The Ottawa Fury Soccer Club is pleased to announce the appointment of former Fury W-League head coach Frank Lofranco as the Technical Director of the Fury Academy.The Fury Academy , now in it’s third year, has gradually become the program of choice for players in the U10 to U13 age group, providing an opportunity for young talented soccer players from Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec to receive high quality specialist coaching in the key development years.
“Young players more than any others need to have access to the highest standards of coaching to ensure that they have the refined technical skill set necessary to develop to their full potential”, enthused Fury CEO and owner John Pugh. “The results of the Academy program are already there for all to see and it has become vitally important to the ongoing success of Fury players, Fury teams and the long-term vision of the Club. For these reasons, the Fury is appointing a Technical Director responsible solely for the Fury Academy and what better choice than Frank Lofranco”.
Frank Lofranco is best known for establishing the Ottawa Fury Women’s Team as an elite team in the W-league with international recognition; ranked as high as seventh in the world by www.womensworldfootball.com. Over six years as head coach Lofranco had a remarkable record of 74-15-6 and led the Fury to two championship finals. He has more than 10 years experience in player development at ages from 5 through 14. He served as the first Club Head Coach of the Etobicoke Soccer Club and oversaw the introduction of player and coaching development programs for a club of more than 2,000 players. More recently as a parent, coach and technical advisor he has been working with the Cumberland United Soccer Club. As a player, Frank played in the National Soccer League (Canada), Canadian Soccer League (Canada), and American Professional Soccer League (North America) most notably for the Toronto Blizzard SC and Toronto Italia SC and represented Canada in the 1987 Pan-American Games.
“This is a progressive step for the Ottawa Fury Academy and one that I am very proud to be a part of. The opportunity to guide the development of top players between the ages of 10 and 13 is incredibly exciting and a responsibility I take very seriously,” commented Lofranco, “The Ottawa Fury is a club that I am obviously familiar with. The Fury is clearly a leader in reinventing soccer programming in Canada and I fully expect the Academy to serve as a leading example in player development.”
Planting a seed for future initiatives, Lofranco added that “The Ottawa soccer community seems to be moving in the right direction and I can see that local clubs are working hard to provide our region’s youngest players with quality programs. I have seen this first hand as a volunteer coach with Cumberland United S.C. In my new role with the Fury, I hope to reach out to local clubs and establish relationships that can help provide improved opportunities for the development of young players.”
The Fury Academy is an integral part of the Fury Player Development Program; using a model adopted by many leading professional clubs, the program emphasizes a bottom up approach whereby players graduate from an Academy program where the emphasis is on fundamental technical and skills development through to an environment in which competitive league play (Super Y-League) is introduced as part of an integrated development program. During these years, players will also have the opportunity to participate in national, provincial and regional identification programs and in the latter years to showcase their talents to US and Canadian collegiate coaches. At the highest levels, the women's W-League and the men's Premier Development League provide opportunities to play senior level soccer in a professionalized environment and also provide a stepping stone toward representative and professional play.
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