Date:  July 11, 2023

From:  Charlotte Soccer Academy, 13333 Dorman Road, Pineville, NC 28134

Contact:  Brad Wylde – 704.708.4166.

Charlotte Soccer Academy is pleased to release both the boys and girls club director of coaching structure for the 2023-24 season.
CSA DOC Structure Diagram - Boys
CSA DOC Structure Diagram - Girls

“We are very excited about the opportunity to expand our programming and introduce a new infrastructure for the 2023-2024 season,” states Brad Wylde, Executive Director. “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 in the ECNL, ECNL Regional League, Pre-ECNL, NPL, DPL, Elite 64 and USYS programs. 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 girls and boys programs. The ECNL provides a consistent game schedule and tremendous exposure for college and National team opportunities. Brian Moore will continue his role as the Director of the girls 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. This year, CSA was one of only a handful of clubs nationwide that had all six age groups qualify for postseason playoffs with the 2006 age group reaching the ECNL National Playoffs Elite 8, with a chance at a national title later in July.

CSA will continue having two ECNL programs on the boys side due to the size of the club player pool. ECNL National Academy will continue playing in the 10-month program for all teams, and ECNL National will continue being a 6-month program for U15-U18/19 teams and a 10-month program for U13-U14 teams. Steve Gummer will enter his eighth year heading the ECNL National Academy boys program. Over the past five years 98% of its players have been offered scholarship opportunities to play at the collegiate level. The ECNL National boys program will continue to be directed by Phil Hindson. Coach Hindson enters his fourth year leading this program and since his arrival in May 2020, he has brought a tremendous amount of experience to the program. Hindson will also direct our college recruiting program and run our annual college ID camps. 

Additional national platforms will continue next season for South Carolina players who have a desire to continue playing boys high school soccer in SC. With CSA’s expansion into York County and the demand for national opportunities, CSA will be in the National Premier League (NPL) for a third season. This past season, CSA’s 2008 boys team qualified for the National finals. In addition, to compliment the boys SC program, the girls’ teams will enter their season in the Development Player League (DPL). The girls program had a great year with two teams qualifying for the National finals and the 2008’s losing on Pk’s in the National final.  Ralph Latchana will enter his second year overseeing the NPL with Sheldon Russell overseeing the DPL.

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 2023-24 season. The South and North programs will continue with a Pre-ECNL 11U and 12U program. The South section has expanded the age groups due to the size of the player pool and will be offering 9U and 10U Pre-ECNL. Ben Cook will direct and manage the boy’s program in the Charlotte section and Stephano Williams will head up the girl’s program. CSA’s North and Huntersville areas will offer Pre-ECNL at 11U and 12U with day-to-day operations being directed by Stephen Chaconas and Andrew Steedman.

CSA’s ECNL Regional League program will continue in 2023-2024, fielding teams in our North/Huntersville and South areas with 13U-18/19U age groups in the ECNL Regional League 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. Steve Magee will continue to head up this platform. Coach Magee has done an outstanding job since the program began with several teams winning conference championships in the Regional League. Matt Denton and Stephen Chaconas will continue their assistant roles with the North/Huntersville ECNL Regional League girls and boys teams.

CSA will move the Elite 64 platform to our Matthews and Uptown locations. This program began this past year with 64 clubs across the country being given an opportunity to engage in this league. CSA initially used this program as an add on for individual players. For the upcoming season, the club has decided to create stand-alone teams to represent CSA and play in games and showcases, giving more players an opportunity to receive national exposure and play quality games against other leading clubs in the nation. Catey Stewart will direct the program.

CSA Uptown has grown tremendously over the past five years offering more levels of play for families residing in the Uptown area. Dan Dudley will continue his role as Sectional Director with a support staff of Catey Stewart (girls) and 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 five years ago. Coach Ojok has been a tremendous coach for teams in our Uptown division and has moved into a solid DOC role running the boys teams.

