Date:  April 26^th, 2019

From:  Charlotte Soccer Academy, 13501 Dorman Road, Pineville NC 28134

Contact:  Brad Wylde – 704.708.4166

Charlotte Soccer Academy is pleased to release the Club Coaching Structure for the 2019-2020 season.

“With the addition of several new staff members in different areas of our organization, we are very excited about the upcoming season,” states Executive Director, Brad Wylde. “We have made some productive changes in how we are structuring the club this year, and these adjustments have been made to continue the evolution of the club and offer more opportunities for every level of play under the USYS youth soccer model. We are confident that these adjustments will continue to push the club forward as one of the top full-service clubs in the country.”

Highlights and key changes to the structure include the enhancements to our Elite program. The Elite Program was implemented this past year for players who are not quite ready for the USSDA Program and/or would rather combine club soccer and high school soccer. We have included within the program this year, the ECNL (Elite Club National League) for boys’ teams, with one team at each age group 13U through 18U. These teams will compete in the Mid Atlantic Division for the 2019-2020 season.

Under the Elite Program, boys and girls will enhance their training model by implementing a bi-weekly functional (position specific) training night throughout the season, a video analysis component where several games a season will be filmed and analyzed with staff and players and a weekly sports performance session including pre and post season fitness assessments to help our players work on becoming quicker, faster and stronger. Our Elite program will continue to be offered in the North for players in the Cabarrus and Huntersville programs and the South for the Charlotte, Matthews/Mint Hill, Uptown, Palisades/Palmetto programs. Steve Magee will continue to direct the Elite platform and has done an outstanding job for the program this past year integrating both CUFC and CSA players following our merger. Patrick Bridges will be assisting coach Magee running the ECNL program. Coach Bridges has had experience in the ECNL being a former Director at the Fusion prior to his arrival here at CSA. Additional support staff for Coach Magee will include North Director of Coaching (DOC) Matt Denton and A licensed coaches Tammy DeCesare and Heather Frelin for the Elite girls’ teams.   

Our CSA Uptown program has experienced tremendous growth this past season in the Dilworth, Myers Park and the Uptown areas of Charlotte under the leadership of DOC Dan Dudley. Coach Dudley has been with CSA since inception and has been a key part of the overall success of the organization. Assisting Dan with the program will be our uptown Girls’ DOC Catey Stewart. We are excited to add an additional staff member to the Uptown section with Ethan Kilby joining CSA. Coach Kilby comes to CSA from the Fusion where he worked as a senior support staff member for their National DA and ECNL programs. Kilby will direct the boy’s program for the Uptown section. In addition, coach Dudley has started a feeder system with a new Recreation level program in the Uptown location for ages 6U-8U.

CSA Palisades/Palmetto is another area of growth this past year under the leadership of Director of Coaching Dan Tannir for Palisades and Sheldon Russell for our Palmetto section. Teams have the pleasure of training and playing in games on one of the three owned facilities under CSA’s network with the manicured 5 field complex at the Palisades. Coach Tannir oversees the NC teams ranging from the Youth Academy extending this year up to 15U. Older players interested in playing in South Carolina due to school conflicts will be directed by Sheldon Russell who manages the CSA Palmetto branch.

In our North section, Matt Denton will still continue to head up the program following his tremendous work over the years building this section of the club to a 750+ member organization with all levels of play under the USYS structure. I am excited to announce the hiring of Ruffin Tanner to Denton’s staff. Coach Tanner comes to CSA from the Twin City/Fusion organization where he served  as an Assistant Director for their 15-19 programs. Coach Tanner will replace Chaz Montero covering our CSA North/Huntersville 16U-19U boys’ and girls’ section. Coach Montero will be relocating to Texas to pursue a career outside of soccer. DOC Peter Broadley will continue his role involved in our North Youth Academy and due to his extensive experience at the collegiate level, will continue to direct CSA’s College Program helping our families navigate the college journey for those players wanting to play at the next level. The 13U-19U programs for our North and Huntersville section will now be combined moving forward. Coach Scott Fischer will continue his Director’s role overseeing the 11U and 12U boys’ and girls’ North program and the 13U North/Huntersville teams. Current Assistant women’s coach for UNC Charlotte, Michael Swan will assume the role as the Director of Coaching for the 14U and 15U boys’ and girls’ North/Huntersville program. 

Andrew Steedman will continue his role as Director of Coaching with our Huntersville section. The program continues to progress with some tremendous gifted players coming out of the Strikers Soccer program which coach Steedman manages. Coach Steedman will continue to oversee the Youth Academy, 11U and 12U Huntersville teams as well as the 13U-19U joint North/Huntersville program.

