SPIRE Institute’s Soccer Academy – An Innovative New Residential Academy program for High School and Post Graduate Student Athletes

Imagine the most prestigious, state-of-the-art sports center you can think of; a place that could house the Olympics.

Got the image? You’ve just envisioned a facility that could very well be the SPIRE Institute. 

 

SPIRE is uniquely destined for even greater heights as the long and short term training programs for junior, collegiate, professional and Olympic level athletes come on board in 2012 and beyond.

Now open to Residential Academy students, SPIRE Institute is a unique athletic training and education facility located in Geneva, Ohio. SPIRE will combine academic education with sports training for student athletes who are seeking to reach the next level. It will offer a range of different academic programs at various levels including high school and post graduate. 

 

Recently partnering with the nearby Andrews Osborne Academy, SPIRE will provide a deeper academic experience by integrating academic life with athletics. Andrews Osborne Academy is where the student athletes will attend high school and live on campus when they are not training, forming a partnership that will challenge students academically as well as physically.

 

While training at the Institute, student athletes will be given customized training programs in SPIRE’s top-notch facilities. There are Olympic grade facilities for several sports including soccer, swimming, volleyball, track and field and basketball. These indoor facilities amass more than 750,000 square feet. 

 

For soccer specifically, SPIRE offers two full-sized indoor fields, an outdoor stadium field that can seat up to 10,000 people, and eight other outdoor fields (both grass and turf). Here student athletes under the guidance of soccer’s most prominent coaches and trainers can pursue their quest for excellence in an atmosphere that fosters excellence – in college bound academics, in reaching full athletic potential and in developing responsible young adults.

 

At SPIRE Institute, athletes do more than just simply train, they develop. At the core of SPIRE training is Michael Johnson Performance, performance training designed by the Olympic Gold Medalist and highly respected around the world. 

SPIRE also employs holistic training methods which act in the best interest of the individuals and are not too hyper focused. Bryan McCall, the Michael Johnson Performance Director at SPIRE, describes the training as “sport relevant, not sport specific.” While training does emphasize building skills for a specific sport, it also takes into account the need to train parts of the body that would not otherwise be exercised in order to create a well-rounded athlete and to prevent common sports injuries.

 

Beginning in the fall of 2012, SPIRE Institute will begin its first term of training student athletes as a result of its partnership with Andrews Osborne Academy. SPIRE Institute is currently operational, however, and accepting applications for the high school and post-graduate academy programs now. In addition, SPIRE will also be offering both boarding and non-boarding camps for athletic improvement. For more information about SPIRE Institute, visit the website at www.spireinstitute.org.