CSA Palisades has also continued to grow, and this section now offers programs for teams from the Youth Academy through 14U boys and girls. Coach Ralph Latchana will continue to oversee this area that will play out of the Harris Teeter Soccer Complex in the Palisades. Coach Latchana will head up the York section for its third year as CSA continues to grow its programming in Fort Mill and Rock Hill for 2023. Coach Latchana’s support staff includes Sheldon Russell who will manage the DPL, Jay Marlovits who joined CSA full time this past spring directing the Youth Academy program, and a new addition to Latchana’s staff, Efrain Tirado. Coach Tirado will manage the 11U-19U boys and girls age groups.

Matt Denton will continue to manage our North section. Since joining CSA twelve years ago, he has been instrumental in offering all levels of play for our players in this area. Coach Denton will continue to have a great support staff. Stephen Chaconas will direct the North ECNL Regional League and Pre-ECNL boys teams, Scott Fischer will assist with the 11U-19U boys North teams and 13U/14U North/Huntersville section and Chris Ryan will continue to lead the Youth Academy program.

Andrew Steedman will continue his role as Director of Coaching with our Huntersville section. The program continues to progress. 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. This area now boasts teams for all levels of play under USYS as well as the ECNL Regional League platform for the elite players.

Our Matthews section is continuing to grow and expand more into Union County. Andy Guevara will continue his role as Sectional Director. Coach Guevara has run the program since inception eleven 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 will enter his second year as Youth Academy Director. Coach Burckhalter has been with CSA Matthews for the past four 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 and Uptown sections will be working closely again this next season combining specific age groups to create an advance pathway for both boys and girls with the Elite 64 teams who want the opportunity to compete in the higher divisions within USYS and continue to stay closer to home.

Some familiar faces return to our staff in the Charlotte section. The Sectional Director will continue to be managed by Raymond Fraser who enters his 4th 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. Accompanying Coach Fraser will be Joe Distaffen who will enter his second season as Director of Coaching.  Coach Distaffen will oversee the 11U-14U girls. Scott Ginn will continue directing in the Charlotte section overseeing the 15U-19U boys and girls. A new addition to the Charlotte section will be Director of Coaching, Josh Gregory. Coach Gregory joined CSA as a National level coach this past year. Coach Gregory has been a great addition to the CSA staff and will continue to coach at the National level and oversee the DOC responsibilities for the 11U-14U boys teams for the Charlotte section. Coaches Distaffen, Gregory and Ginn bring a fantastic combination of experience, leadership and professionalism to their programs.

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. New additions to his staff will be DOC Rich Schwartz who will oversee the Charlotte boys section.  Coach Schwartz has spent the past several years as CSA’s Recreation Director. CSA is still reviewing candidates for the girls DOC position within the YA platform. Our new Director will be announced in the coming weeks. Also continuing their roles with Coach Butler will be Prince Ojok in Uptown YA, Andrew Steedman in Huntersville YA, Chris Ryan in North YA, Steve Burckhalter in Matthews and Jay Marlovits in York and Palisades.

Ian Carry will expand his role from the National Goalkeeper Director to oversee CSA’s entire goalkeeper program. Coach Carry joined CSA from the University of Kentucky where he served as the women’s head coach and he is the former National team coach for various youth teams in Scotland and Ireland. 

CSA is currently reviewing candidates for the new Recreation Director following Rich Schwartz’s move to Youth Academy. Meanu Kayea will continue to assist in the North region. The recreational program serves players of all levels in age groups U5 through U19 and this experience with the club encourages many players to move into our competitive programs. The program includes the Junior Academy, which serves as the competitive developmental program for age groups U6-U8.

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 club's 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 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 and Huntersville players.

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 1, 2023. The transition to the new structure will be in place during our first week of the season at pre-season camp July 31- August 3.

CSA DOC Structure Diagram - Boys

CSA DOC Structure Diagram - Girls

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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.