With in-person training and traveling highly restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NorCal Premier Soccer’s Player Development Program strived to adapt to the challenges on hand and still provide top-quality, free-of-cost training to the best players all across Northern California.

Approximately 400 players participated in the PDP’s Fall Homeplay Program, which ran from September 10th to December 14th.

The objective was to continue to assist with player development and stay in touch with players in order to not miss out on the critical stages of improvement that occur in the ages the PDP works with.

“We created this program because for youth players it’s very important to keep their focus on the extra work that they need to do at home to achieve their best potential,” said PDP Director and NorCal Vice President Paolo Bonomo. “This is the age, especially in the younger one, where it’s important to teach technical skills and where a player learns to be creative.”

During the program a total of four webinars were conducted with each age group, from the U12/U13 and U/14 regional teams along with the U15 and U17 state teams.

Additionally, each player was assigned technical homework that could be submitted through Google Classroom. The entire curriculum was made available to all the players through this link.

“I really enjoyed (the virtual program) and felt like I learned a lot,” said Jarick Ficher of Clovis Crossfire. “Not only were the ball touches and control (aspects great), but also the teachings and trainings.”

Added Hannah Sommerhalter of Montclair Soccer Club: “It was a great program to keep working on the skills.”

There was also an opportunity to train with a program alum and current professional as San Jose Earthquakes defender/midfielder Tommy Thompson delivered trainings which can be found here.

As has been found in any area of life that has been forced to adapt with distance learning throughout the pandemic, some of the areas were found to be useful enough to continue when life returns to normal.

“I know that this was created because of COVID but now we have the framework for this program and we will keep using it even in the future even when we go back to regular training,” Bonomo said. “For the kids, this is the right time for this training, they have to do it now otherwise they won’t catch the train when it’s gone.”