Italian soccer club opens first-ever training center in Sparta

By Laurie Gordon
SPARTA — The first Juventus Academy Training Center in the United States officially opened at the site of the Field House in Sparta on Sunday, July 23. The same Italian company that owns the Juventus soccer team, one of Italy's most famous teams, is leasing and later buying the Field House and its facilities. The facility will provide youth soccer players with an opportunity to develop through a variety of programs under Juventus coaches and following the club’s methodologies and curriculum. With the advent of the center comes something else: the opportunity to further underscore the positive relationship between Americans and Italians through our youth at the grass roots level.
The Honorable Francesco Genuardi, Consul General of Italy, was at Sunday's grand opening and spoke of Italy's enduring alliance with the United States.
“The alliance is enriched daily through politics of course, but also through things like this," Genuardi said. "This is the first official indoor Training Center we are opening in the United States. We already run two academies in Miami and New York. Through sport, the two countries are brought closer together. Sport is a great instrument of dialog and through Juventus Acaademy, we are opening communication with the young generation. It is a fantastic opportunity.”
Juventus Football Club, colloquially known as Juve, is a professional Italian soccer club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. The club has two “Academies” in the US – one in Miami and one in New York-- but this is the first actual training center.
“We believe that in the USA, youth players and parents put too much emphasis on standings and winning or losing weekend league games," said Juventus Academy Head Coach and USA Area Manager, Carlo Mastellone. “This ends up affecting the technical and tactical quality of the youngsters because the focus is on the result and not on the process. This new training center will provide a methodically supplemental training environment for boys and girls of all ages and levels, focused solely on player improvement and development.”
Juventus' philosophy is “based on marrying the methodological and more specifically 'football' (soccer) side with an individual’s development as a human being," Mastellone said. "We aim to help children be the best they can and really believe that sport, particularly football, is a fundamental means of conveying educational values. Respect for teamwork, hard graft and good manners are three fundamental tenets of our approach. A well-behaved child, encouraged to act responsibly, will become an adult ready to enter the workforce and interact appropriately with society. As ever, respect for others is vital. In short, we want to develop people first, footballers second.”
Registration and participation for these trials is limited in order to personalize the sessions for each participant with small player-to-coach ratios. Information for the attending parents will be provided during the trial week, and registrants will also enter for a chance to win an autographed Juventus jersey and soccer ball.
The players that later go on to become full members of the programs will receive benefits such as: flexibility in their training schedule, one-on-one assessment session with a coach to evaluate against Juventus standards, a personalized health and nutritional report, an objective training curriculum designed by Juventus, and other unique features.
David Trezeguet is a retired Juventus professional soccer player and one of the coaches who came over from Italy to ensure that the programs at the new training center are precisely orchestrated in the Juventus manner.
“Our programs are very focused on training,” he said. “There isn't really any soccer game playing: it's all about the training and teaching kids our methods.”
To this end, club and team players don't need to leave their current team. Powered by professional Italian coaches year round and following the official Juventus curriculum and methodology, kids who parttake in the programs also have the opportunity to travel to Turin, Italy for “the Juventus training experience.”
Sparta's Mayor, Gil Gibbs, and Deputy Mayor, Josh Hertzberg, were in attendance at the event. Gibbs said, “It's incredible to see something like this come to Sparta.” He added, “It was amazing how quickly this all came together and we are happy to have the training center here in town. It's a great opportunity for the kids in the area.”
Raquel DaSilva is the manager of the Field House Club, which is what Juventus is calling the facility housing the Juventus Academy Training Center USA. She said the organization chose Sparta for several reasons: It was a readily accessible place because of the many highways near Sparta; the economic state of the area meant that people could afford something like high-level soccer training; and the Field House facility was available.
"We looked at several venues before settling on Sparta," DaSilva said. "It was a sort of connect-the-dots decision."
Kids were everwhere on Sunday, eager to try out and even get an autograph from one of the Juventus Soccer Team players. One of them was Logan Parzecki, a 12-year-old from Jefferson who plays on the SCP Soccer Club based in Sparta. “He's a soccer fanatic," said his father, Eddie Parzecki. “He loves the sport and dreams of one day playing professional soccer. He follows the players religiously, and when we heard of this opportunity coming to Sparta, we signed up for the trials.”
Juventus translates to “the youth,” and that's what the Juventus Training Center is all about. Genuardi said, “The youth are our future and what Juventus is doing here is a coming together of the countries through our youth and sport and common values.”
DaSilva said that the facility will be open for rental when the training center is not in session.
Juventus Academy USA began hosting trials on July 23rd and will continue to host them through July 30th for the annual training programs. Trials are open to boys and girls ages five through 17. On line registration is suggested to reserve a spot and is $20 with in person registration costing $30. For further information, contact 1-888-495-JUVE (5883), visit/sign up at the web site: www.juventusacademy.us, find them on Facebook at JuventusAcademyUSA, Instagram: @juventusacademyusa, or on Twitter: @JJAcademyUSA. Juventus Adademy Training Center is located at 115 Sparta Avenue in Sparta.