San Antonio FC and its academy teams have been selected for admission to the U.S Soccer Federation’s Development Academy starting this fall, U.S. Soccer announced today. The SAFC Pro Academy will have three boys’ teams at the U-12, U-13 and U-14 levels that will participate in the 2017-18 Development Academy season.

“This is a very exciting announcement for our club and region,” said SAFC Pro Academy Director Nick Evans. “The leadership team we have at San Antonio FC have again demonstrated their commitment to ensuring we are providing our San Antonio and greater area youth players the programming needed in order to provide a path-to-pro experience, and to push towards having local players represent our club at the professional level. The USSF Development Academy will provide our players with consistent elite level competition every week, which we all look forward to. We would like to extend our sincere thanks and gratitude to U.S. Soccer for recognizing our club’s commitment to player development.”

In April of 2016, San Antonio FC launched the SAFC Pro Academy - a youth development program for the area’s elite boys’ players which started with a 2004 birth-year team this season. In June of last year, the club named Evans as the first SAFC Pro Academy Director in team history. The academy is expanding to three teams at the 2006 (U-12), 2005 (U-13) and 2004 (U-14) birth years for the upcoming season in the fall.

“We are pleased and honored to announce that our Pro Academy will be entering into the U.S. Soccer Development Academy in the fall of 2017,” said SAFC Head Coach Darren Powell. “This will help our club in its growth and allow the opportunity for the young players of San Antonio to have a clear pathway to potentially play for SAFC. This is also a credit to Nick Evans, his staff, the local area youth soccer clubs and the current group of academy players and their families for good work on and off the field in our first year. We anticipate our Pro Academy to grow and develop homegrown soccer players in San Antonio and the South Texas region. This is an exciting time to be a young aspiring soccer player in the area.”

The full U.S. Soccer expansion includes 17 new, unique clubs accepted into the Academy, 108 existing clubs receiving promotions into additional age groups and two new geographical regions – the Portland and Seattle markets – being introduced at the U-13 and U-14 age groups. 15 new teams will be added to the U-11/12 age group, 27 new teams will be added to U-13, 34 teams added to U-14, 82 teams added at the new U-15 age group, five additional teams to U-16/17 (formerly U-15/16) and two new teams will be added to U-18/19 (formerly U-17/18). Along with the 17 new Academy clubs introduced there will be a total of 165 additional teams, 2 new divisions and one newly introduced age group added for the 2017-2018 Academy season.

The objective of the San Antonio FC Development Academy program is to identify and train the best players in the San Antonio market on a pathway to become a homegrown player for the SAFC professional team, national teams, and/or opportunities in college soccer. In addition to developing skilled and dynamic soccer players, key components of the program include each player displaying excellent personal character, becoming actively involved in community activities, and focusing on academic performance. The SAFC Pro Academy is structured to be a collaborative initiative between all local youth clubs and organizations in the San Antonio community by the opportunity to be an active part of the player identification process, as well as providing recognition and benefits to such participating clubs.

SAFC Pro Academy teams are fully-funded at no cost to players selected. This program is part of the professional club’s strategic plan of establishing a nationally-respected youth academy.

Open player identification events for the San Antonio FC Development Academy teams will be held in late April. More details will be announced in the future.

San Antonio FC is currently prepping for its second season in the USL, which is scheduled to kick off on March 26 at RGV FC before the club returns to Toyota Field for its home opener on April 1 vs. LA Galaxy II at 7:30 p.m. Fans interested in season tickets can contact the SAFC sales office at 210-444-5MLS or visit SanAntonioFC.com.

Supporters can follow the club by liking San Antonio FC on Facebook, as well as following the team on Twitter (@SanAntonioFC), Instagram (@sanantoniofc) and Snapchat (SanAntonioFC).