Date: May 14, 2021
From: Charlotte Soccer Academy, 13333 Dorman Road, Pineville, NC 28134
Contact: Brad Wylde – 704.708.4166
For Immediate Release:
Charlotte Soccer Academy Structure and Programming for 2021-2022 Season
Charlotte Soccer Academy is pleased to release both the boys and girls club director structure for the 2021-22 season.
“We know this has been a difficult and frustrating year with Covid-19,” states Executive Director, Brad Wylde, “but we are finally getting back to some normality and we are very excited about the opportunity to expand our programming and introduce a new infrastructure for the 2021-2022 season. We have made some productive changes in how we are structuring and expanding the club this year. These adjustments have been made to continue the evolution of the club and offer more opportunities for every level of play under the ECNL, NPL and USYS youth soccer models. We are confident that these adjustments will continue to push the club forward in being one of the top full-service clubs in the country.”
Highlights to our structure include our continued presence in the ECNL for our National programs for boys and girls. With the termination of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy program in 2020, both boys’ and girls’ National programs entered the ECNL this past year. The move has been very productive for both programs providing a consistent game schedule and tremendous exposure for college and National team opportunities for CSA’s elite players. The girls’ program was one of the founding members when the ECNL began in 2009. The league now stands alone as the top program in the country for women’s youth soccer. Brian Moore will continue his role as the Director of the program. Since Coach Moore joined the program in 2019, the team and individual player successes have moved to a new level for the club. More players have gained National team exposure along with team results on the field, moving the club into one of the leaders in girls’ soccer across the country.
The boys’ program also has representation within the ECNL with two teams in each age group. This past year, the ECNL expanded into a 10–11-month program and CSA’s former USSDA section joined our existing ECNL National program team within this platform. CSA has two teams in the league playing 10-11 months at the 13U and 14U age groups. Our 15U-19U age groups will have the ECNL National Academy teams in the 10–11-month platform and the second group will play in the existing 6-month program, which enables these players to continue to play high school soccer in the fall. Steve Gummer will enter his sixth year heading the ECNL National Academy boys’ program. The program has gone from strength to strength under his leadership over the past five years with over 97% of players going through the program getting scholarship opportunities to play at the collegiate level. The ECNL National boys’ program under the National Academy level will be directed by Phil Hindson. Coach Hindson enters his second year leading this program and since his arrival in May 2020, he has brought a tremendous amount of experience to the program. Hindson was a former Division 1 coach at Clemson and Winthrop Universities as well as a senior director at Charlotte Independence, formerly Discoveries Soccer Club. Coach Hindson will also direct our college recruiting program and run our annual college ID camps.
An additional National platform will be implemented this next season for our South Carolina boys who have a desire to continue playing high school soccer in SC. With CSA’s expansion into York County and the demand for National opportunities, CSA has entered the National Premier League (NPL) for 2021-2022. This program will field teams at 13U-14U for boys playing through the year and 15U-19U teams competing in the fall opposite to the SC high school boys’ season. CSA’s new DOC for York County, Ralph Latchana, will oversee this platform. (Click here for NPL press release from earlier this spring.)
To assist in the preparation of our players for the national level programs, CSA will continue with our Pre-ECNL program for boys and girls for the 2021-22 season. Coach Ben Cook will continue leading this program with boys’ teams in the Charlotte section, combination boys’ teams from Matthews and Uptown sections along with combination boys’ teams from the North and Huntersville area at 11U and 12U. The boys’ teams will play again in the CDL (Carolina Development League). Our girls’ Pre-ECNL will enter its second year of programming at 11U and 12U age groups in the Charlotte section with the same training opportunities and curriculum as our boys’ program. The girls’ teams will continue to play under the USYS structure with opportunities to play in boys’ divisions in the NCYSA leagues.
CSA’s Regional programming will continue in 2021-2022, fielding teams in our North/Huntersville and South areas at 13U-19U in the ECNL Regional Leagues for both boys and girls. The league will continue to provide a high level of competition for our teams with home and away games versus several of the larger clubs in North Carolina as well as South Carolina clubs such as CESA and SC United. Steve Magee will continue to head up this platform. Coach Magee has done an outstanding job since the program began with several teams winning their respective divisions in the Regional League’s inaugural year. Matt Denton will continue his assistant role with the North/Huntersville ECNL Regional girls and Stephen Chaconas, a new addition to our staff, will be assisting on the boys’ side. Coach Chaconas comes to CSA with an extensive background in youth soccer throughout the Carolinas as a former Technical Director, coaching educator and ECNL/NPL coach at clubs which included Charlotte Independence, Lake Norman and NCFC.
