CRYSC to Open 41,000 sq/ft Indoor Facility
At Rapids Youth Soccer, we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of soccer developments, from small-sided games, to pool systems, and now to small-sided / futsal training. This year, we are taking our programming to the next level in our quest to provide the most robust soccer training in Colorado, and in the nation. We are pleased and excited to announce the opening of a 41,000 square foot indoor training facility specifically for CRYSC players, scheduled for August 2017. Located just a few blocks away from Lowry Sports Park, the new facility will provide members with the most robust, soccer-centric, youth training in Colorado.
“Our members have been asking us to provide a Rapids facility for years,” said CRYSC’s Executive Director, Aaron Nagel. “With the current growth and momentum our programs are showing, we felt now was the time to deliver.”
The indoor facility will provide an innovative, full, 360-degree picture of the game of soccer for each of our players through a variety of new programming opportunities. Within this new space, we will be able to continue to create a fun and well-rounded experience for players by providing them with on-field training, off-field classrooms, SAQ (speed, agility, quickness) training, injury recovery and prevention, weight training, and cutting edge soccer technology within the 41,000 sq/ft facility. Rapids Youth Soccer players will have access to the facility year-round, with our Competitive teams training in the facility part-time in-season and off-season.
“What’s most unique about this opportunity is that it serves every player, from offering beginner programs for toddlers to elite athlete training for players in the national team pool. It enables us to better build on the high-quality programming already being offered by the club,” said CRYSC’s Director of Coaching Andrew Kewley.
CRYSC Board of Directors recognized the importance of this milestone, stating, “Access to playing fields is the greatest strategic challenge we face as a club. This facility serves as an important step as we work to implement our long-term plans to address this issue. We are equally excited about the technical, cultural, and community-building opportunities it will bring by having a home for our players, staff, and families.”
Read the Full Press Release
Planning for the Future
Explore the Facility Layout
Each area of this innovative new facility was designed with member benefits in mind. The Colorado Rapids Youth Soccer Club Indoor Facility will not only benefit players, but also parents, coaches, full-time staff, referees, and community members.
Four Playing Fields:
The central feature of this new indoor facility will be the four small-sided fields housed within the building. We’ve selected quality and health-conscious Astro Turf for these playing surfaces, to provide players with the best possible training experience. These four fields are designed to give players of every age and ability level the opportunity to develop at the pace and level that is appropriate for them, while enjoying soccer in a safe, fun, and controlled environment.
Weight Training / Injury Prevention & Recovery:
With the addition of weight training into our Competitive program, our players will now have the added advantage of variations within their training regimen and the ability to focus in on specific training. Through the development of core strength workouts, balance, and flexibility, we will work not only on strength building, but injury prevention and recovery.
Classrooms:
As much as we train the player’s bodies to perform, we also need to train their minds. With a dedicated classroom that will be integrated in our Competitive training model, Rapids Youth Players will get the opportunity to watch, break down, analyze, and enjoy discussing the intricacies of the game with some of the nation’s top coaches. Working several classroom hours into our Competitive training environment each season allows our players to develop healthy discussions surrounding the game of soccer as well as forge personal and team growth.
CRYSC Offices:
Moving the CRSYC offices to the indoor facility allows our staff substantial access to our players for better involvement, monitoring, and evaluation, as well as for our players and parents to have personal and one-on-one access to our staff. With opportunities to hold parent education meetings, pre- and post- season player evaluations, and team meetings, just to name a few, this area will be designed with a strong emphasis on player, parent, and staff interaction.
Parent Hangout Area:
Imagine being able to drop your child off at an indoor training or game, grabbing a cup of coffee or dinner from one of the food trucks outside and catching up on work or visiting with friends in 4,000 square feet of area designed to bring together a community of soccer enthusiasts. Our new home will allow parents to enjoy the soccer experience along with their player.
Agility & Quickness:
Agility and quickness training has asserted itself as an important foundation for development of well-rounded soccer athletes. We are adding a dedicated agility and quickness training area within the facility to implement specific training for our competitive teams. By including this focus within the CRYSC facility, we plan to harness the benefits of specific movement training for all our players.
Speed Training:
We’ve all seen the benefits of speed in soccer, not only in acceleration, but also in endurance. When soccer asks our players to run more than five miles each game, the players need the stamina and capacity to persevere. With speed training integrated into our Competitive training environment, the players will not only see the benefits in their playing ability with the Club, but with all sports they compete in.
Facility Location: 111 Havana St, Aurora, CO
Get Involved
Do you have a product or service that you’d like to align with the facility and Rapids Youth Soccer? We would love to connect with you. Thousands of players and their families will be rotating through the facility every week, and we want to provide them with a valuable experience. Your business idea could help us provide the ultimate sports facility.
Potential partnership areas include:
- Bringing your personal training business into the CRYSC facility during the week.
- Providing food trucks outside the facility for busy families to grab lunch or dinner.
- Running other youth or adult focused sports in the facility.
- Bringing in your chiropractic, massage therapy, speed training, coffee shop business into the facility.
Let us know about your partnership idea! We’ll be hosting a partnership day in May to provide tours to those interested in learning more about the facility.
FAQs
In moving forward with the indoor facility, we considered a lot of options to address our ongoing issue of accessing playing fields for the entire club. As an in-town club, we are not afforded the benefit of vast tracts of open land to develop, to which other clubs in suburban and less dense areas may have access. We are effectively competing for land and space with developers, businesses and other users of commercial real estate in the land-locked confines of the city of Denver. Lastly, we believe in the benefits of futsal and small sided training in addition to having an indoor facility for guaranteed year-round use. The combination of these factors combined with the perfect location for our membership base led us to believe that this indoor facility would give us a great home for the club in addition to serving as a key first step in our long-term strategic plan for addressing our issue of accessing playing fields.
