Indiana Fire Academy solidified its partnership with Indy Eleven with the announcement that our highly successful MLSNext and ECNL programs will be affiliated with the Indy Eleven as the Indy Eleven Pro Academy, and will continue to compete at the highest level of youth programming. The affiliation is effective July 1, and will continue the Indiana Fire Academy tradition of offering players a pathway to play at a professional level.
Both MLS NEXT and the ECNL leagues (which Indiana Fire have participated in since their inception) feature some of the most elite soccer clubs across the country in age groups from U12 through U19. As part of these leagues, the Pro Academy gives youth soccer players in Indiana the greatest opportunity to grow their game alongside existing and future competition as part of Indy Eleven’s ongoing and future involvement in the USL Academy League and USL Academy Cups. The Indy Eleven Pro Academy teams will train at the Grand Park Sports Campus, a 400-acre world-class sports facility in Westfield, Indiana and which is also the Official Training Center of Indy Eleven’s professional soccer teams.
“We continue to build out material opportunities, as we look to enable the best platforms for the overall development of both boys and girls in the sport of soccer throughout Indiana, with the expectation to have a best-in-class program across the United States” commented Phil
Presser, Indy Eleven’s Sporting Director, Academy Operations and W League.
Indy Eleven youth teams have found significant success on both the men's and women's sides of the USL Academy League and USL Academy Cup action. The Men's U-19 squad won both the 2022 and 2023 USL Academy Cup championships and the U-15 boys earning the 2023 title after a runner-up finish the season prior. The U-19 team also captured the USL Academy League national championship title in 2021. Indy Eleven’s Women's U-19 squad have advanced to the final playoff rounds of both the 2022 and 2023 Academy Cups. Since 2019, Indy Eleven has signed 20 players to USL Academy contracts, continuing the club’s standing as one of the premier player development destinations in the USL Championship.