Elite Tournaments, Southampton Create Memorable Experience for Youth Players

Every year thousands of kids go to camp, a rite of passage for most school-aged children whether it’s a general summer camp or a specialty camp for a particular interest.

One camp in particular requires elite talent to secure an invitation. Elite Tournaments, a Baltimore-based organization that specializes in youth soccer, has a partnership with Premier League side Southampton Football Club that sees American players live out a dream over the course of a week in the UK.

That journey begins with the eighth annual Southampton Cup, which will take place December 7–8 at Covenant Park in Ellicott City, Maryland, featuring about 240 teams — mostly from the United States, with a few from Canada and occasionally Puerto Rico. Southampton dispatches 10 coaches to Baltimore to watch thousands of participants and selects roughly 30 boys and 30 girls who show the potential to develop a soccer career.

“Southampton sends coaches over from their Development Academy and they get the chance to engage with participants and watch them play,” said Megan Ditchman, senior vice president of marketing and partnerships at Elite Tournaments. “Once those players are selected, they get invited for a chance to go train and spend a week living the Southampton Academy philosophy.”

The players selected are typically between 10–15 years old. Elite Tournaments takes two trips to Southampton each year — one for the boys and one for the girls — that each last one week.

“We will look for players that we think will be able to benefit from a Southampton Football Club Academy experience and use it to develop and improve their game,” said Tom Grevatt, head of football programs at Southampton FC. “So we’re looking for not just talent, but for players that we feel have potential to benefit from it.”

The Full Southampton Experience

Southampton Cup Select Tours pack a lot into one week. In addition to lodging and three meals a day, the players have access to the EPL side’s training facilities, play multiple games against local competition, get a tour of St. Mary’s Stadium and take in a Southampton game with the opportunity to meet first team players. There’s also plenty of tutelage from the Southampton staff, including coaching sessions and group seminars.

Ditchman says about two-thirds of parents accompany their kids on the trip. The adults have a tailored schedule that allows time with their kids, but also gives the kids an authentic camp experience.

“From a chaperone perspective, it’s really impressive to see the growth and independence throughout the week for the kids,” said Ditchman, who has been on each trip since 2017. “My biggest goal is to give them a different perspective, culturally speaking, on what global football means. Showing them why kids in England work so hard and why people in England are so wild about football and what it really means to them culturally.”

Both Ditchman and Grevatt agree the camp is a hit with attendees and one week can make all the difference in a player’s physical and mental approach to the game.

“We provide an authentic academy experience for these players, where they’ll get to live the life of a Southampton Academy player for that particular camp,” Grevatt said. “They’ll be able to experience and learn from the same coaches, focus on the same curriculum and team/player principles and we also complement that with some video analysis on the players.”

An important part of the Southampton camps is the price tag. Ditchman says an experience of a similar size and scope could run as much as $5,000 per player. Elite Tournaments keeps the price at about $2,200 (which does not include a flight).

“That’s been part of our growth process with Southampton — how to keep this at as low of a payment point as possible so that the kids that deserve it can go to it,” Ditchman said. “It’s not a charitable process by any means, but it’s still something where we’re not trying to fully monetize it in the biggest way possible because we want the kids to have the opportunity.”

Players Experience Lasting Effects

While the Southampton camp lasts a week, what the players take from it lasts much longer. Ditchman still keeps in contact with many of the parents who have gone on the trip and says word of mouth has helped expand Elite Tournaments’ business and Southampton’s fanbase in North America.

“They’re so excited to go back and share it with their families, friends, coaches, teammates and clubs that you create these little ambassadors,” Ditchman said. “That’s been the coolest part, is creating a grassroots community of fans in the U.S. I’ve talked to local coaches who say that consistently their smartest players are the ones that went on the trip. They’re able to read the game on the field in the most intelligent and impressive ways since coming back from Southampton.”

There’s good reason for the lessons learned to stick. Southampton has what is regarded as one of the best soccer academies in the world. It has produced the likes of Gareth Bale, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alan Shearer and many more who have gone on to international stardom. Currently, Southampton has academy alum Tyler Dibling, who is 18 years old and made his Premier League debut for the Saints this season after almost a decade in the academy.

“We’re proud of the rich history we’ve got — decade after decade we’ve been able to produce some of the best talent who have gone on to the biggest stages in the world,” Grevatt said. “And that same development environment those players had is what we provide for all players who come here for camp.”

Ditchman also sees similarities between Baltimore and the city of Southampton: “Southampton is a coastal town and they have a very large shipping history and an industrial shipping industry that’s built there. So it’s by no means a ‘fancy’ city, but it reminds me a lot of Baltimore on a smaller scale. It’s blue collar, hardworking people,” she said.

La Liga Turns Focus to North America

While the Southampton Cup is scouted by the Saints’ staff, Elite Tournaments has done some business with La Liga in Spain. The two organizations are working on a restructured contract to continue a partnership and Ditchman points out one difference between the EPL and La Liga — United States players are eligible to play in La Liga. When an American camper goes to Southampton, the one-week academy experience is as far as the journey can go due to EPL rules on eligibility of foreign players.

“Technically, to play in the English Premier League you have to have access to a passport by heritage or relocation of your parents,” Ditchman said. “So, American kids are not allowed to be in the academy system unless they have a grandparent or parent that was born in Europe, or if their parents are relocating for work.”

La Liga, in an attempt to get more American players into its league and increase its U.S. fanbase, allows those players to come into a team’s pipeline through a program called La Liga Select. Scouts from the league attend several Elite Tournaments events each year to evaluate talent and bring top prospects to a camp in Spain. However, unlike the full camp experience in Southampton, the La Liga Select camps are more like scouting combines.

“We are supportive in the process of getting more U.S. players into La Liga,” Ditchman said. “The more U.S. players in La Liga, the more U.S. viewership and the more dollars that will get filtered into the league. It’s a brilliant move on their part. We’re hopeful to get a new contract finished and continue that partnership.”