Our Background
Personal Profile
I am a dad of 5 amazing kids and married to the most beautiful and amazing wife you could imagine. We are also an insane soccer family and take it far more seriously than anyone has a right to. We have seen our kids grow up in the club structure and have a tremendous amount of fun and success there, but it also brought a whole lot of added stress and a massive schedule crunch. As a dad I miss and desire more family time with my crew, and from my personal experiences as a DII athlete, former 4 year 4 letter sport winner in high school, and former junior olympian I benefited tremendously from not having to 'sports specialize' so early on and saw where basketball in middle school helped my soccer play in high school. The youth sports club structure has grown rampant as multi-million dollar youth sports clubs have become great at business, yet less than ideal for family structures, and questionable at actually developing better athletes.
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Our Vision:
We see that youth sports has eroded family time and made parents feel as though they need to force their kids into specializing in one sport at a very young age without even knowing whether this will develop into a desire or passion for the kid themselves. They are right to point out that picking up soccer at 13 will be near impossible to make up the skills gap compared to a child that has been developing those skills since they were 4. So how do we allow for agency for our kids in selecting the sports that they love, without sacrificing family time, and without falling behind skills wise? Drumroll...... Blue Ridge Sports Academy very well may be the answer and a more evolved way to approach youth sports development. Our plan is very simple and that is to trade nightly practices and training sessions for those taking place after school. Those that are enrolled will have the ability to pay one price each week and that enrolls you into our sports program for all the sports we offer in that area. An example: Mikey is 5 and likes soccer and baseball. Both these sports require early skills development to be successful later in life, but how do you know which one Mikey will like more when he is 14? Blue Ridge Sports Academy will allow Mikey the chance to train each week in both sports at the same place, and also allow for opportunities to play in competitive leagues and or rec leagues depending upon skill level. If Mikey wants to play soccer on Monday, Thursday, and Friday and Baseball Tuesday and Wednesday he can. Most soccer clubs practice only for 3-4 hours/week. Our program runs from 3PM-6PM everyday meaning that Mikey will actually have 2-3 times the training hours and repetitions as a soccer player than your average club soccer player even though he isn't a specialized athlete. The best part is all your kids can join meaning no more traveling to multiple locations at different times. We are still in the beginning stages of this vision and will be in select markets and in select sports, but as we grow so will our sports offerings and locations will be expanded. Help us have dinner as a family again, and bring back multi-sport athletes.
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