FC Frederick - Club Highlights and Archives

Over the 20-year history of FC Frederick, the commitment and dedication of FC Frederick's players, teams, and coaching staff has left a legacy of high achievement, as demonstrated by the number of FC Frederick alumni in College, performance by FC Frederick teams in Maryland State Cup play, and the numbers of FC Frederick players selected for Maryland's Olympic Development Program (ODP).

The Maryland State Cup Championships is part of the US Youth Soccer Association National Championship Series and is organized by the Maryland State Youth Soccer Association (MSYSA). Teams battle to be declared the Maryland State Champion and will advance to represent Maryland at the Region I Regional event. They will play against 14 other states in our region and the winners at U14 and above will move on to the National Championship.

The US Youth Soccer Presidents Cup is designed for those teams seeking additional challenges to play against teams of similar abilities for a national title. The cup provides a progressive, competitive experience to teams that might not otherwise get the opportunity to participate in a series of unique experiences highlighting competition, camaraderie and community from the state to regional to national levels of US Youth Soccer. Regional qualifiers, known as US Youth Soccer Regional Presidents Cup events, will determine the teams competing in the National President Cup and feature boys and girls teams in the Under-13 through Under-17 age groups.

The US Youth Soccer Olympic Development Program (ODP) is a national identification and development program for high-level players. The program identifies, forms, and develops youth players throughout the country to represent their state and regional associations. At the state association level, pools of players are identified in each eligible age group, and brought together as a team to develop their skill through training and competition. From the state pools and subsequent teams, players are identified for regional and national pools and teams.

Since the inception of its Academy program in 2003, FC Frederick has supported a robust juggling program through which players can earn patches for achieving increasingly higher juggling scores using all body surfaces, feet-only, and head-only. It has been said that "not every great juggler is a great player, but every great player can juggle well.” Here are two additional thoughts:

"If you're comfortable on the ball, it's because you grew up playing with the ball at your feet and you have confidence with the ball at your feet that you can do anything. I think juggling and dribbling and that kind of stuff helps your technique with passing and shooting and taking a pass and first touch in the right direction ... You can learn to juggle in so many different ways. You can do it with spin, inside of the foot, sole of the foot, top of the foot. ... I think juggling and dribbling, when you're younger, you can do that in the back yard. You can do that anywhere.... You go to Europe and see all these basketball courts, but they're not basketball courts. They're soccer courts, but they're concrete. You see all these kids dribbling and juggling and doing all these moves. If they're doing it on concrete, there's no excuse for kids who say 'I don't have a backyard. "Well, you have a street, right? You can juggle anywhere." - Geoff Cameron, USMNT, MLS.

"As a kid you need to touch the ball as much as you can. You should always be with the ball. You should have a feeling that wherever the ball is, you can do anything with it. No matter where it is, where it is on your body, how it’s spinning, how it’s coming at you, the speed it’s coming at you, anything. You can learn the tactical side of the game later. It’s amazing to me that people put so much emphasis on trying to be tactical and worry about winning when it doesn’t matter when you’re 12 years old. We’re going to have big, strong, fast players. We’re Americans, we’re athletes. But if we never learn at an early age to be good on the ball, then it’s just useless." - Landon Donovan, USMNT, MLS.