The Academy FC is the brainchild of Bendigo’s former Victorian Premier League and US college footballer Nathan Claridge.

It will provide an elite training environment for the individual technical development of young footballers.

Claridge, who had a stint as coach of National Premier Leagues club Bendigo City FC, said the academy offered everything from one-on-one and small group sessions, to introductory programs for children aged as young as four.

“Soccer is a very competitive sport in terms of participation numbers and there is an elite pathway,” he said.

“But the bottleneck gets more narrower and narrower as kids get older.

“Our intention is to provide something clubs generally can’t do, when you have a coach coaching 15 to 20 players, you don’t really have the time to focus on individual’s technical ability and their balance and co-ordination.”

The academy’s newest initiative is a mid-week morning program for elite youngsters.

“We’ll do small groups of six to seven kids, but they have to be either playing regional representative football or NPL,” Claridge said.

“I don’t think there’ been an academy like this in Bendigo before, but in Melbourne and Sydney it’s really taking off as a supplement to the club coaching and all the other soccer programs going on.”

Claridge, a former coach of Bendigo Amateur Soccer League club Eaglehawk, whose own playing career with Green Gully was cut short not long after his return from the US, said he was glad to be putting back into a sport which had given him so much joy.

“I really enjoy working one-on-one with the kids; I will go and watch them and then give them feedback on their games,” he said.

“Over the course of the year you will see the development in their technique, which I have come to love as much as I did coaching.”

The academy is now taking enrolments for its school holiday programs, to be run in January, including master classes, little kickers (for children aged 5-8), and  a Super 6 Mini World Cup competition.

For details, visit www.the academyfc.com.au