construct bigger trophy cases!

The fundamental idea must be re-emphasized. We strive to teach children how to play the game the right way; confident that the competence they gain individually allows us to teach them constructive team tactics which translates in good performances and victories. When they are younger it is easy to determine which ones are bigger or faster but not what they are going to become as players. Some of the best players have been late bloomers. If bigger and faster are the main criteria used to identify and select players, there is a risk that the methods emphasized by coaches will tend towards outrunning and muscling opponents at the expense of teaching the skills and nuances of the game.   

We believe that winning becomes the inevitable outcome of learning and practicing the game with the right tools and with the right ideas rather than by applying shortcuts such as destructive soccer whose short term benefits result in shortchanging the players’ long term development. We are also convinced that this approach is consistent with our goal of using soccer to teach good citizenship habits!

Continuing Progress

Boca started as the competitive arm of River City United in the CYSA program. The River City League was comprised of Recreational, Select and Competitive soccer teams and we were the Competitive arm of it. As things progressed and as US Club Soccer grew in our area, we found that for some of our teams participation in some of the Nor Cal Premier events provided excellent competition and positive challenges for our players. Therefore Boca reorganized as an autonomous non-profit entity to ensure the flexibility to allow our teams to participate in CYSA as well as US Club Soccer. Gradually things developed such that most of our teams were participating in Nor Cal Premier and it was inevitable that we would eventually get to the current reality where we play exclusively in NorCal Premier. Currently Boca along with most of the competitive clubs in the area play exclusively in NorCal Premier.

 Further Growth

Boca has continued to thrive and is in the process of expanding its operations in order to serve players who want to participate at the equivalent levels as the traditional Recreational and Select categories. We are also looking to provide some voluntary service to some of the under-served elementary and middle schools in our area by providing some soccer programs where PE programs are in dire need and in some cases eliminated. 

People from Elk Grove to Eldorado Roseville and Natomas have been very supportive of the overall Boca program and have made many useful suggestions. Based on those suggestions and a great deal of study and discussion Boca continues to expand its operations in order to serve a wider and more diverse population. Here are some of the varied programs that Boca is engaged in.

Premier Division

As a member of US Clubs soccer participating in Nor Cal Premier Soccer, Boca has over 20 teams that play competitive soccer. These teams participate in the Premier, Gold, and Silver levels. The club has been reaching out to many soccer groups including some recreational level teams, some unaffiliated groups as well as the various elementary and middle schools in the area. We have provided limited service by holding camps, coaching clinics and volunteering in after school sport programs. This involvement has evolved into even further developments in our overall program. 

Silver Division

Based on previous experience and the need to serve recreational and select level teams, to use the old nomenclature, Boca is adapting its programs to allow teams at those levels to be part of the club. This will also allow us to make the fees attenuated accordingly so that they are more affordable for those that want to participate at a level of their choosing.  

We already have had two teams the Boca Natomas and Boca Landpark teams who were the first to join us under the new arrangements. Currently we are in the process of adding several teams to our Silver Division and foresee that this division will eventually be a subgroup by itself with the necessary adjustments. While the competitive teams are coached by Boca professional coaches exclusively, the new Silver Division teams will have parent coaches who will be following the Boca curriculum and will be assisted and supervised by Boca professional coaches. In addition to mentoring and supervising the parent coaches we will also provide frequent training sessions by the Boca professional coaches.  

Boca Youth Academy

The biggest growth perhaps has been in the Boca Youth Academy. This program was originally designed for U8 players to help them eventually transition to the U9 competitive levels. We used to have a training squad of about 15-20 players with the hope of retaining enough for a U9 team in subsequent years. Recently this program has grown by leaps and bounds and is now a significant program by itself and is coached by our Boca professional coaches. We have had to adjust to the demands of our community and added U7 and U6 age groups and it has been a resounding success. The goal at this level is to introduce the little ones to the ball and help them fall in love with the game. There is absolutely no lack of enthusiasm and energy at this level and it has been very rewarding seeing the improvement the little “Futbalistas” make as they become familiar with the ball. The method is to get them as many touches of the ball as possible in a safe manner. Originally we provided in-house games, but now we can also arrange some play dates with some of the other clubs. There are no scores kept and there are no standings but there is a great deal of fun and energy! The club feels that these age groups need to be introduced to the sport correctly and so are taught by some of our most qualified coaches.  

Boca Volunteers Service to Local Schools

In addition to our direct club work, the club is doing its best to assist with some local schools that have lost funding for their PE and Athletic programs. The Boca coaches have built relationships with several local schools and volunteer their time and effort to conduct after school soccer practice sessions for the elementary and middle school students in our community. More often than not, the schools have a shortage of equipment so the Boca coaches have been providing soccer balls and bringing their equipment to run the sessions. We also hold drives for usable soccer shoes to provide some of the children that need them.   

All things considered, the growth of Boca has been steady and constant with the goal of providing the best possible soccer experience to diverse segments of our community. In order to do that we have continued to raise the level of our coaches remaining focused on teaching the skills and tactics of the game and keeping in mind that winning is the outcome of doing things the right way!   

Fitness training can include endurance work, interval training, balance, and agility exercises. The Academy’s speed, coordination and agility training sessions incorporate various youth programs from around the world for training young players.

Skill work can include various ball handling drills designed to improve skill under pressure, first touch and speed of play.

Position specific training is designed to train a player in a certain position on the field or in the net.  This training will involve drills specially designed for the position of your choice.

• Goal Keeper
• Defender
• Midfielder
• Striker

Individual and small group trainings run for one hour

When: Mondays starting 12/5
Location: Larchmont Community Park
Times: 3-4pm & 4-5pm

WORLD CUP SPONSOR

BOCA  Individual and Small GroupTraining

BOCA Soccer offers individual and small group training for our soccer players.

BOCA Soccer offers different types of training to accommodate individuals and small groups up to 4. Training sessions can be scheduled through the club.  We will provide trainers and all training sessions will be held at Larchmont Community Park.

Fitness training can include endurance work, interval training, balance, and agility exercises. The Academy’s speed, coordination and agility training sessions incorporate various youth programs from around the world for training young players.

Skill work can include various ball handling drills designed to improve skill under pressure, first touch and speed of play.

Position specific training is designed to train a player in a certain position on the field or in the net.  This training will involve drills specially designed for the position of your choice.

• Goal Keeper
• Defender
• Midfielder
• Striker

Individual and small group trainings run for one hour

When: Fridays starting 1/20
Location: Larchmont Community Park
Times: 3-4pm & 4-5pm

Individual Player                               Cost

1 Session                                     $30

Small Group                                        Cost

1 Session (2 players)                      $25 per player

1 Session (4 players)                      $20 per player

For more information or to schedule training please e-mail us at casaclub@sbcglobal.net or call (916) 489-2272.