"An Academy Club", we are sure that many of you wonder exactly what does that mean. And more importantly, what does it mean for your child? Well, if your child is a girl, it means that she belongs to one of only 77 clubs that have that distinction. It means the club that she belongs to have the reputation, professionalism and vision to continue to build a program that U.S. Soccer considers one of the elite clubs in the country.

What does it mean if your child is a boy? Simple, it means opportunity.

Opportunity to be trained by some of the finest coaches in Georgia, who are constantly learning more effective ways to train through courses offered by U.S. Soccer. Not just on the Academy Teams, these learning's will be transferred from us to the club's coaches, so that the club is a reflection of U.S. Soccer vision.

Opportunity to compete against the best youth soccer has to offer. U.S. Soccer's Academy league is the toughest youth amateur soccer league in America. Another way of putting it; it gives your son the best opportunity to compete at the highest level just short of the U.S. National Teams. Playing against the best every weekend is simply the best environment for DEVELOPMENT.

The Development Academy provides today's elite player with the highest level of exposure. U.S. Soccer has a full time regional scout and part-time regional scouts that are at a majority of the games during the season. If your son has 'National Talent' the opportunity to be evaluated for that level happens a multitude of times during the year. Ninety four percent of the '95 National Pool's players belong to Academy Clubs. The other four percent do not live in an area where an Academy Team is available to play at.

College Scouts. The word is out. College Soccer Coaches are on budgets just like everyone else. They need to be efficient how they spend their time and money scouting players for their program. Academy has quickly become a nice solution to that problem. Example; at last year's two showcases, there were over 180 scouts/coaches at the Winter Showcase and over 160 scouts/coaches at the Spring Showcase. This year, they are projecting over 200 scouts at the Winter Showcase alone.

For more information, please read through the other sections of the AFC Lightning U.S. Development Academy section.