FC LONDON has been widely regarded as ‘the’ soccer force in Southwestern Ontario, and with a North American Championship and several players graduating to professional contracts, the club’s vision of creating opportunities for London and area players has continued to expand. Now, it’s time to take that success to the younger age groups, and with the blessing of Ontario Soccer’s OPDL designation, the true winners are going to be young soccer players from London and area.
Welcome, the Ontario Player Development League (OPDL): an elite program for 12 and 13-year-old boys and girls who will travel the province to play other elite teams, spend 11 months training for soccer, and work on conditioning and nutrition in an effort to maximize their potential. The league of 18 teams from across the province will kick off in 2014 and will include over 30 games and year-round training.
“Our goal is to provide the same experience that players on our PDL team get, and expand it to younger age groups,” said Ian Campbell, president of FC LONDON. “With the requirement for National level coaches, the training will be intense, and for those who love soccer, it will be just what they’ve been asking for.”
London soccer has long been challenged with a diverse group of soccer clubs, each of whom have succeeded in their own right. But it’s been a long time since one club has represented the city, and the OPDL is London soccer’s opportunity to aggregate the best of the best onto one team and compete at the highest level. The league has been called ‘Canadian soccer’s first standards-based youth high performance league that combines top level competition with strict high performance training standards.’
Boys and Girls aged 8-12 will have an opportunity to train at this high level. Those born in 2002 and younger age groups would continue to participate in their current winter program, with trials for a maximum of 50 players (50 boys and 50 girls) per age group to begin in January. The OPDL Grassroots program is for boys and girls aged 8-12 (2014) in preparation for future OPDL team trials when they reach U13.
All OPDL teams must meet high-level league requirements, including technical staff (a National-level team head coach and an assistant coach with a Provincial certification), twice-weekly goalkeeping coaching, strength and conditioning coaching, sports medicine personnel and programs, and high-quality year-round (ie. 10 1/2 month) indoor and outdoor training facilities.
www.fclondon.ca
