D.C. United Open Practice and Coaches Clinic gets big Turnout

On Tuesday at RFK Stadium D.C. United hosted local coaches for an Open Practice and Coaches Clinic. Hundreds of coaches enjoyed a day that included observing an actual United practice session, free lunch provided by Ledo Pizza, raffle prizes, and a 45 minute training session ran by Ben Olsen, Pat Onstad, and Chad Ashton.


Coaches arrive for Open Practice event at RFK.

 The opportunity for local coaches to be able to see first hand how an MLS coaching staff runs their sessions and works with both professional and academy level players is a valuable one for coaches at any level.




The United staff expressed the importance of their in house academy program and the hopes of expanding the age levels covered by the academy. D.C. United lead the way within MLS with regards to moving players through their academy system and onto the first team as evidenced by the 4 players that have seen significant time on the field with United. One day D.C. hopes to surpass the IMG Academy and have its very own housing/school facility run by the franchise.

For those coaches that did get the opportunity to attend they surely enjoyed the experience and will have plenty of material to take back to their teams as well as being part of a great community building day with other coaches from the area. If you did not make it out to the Open Practice and Coaches Clinic you still have one more chance to learn from the D.C. United staff at the next Chalk Talk activity in September: Register Here.

Grand Prize Raffle Winner!

Special thanks to all of the D.C. United coaches and staff for putting on a well attended and quality experience for the coaches. Check out more photos from the event on the VASoccerNews Facebook Page.