Beach FC’s Own Eddie Soto Joins the LA Galaxy  U16 Youth Academy Coaching Staff

Beach FC Boys Director Eddie Soto finished his first season with the LA Galaxy Youth Academy as a coach for their U16 program.

The Youth Academy is designed to identify and develop the LA Galaxy stars of tomorrow. It provides a path for young soccer players in the Los Angeles area to become professionals by placing them in a unique environment with a curriculum that challenges and educates, on and off the field.   While such programs are common with European professional teams, the academy concept is just beginning in the US. U.S. Soccer created the Development Academy in 2007 to improve the everyday environment for the elite youth player. “This kind of program is an essential step to developing the highest caliber professional player,” said Eddie Soto. The Development Academy’s programming philosophy of increased training, less total games and more competitive games is based on U.S. Soccer’s Best Practices utilized by the U-17 U.S. National Team Residency program.

Another benefit of U.S. Soccer's Development Academy is that it connects National Team coaches directly with the Academy clubs such as the LA Galaxy to develop and identify players and coaches for future Youth National Teams. Each Academy team is evaluated by a National Team coach at least ten times each year and each Academy club receives two formal evaluations in over 100 categories each year from National Team staff.

In his role, Soto will focus on scouting prospects for the entry level age group (U16) who would then progress on to the U18 and U20 teams.  Soto believes that having Beach FC coaching staff involved with the LA Galaxy Youth Academy will be a great opportunity to raise the visibility of Beach Futbol Club.