CSA is now entering discussions with various land developers, schools and ongoing meetings with the park and recreation departments to plan out strategic long-term options for additional turf facilities at locations in between the two sections of our North and Huntersville programs to compliment Red Ventures, Frank Liske Park, Bradford Park and the Strikers soccer facility. We hope to announce some news in the coming weeks on future development plans in these areas.

Our Matthews branch will now be called CSA Matthews/Mint Hill as we continue to expand our footprint within this area. We hope to have some exciting news in the coming months on a potential partnership for new fields in and around the Matthews/Mint Hill area. These fields will complement the sites we currently use like Matthews Sportsplex and now Hellenic Park following our merger last year with CUFC. Andy Guevara will head up this program working with Tyler Andrus who collectively have been loyal and professional Directors for this program over the past several seasons. Coach Andrus will head up our Recreation, Youth Academy and USYS 11U program. Coach Guevara will continue the role of 12U through 19U DOC. 

Some familiar faces return to our staff In the Charlotte section. Richard Butler will continue to run our Youth Academy programs, focusing on developing our future players. Returning to his staff will be Matt Ford in Charlotte and a new girls’ YA director will be joining the Charlotte section next season as coach Stephano Williams has been promoted to the girls’ 11U-13U Director of Coaching. Coach Williams has had a proven track record for the past few years working with our top younger girls progressing them to a national level, it was an obvious choice to move him into this role. Our new girls’ YA Charlotte Director will be announced next week. Ben Cook, Raymond Fraser, Andrew Brown and Gary Forbes will continue their roles within the Charlotte section. These DOCS continue to progress and promote our players and teams through the ranks to the Elite and USSDA programs and have done a tremendous job as Directors for the largest program within the CSA network.

Technical Director Patrick Daka and Sports Performance Director Luke Williams from Architech Sports continue their roles ensuring our mission of getting players technically more comfortable on the ball and becoming quicker, faster and stronger. Coach Williams and Coach Daka will be implementing more opportunities within all sections and levels of our USYS structure. It is crucial for players to have this extra training available to them outside of their regular team training on a weekly basis.

Coach Bill Finneyfrock will assume the role as the Director of CSA’s Goalkeeping department. He will have numerous assistants helping him progress our upcoming GKs through all programs. Notable additions to his staff will be Michael Winstone who will oversee the training of the boys’ and girls’ USSDA programs. Coach Winstone replaces Alex Bolowich who is relocating to Jacksonville, Florida.  

Coach Greg Henschel will continue to head up our Recreation program throughout CSA. Coach Henschel’s role will be to manage the sections of our current programs including the new Recreation sections we are starting in Uptown and Mount Pleasant, NC. Assistant Directors Rich Schwartz (Charlotte) Tyler Andrus (Matthews) and Meanu Kayea (North/Mount Pleasant) will continue their roles as the support team for Coach Henschel. 

At the National level, Coach Steve Gummer and Brian Moore continue their roles as the USSDA boys’ and girls’ Directors respectively. Coach Gummer enters his third year with the program and with the quality of players coming through his program, 2019-2020 promises to be one of the most successful in the club’s history at the DA level. Coach Moore joined CSA this past February and has made a tremendous impact since his arrival, continuing to maintain CSA as one of the strongest women’s DA programs in the country. 

The new club structure will be in effect as of June 1, 2019. The current DOC structure will stay in effect through the end of tryouts with the transition to the new structure in place with the pre-season camp in August. Both the game coaches and the Directors of Coaching for CSA will be involved in the upcoming age group meetings and sessions over the next several weeks to ensure information on players are communicated to the new staff taking on the roles for next season. It is important that the staff who have worked with players throughout the fall season are a part of the selection process for the upcoming 2019-2020 season.

With the extensive staff and network of opportunities surrounding the programs, levels and locations, CSA continues to set the tone for youth soccer in the Charlotte region. Being the largest competitive youth organization in Charlotte and the only club to have three owned facilities (OrthoCarolina Sportsplex, Red Ventures Soccer Center and the Palisades Soccer complex) and all levels of play including USSDA for boys and girls, the club continues to operate as one of the top organizations in the country.

In the coming weeks, we are excited to announce the ground breaking of the club’s new offices. A 10,000 square foot building at the OrthoCarolina Sportsplex will house the CSA club offices, club store, changing facilities, in addition to 5000 square feet of its spaces devoted to sports performance and physical therapy. More details on the building will be announced in the next few weeks.

Please click here to view the Director Structure Diagram.
The coaching slate is available on the TRYOUTS page - click here to be redirected.

###