Developmental Program Overview

The PSC Iowa Developmental Program consists of two parts: the basic program and the Developmental Academy program.

The PSC Iowa Developmental Basic Program is designed for children ages 4 to 9 (U9 and U10) interested in learning and improving their soccer skills in a fun, safe, and exciting environment. The basic program is focused on introducing new players to the game of soccer while giving them a solid fundamental foundation to build upon as the interest in soccer grows. More details for this program are below.

The Developmental Academy Program is a more advanced part of the Developmental Program. It is for U7 and U8 players (6 and 7 year-olds) who want a more intensive instructional environment of professional coaching and are more advanced, both with their soccer skills and/or in their athletic and physical abilities. In the Developmental Academy each team is assigned one of PSC Iowa's professional coaches and is trained at a player-to-coach ratio of no more than 8-1. More details about this program are below in the Developmental Academy section. 

U7/U8 Developmental Academy

The Developmental Academy Program is an 11-week program designed for 6 and 7 year-olds who want the more intensive instructional environment of day-to-day professional coaching.

It starts in mid-August and goes through the end of October in the fall and from mid-March (after spring break) and runs through the first week on June. Training is one day a week, for 75 minutes, with one of the PSC Iowa professional coaches. PSC Iowa follows a specially designed, age-specific, curriculum that will help the players develop their soccer skills and instill a love for the game. All training will be conducted at the Prairie Soccer Fields and the Kirkwood soccer fields.

The Developmental Academy teams will participate in the PSC Iowa Developmental league. This is conducted on Sundays during each season and consists of a skills session followed by a game. This group will also participate in local "Friendlies" against other clubs in the Cedar Rapids area. These games will be scheduled each season on Saturdays as not to interfere with the Sunday Developmental league games. All games will be coached by one of PSC Iowa's staff.

There are no tryouts for this program and any player is welcome to join.

Basic Program

The Developmental Basic Program is designed for players who are new to the game of soccer. It focuses on providing a fun, safe and instructional environment that will foster the growth for players in their beginning stages of growing their love for the sport. The basic program if built to require a minimal time commitment from families and players. All basic program activities occur on one day a week, Sundays, including both the individual skills session and the game.

While the registration is done by birth year, PSC Iowa divides the players into the following divisions (based on school grade:

Pre-Kindergarten/Kindergarten (ages 4-5 years old);

1st Grade/2nd Grade (ages 6-7 years old); and

3rd Grade/4th Grade (ages 8-9 years old). 

The schedule for each group is 30 minutes of skills training, with the subject of those skills changing each week to cover the proper age specific skills, followed by a game. The games will be 4v4 for the two youngest ages and 6v6 for the older age group. The game will be officiated by the PSC Iowa coaching staff who will also help each team, and parent-coach, with playing the game.