Player development and enjoyment was at the forefront of the small-sided facility decision. A smaller area means more touches on the ball, which translates to rapid improvement, which develops a stronger bond with the game of soccer. The new CRYSC facility allows players of all ages and all ability levels the opportunity to use, learn, and develop from use of the facility. The facility was designed for toddler-aged players to get their first touch on a soccer ball to high school players getting their last touch on the ball as they head off to college or beyond. Every player and ability level matters, and we want to make sure all CRYSC members have access to a facility they can use and enjoy.
Consistent access to playing fields is one of CRYSC’s biggest strategic challenges. Although the Club already has access to world class facilities, such as Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and Aurora Sports Park, we do not have control of these facilities and consistent access remains a challenge. Due to this lack of consistent access, we felt having a year-round indoor home where players can have consistent and controlled access was the next step. Field use costs are on the rise and every year we lose access to playing fields to a greater extent. Additionally, this facility will help offset rising costs and field loss, keeping our players active and engaged.
Futsal is an exciting, fast-paced small-sided soccer game that is widely played across the world.
The nature of the game places a large emphasis on technical skill and ability in situations of high pressure, and is subsequently an excellent breeding ground for soccer competencies that can be translated into the 11-a-side format of the game.
Many of the top world class soccer players played Futsal in their youth and credit it with supporting their soccer development; players of the caliber of Pele, Zico, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Messi, and Ronaldo to name just a few legends.
Ronaldinho once stated that, “Futsal is an extremely important way for kids to develop their skills and understanding of the game.”.
While traditional Futsal is played on a hard court surface, we decided on synthetic turf vs. hard court flooring for our fields for a few reasons.
- We wanted the facility to be accessible to all ages and ability levels. With synthetic turf, the ball will roll slightly slower allowing for better control at all ages.
- The cushioned ground will be safer for both players and goalkeepers; and
- We will be using the fields in-season for our competitive teams limiting the number and types of shoes our players need to purchase.
Futsal and small-sided soccer is an effective development tool that is quickly replacing the conventional US walled indoor soccer game.
Small-sided soccer creates honesty within the game, providing isolation of individual talent and technique. It will isolate and expose a team and player’s deficiencies. It will also showcase a player and team’s strengths. The game is fast and numerous finishing opportunities are offered when played well. Technical and tactical speeds are emphasized. A bad touch or a slow recovery will almost always result with a loss of possession. Quite frequently the lesson is driven home with a goal scored by the opposition. These lessons learned hard are not easily forgotten. The satisfying thing about small-sided soccer is that lessons are quickly learned and that players readily adjust themselves to the game’s demands. Coaching clinicians have often stressed that the game is the best teacher. By putting players in learning situations, the results of the decisions and their technical execution will educate them with a minimum of coaching involvement.
We’ve designed this facility for players of every age and every ability level. This new facility will be many player’s first touch on a soccer ball at two or three-years-old or the last touch as they head off to college. The programs and services that will be offered in this facility are focused on players playing soccer and re-engaging the level of excitement for the sport.
Toddlers and Preschoolers: We will be expanding opportunities for our youngest soccer players from two-years-old on up with opportunities to learn the game of soccer in a fun, exciting, and warm environment with imaginative games, an inviting climate, and consistent access to an indoor facility.
Leagues: Because the fields offer players of all ages and ability levels the opportunity to get a great deal of touches on the ball, we expect the leagues to be a staple of the Colorado soccer community. With consistent times, days, and locations every week, the benefits of these new leagues starts with the fun and learning the players will get, but also the consistency the parents will enjoy. Leagues will be designed for all ages and ability levels with CRYSC players and teams getting first priority.
Tournaments: These weekend tournaments will house the top indoor soccer tournaments in Colorado. With opportunities to offer age and gender specific tournaments geared specifically at development and fun, these tournaments will be a great addition to the Club and community.
Camps and Clinics: We’ll be offering a substantial number of new camps and clinics not only in the winter, but also in the summer, out of the hot Colorado sun, with CRYSC players at the forefront of the opportunity to join these new camps and clinics. From spring break camps, to kickarounds, to individual training, to speed agility quickness training, to team training, we know there will be new opportunities for players of all ages and ability levels to have access to the facility.
Competitive Players: We are very excited to be working the facility and all it offers into our competitive training environment. All CRYSC competitive players will have access to the facility in season and out of season. We will be working in small-sided training, speed agility quickness training, classroom work, injury prevention and recovery, as well as some innovative pieces we hope to announce in the next few months. Lastly, we are bringing back a vital piece that many feel is missing in youth soccer today, which is kids just playing. Once a week, competitive players will be able to get together at a specific time with their age group and form teams themselves, manage the game themselves and just play.
Goalkeepers: Chris Sharpe, CRYSC’s Director of Goalkeeping, is working on a schedule to integrate the indoor facility with our goalkeepers for in-season and off-season training as well as camps and clinics.
CRYSC will install a top-of-the-line health and safety conscious synthetic turf produced at a higher quality and standard than most synthetic turf fields. The infill on the synthetic turf will be a sand base.
This facility is being financed through several different means, including new programming, sponsorship, and a capital campaign. We are excited to bring our members this facility without having to take on debt or raise fees.