CSA Uptown has progressed tremendously over the past three seasons offering more levels of play for families residing in the Uptown area. Dan Dudley will continue his role leading this section with a support staff of Catey Stewart (girls) and a new addition to CSA’s full-time staff, Prince Ojok (boys). Coach Dudley has been with CSA since inception and has been a key part of the overall success of the organization. Coach Stewart brings a wealth of experience to the section and has been instrumental in the growth of our girls’ section since CSA’s merger with Charlotte United three years ago. Coach Ojok has been a tremendous coach for teams in our Uptown division and was the obvious choice to promote to the boys’ DOC. Membership for this area is continually growing into the Myers Park, Dilworth, and South Park areas of the city.
CSA Palisades/Palmetto has also continued to grow and now CSA provides teams from the Youth Academy (9U and 10U) through to 15U boys and girls in North Carolina. Coach Ralph Latchana joined CSA in January and has made an immediate impact in this section. He will continue to oversee this area that will play out of our beautiful facility in the Palisades subdivision, the “Harris Teeter Soccer Complex”. Coach Latchana will expand his role into York County as CSA will start to operate programming in Fort Mill and Rock Hill for 2021. Latchana’s support staff includes Sheldon Russell who will direct our Palmetto section, 15U-19U teams based at the Harris Teeter complex that will play in the South Carolina Youth Soccer Leagues. Ralph Lundy also teams up with Latchana and Russell in this area. Lundy joins CSA from the Charlotte Independence South, formerly Discoveries Soccer Club, and will manage the Youth Academy age groups at the Palisades section but also support the growth of our York County area due to the demand for CSA to have a presence in these areas for 2021-22.
Matt Denton will continue to manage our North section. Since joining CSA ten years ago, he has been instrumental in offering all levels of play for our players in this area. Accompanying Matt will be a tremendous support staff with Stephen Chaconas directing the ECNL Regional and Pre-ECNL boys’ teams, Scott Fischer directing the 11U-12U North section and 13U/14U North/Huntersville section, Chris Ryan as the Youth Academy Director, and Pete Broadley as a support staff to Coach Denton running teams in the 15U-19U North/Huntersville age groups.
Andrew Steedman will continue his role as Director of Coaching with our Huntersville section. The program continues to progress and from 13U – 19U both Coach Steedman and Coach Denton’s teams will continue to combine to create more opportunities for players in the Cabarrus, Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson areas to have the “CSA Way” available to them. This area now boasts teams for all levels of play under USYS as well as the ECNL Regional league platform for the elite players.
In addition to the North and Huntersville sections, CSA will continue to offer a program designed for players of Hispanic descent and/or economic hardship with our CSA Broncos program. This program will provide opportunities in the Concord, Kannapolis and Huntersville area. The program will be run in conjunction with our CSA North program with leadership coming from Coach Napo Carachure and lead administrator, Scott Wagner. For more information on this program, please direct your questions to Matt Denton [email protected].
Our Matthews/Mint Hill branch is continuing to grow and expand more into Union County. Andy Guevara will continue his role as the sectional Director. Coach Guevara has run the program since inception nine years ago and has continued to provide quality teams in Union County as well as creating a pathway for CSA players to advance to our National program teams. Joining Coach Guevara will be Steve Burckhalter who has been promoted from a senior level staff coach to the Youth Academy Director. Coach Burckhalter will replace Tyler Andrus who will be relocating to a DOC role in our Charlotte section. Coach Buckhalter has been with CSA Matthews/Mint Hill for the past three seasons and has had some resounding success with his teams in terms of results and individual player development due to his extensive knowledge in the game. CSA Matthews/Mint Hill and Uptown sections will be working closely this next season combining specific age groups to create an advance pathway for both boys and girls who want the opportunity to compete in the higher divisions within USYS and continue to stay closer to home. For more information on this age group combination teams, please reach out to Andy Guevara, [email protected] or Dan Dudley [email protected].
