
Raiders Youth Academy
Do you have a passion for soccer and the determination to bring your game to the next level?
The Raiders Youth Academy was created in 2023 and has been a phenomenal success. Borne out of a desire to develop our Club's more technical players and to offer them an incentive to continue to play locally, we are proud of the impact the Academy has had on our athletes. We focus on developing the technical skills of each player while also improving their tactical understanding of the game, resulting in much more effective soccer players.
The Academy's methodology is based on positional play: Keeping possession of the ball, moving it with purpose while offering constant support to the ball carrier through intelligent positioning on the field. We believe this will allow us to control the game. By instilling these principles of Play, we help young athletes become more tactically aware and confident players on the field. In addition to their regular winter Raiders practices, the top technical players from Club (U10-U15), as identified during the assessment process, have the opportunity to participate in a weekly Academy session where our experienced coaches will work closely with each group to tailor their training, ensuring age-appropriate development.
We are here to nurture the soccer stars of tomorrow!
Age Groups (coed):
Group 1: U10/U11
Group 2: U12/U13
Group 3: U14/U15
*Divisons subject to change
The registration information for the open assessments will be available in July. The open assessments for the Winter Youth Academy are held in September/October.
All registered players will be expected to attend these sessions in order to be considered for the program in their age group.
Are you ready for the challenge?
We are looking forward to helping you unlock your full potential at the Raiders Youth Soccer Academy.
Let your journey to greatness begin!
About the Academy Coaching Team:
Yacouba Traoré, co founder of our Academy program, has extensive background coaching soccer in Ottawa. He was one of the first coaches to be trained at the Ottawa based FC Barcelona Academy. The positional play methodology and its associated syllabus, which we use in our program, stem from Yacouba's time coaching at the Barcelona Academy.
In addition, our Academy Technical Lead and Head Coach, Manny Svidran, gained invaluable experience coaching at the Regional level first with Yacouba, and later with Amar Ajaa (CONCACAF B Diploma) in recent years.
Both Yacouba and Amar are good friends of our program, and continue to support our Academy coaches and players with vital insight and mentoring.