Since 2001, the FC Pride Soccer Club has served as the premier travel-level soccer club for the northeast side of Indianapolis and surrounding communities. For the 2017-2018 season and beyond, FC Pride has been the only club in the state selected to be a part of the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL), providing excellent scholarship exposure for collegiate-bound high school aged soccer players. The ECNL is proven to be the most successful platform for both college and U.S. National Team scouting, as well as offering a consistent top-level competition model.
FC Pride fields teams from U7 through U19 for both boys and girls. The club also has a new recreational academy program as well as developmental programs and camps for young players ages 4 to 8.
“FC Pride Soccer Club is committed to providing developmentally appropriate environments for all levels of players,” says Executive Director of Coaching Jamie Gilbert, who has been with the club for nine years.
“We have nine full-time coaches and 15part-time coaches on staff 100 percent focused upon the development of our players, and this also enables a lot of time to focus on assisting with the college-recruiting process. We are also now using GPS tracking technology with our elite athletes which gives us qualitative data to help track performance levels.”
FC Pride has a successful track record with facilitating opportunities for their players to compete at the collegiate level.
“Last year 25 of our athletes earned a total of $1.25 million dollars worth of scholarships,” Gilbert says. “Currently, 21 of our players graduating in 2017 are committed, and we are not even at the end of the recruiting cycle. We have totaled $1.5 million so far.”
Players have gone on to play at all NCAA division levels, with the majority of FC Pride players competing at Division 1 and Division 2 schools. Players have gone on to the University of Cincinnati, Samford, Butler, Xavier and many more college programs, with one recruit, goalkeeper and Lawrence North High School graduate Kayley Jones, playing at the University of the Pacific in San Francisco.
“Soccer has enabled Kayley to study marine biology at a top school on the west coast to become a marine biologist,” Gilbert says. “In women’s soccer, 50 percent of the scholarship is athletic, 50 percent is academics. Kayley graduated with a 4.4 GPA, so she could check a lot of the boxes.”
With the club’s experienced and nationally certified professional coaching staff, FC Pride ensures that each club player receives age-appropriate instruction, quality leadership, and exposure to valuable life lessons.
FC Pride Soccer Club is proud to be a leader in the soccer community. Its programs cultivate skills and talent at all levels. Based at Lawrence Soccer Complex, the club utilizes the 21-field complex for events including training, home matches and tournaments. FC Pride currently has an indoor training center as well, with plans to move to a state-of-the-art indoor/outdoor turf facility this year.