Some familiar faces return to our staff in the Charlotte section. This section will continue to be directed by Raymond Fraser who enters his second year overseeing our largest section of the club. Coach Fraser is another long serving Director of CSA and has been influential in our club’s progression over the years. Coach Fraser knows our expectations and standards here at the club and will continue to influence the most populated area based at our main complex in Pineville. Accompanying Coach Fraser will be Matt Ford who will continue overseeing the 11U-13U boys, Stephano Williams 11U-13U girls, Scott Ginn 14U-15U boys and new addition to the staff, Tyler Andrus who transfers from our Matthews/ Mint Hill section to direct the 16U-19U boys and girls. Coaches Ford, Williams, Ginn and Andrus bring a fantastic combination of experience, leadership and professionalism to their programs and will be a great compliment to Coach Fraser as the Charlotte section continues to grow and prosper.
Richard Butler will continue to run our Youth Academy programs, focusing on developing our future players. Coach Butler, one of CSA’s most senior staff, has continued to do a phenomenal job leading all seven sections of our YA program as these young players enter competitive soccer. Returning to his staff will be Erik Imler who continue his role overseeing the Charlotte boys’ section and Greg Henschel will do the same on the girls’ side of CSA’s largest YA section based in South Charlotte. Also continuing their roles with Coach Butler will be Catey Stewart at Uptown Girls YA, Andrew Steedman at Huntersville YA, and Chris Ryan at North YA, New YA staff joining Coach Butler’s team will be Steve Burckhalter at Matthews/Mint Hill, Prince Ojok for the Uptown Boys and Ralph Lundy at Palisades and York County.
Sports Performance Director Luke Williams from Architech Sports continues his mission of getting our players quicker, faster and stronger. Coach Williams will continue to provide more opportunities at the clubs 10,000 square foot building at our main facility, the OrthoCarolina Sportsplex in Pineville. The facility houses a physical therapy department along with a weight room and new 4 x 60 turf running area in the front of the club house to enhance the speed programs Architech has available to our players. In addition, Architech are expanding their resources into our North areas mirroring training opportunities from Charlotte for our North, Huntersville players.
Bill Finneyfrock will also continue as the head of our Goalkeeping department. He will have numerous assistants helping him progress our upcoming GKs through all programs. Coach Finneyfrock is the former Executive Director of CUFC and one of the most reputable GK trainers in the Southeast. He will continue to bring a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience to our GK program. Joining coach Finneyfrock will be Michael Winstone. Coach Winstone will continue his role overseeing our ECNL program goalkeepers.
Directing our Recreation program again next season will be Rich Schwartz. Coach Schwartz enters his second year leading our grass roots programming and continues to provide a fantastic platform for our youngest players starting out in soccer. With our Recreation program now operating throughout the Charlotte, Matthews, Uptown, Palisades, and the North/Cabarrus sections, this program has continued to grow and produce some great players to feed into our respective competitive levels at all locations. Coach Schwartz will have some familiar faces supporting him in the other sections. Meanu Kayea will continue his role managing our North section and Stephen Burckhalter will assist in the Matthews/Mint Hill area. Coach Schwartz will also utilize some new coaches in our Uptown and Palisades areas and these announcements will be made prior to the start of the season in August.
In conjunction with our recreation program, CSA entered a partnership program this spring with the YMCA of Greater Charlotte, working together to enhance the soccer programs at all the YMCAs in the region. CSA is every excited about this opportunity to work with a pillar in the community like the YMCA, along with expanding CSA’s brand awareness in youth soccer around the region. Heading up this program for CSA will be DOC Ethan Kilby. Coach Kilby has been with CSA for three years as a DOC for our Uptown section. He will be highly effective in this new position working with all the YMCAs to offer enhanced player development opportunities as well as coaching education for the volunteer coaching network.
Our new CSA Director of Coaching structure diagrams for boys and girls accompanies this press release. The new club structure will be in effect as of August 1st, 2021. The current DOC structure will stay in effect through the end of our season and tryouts this month. The transition to the new structure will be in place during our first week of the season at our pre-season team camp in August 2-5, 2021.
CSA DOC Structure Diagram - Boys
CSA DOC Structure Diagram - Girls
# # #
Charlotte Soccer Academy is the premier full-service club in the Charlotte NC area, offering members opportunities to play and develop at all ages and levels. Visit the Charlotte Soccer Academy website to learn more about CSA’s competitive, recreational, camp and tournament programs. www.charlottesocceracademy.com.