Welcome to our first iNewsletter

Dear KDC Soccer School family,

Welcome to our first edition of our official iNewsletter to help you connect with our program.

Our program was officially launched in 2015, but planning and research began a few years earlier, when we saw an opportunity to change the way that football training was delivered to young players. We spent time looking at established school-based academies in Victoria, and more closely at FC Barcelona's famous La Masia Academy, Dinamo Zagreb's elite football development academy, and a host of other successful academies worldwide before we designed the template for our program. We were inspired mostly by the former football program at the Australian Institute of Sport, which was the breeding kennel for the most successful Australian football side, the 2006 Australian Socceroos World Cup squad. Without the budget or resources of the AIS, we have made sure that our culture replicates this incredible program. 

As a former student who spent six years playing football in the schoolyard through informal games, and then developing further at club level, I wondered that if a an all encompassing football program existed, would it have helped my development? The answer to this question was yes. Speaking to former students that had much more football ability than I did, they also reiterated this belief. Some of our ideas were also formed after reflecting on this time, ideas such as composite training sessions and encouraging older players to mix in with younger players to promote growth. 

Thanks to the support of our former Principal Stuart Andrews, and current Principal, Linda Maxwell, we created the template for what became known as the Keilor Downs College Soccer School, or more colloquially, 'the Soccer Program.' Our first intake of students were basically sold on a promise that we would create for them a unique journey of development during the six years that they were to spend at Keilor Downs College as student-athletes. 

Like all new programs, we had our teething issues and relied heavily on the goodwill of former students and their families to launch our dream. Without their support in the formative years, and their continued support today, the rapid progress and gains that we have made would not have been possible. The KDC Soccer School has enriched our lives and given us the responsibility to help young people from all backgrounds to be given an opportunity to become the best possible people, and with that, the best possible players.  

The most important thing to take from this is that the culture and environment that we have created with our students and their families essentially dictates just how deep the learning and development will become. It is our students that decide through their own drive and thirst for knowledge just how much more complex the sessions will become in the future, and also which direction it will head in. We look forward to seeing what that future will look like for the Keilor Downs College Soccer School family.