Angel Rivillo Soccer is not just camps and clinics. It is a way of training, creating a community of children that love soccer and implement the “rules” of soccer to their everyday life. Because we live soccer all day, every day, we wanted to start a program that could influence everyone through soccer. Whether kids participate in the camps, clinics or La Academia, each will begin to become a part of our community, living soccer even when they are not playing it. Apart from our camps and clinics, La Academia is a year round program named after the club team where I grew up playing in Caracas, Venezuela. The real name of the club was La Academia Venezolana de Futbol (AVF), which translates into The Venezuelan Soccer Academy. The club was formed by Pedro Castro, an ex-Professional player from Galicia, Spain, who immigrated to Venezuela in the 80s to pursue his passion for soccer. It was a year round program where we trained twice per week and played on the weekends. La Academia taught me the fundamentals of soccer from the bare minimum up to the highest-level techniques. Our club started at ages of 5 and went all the way through age 19. At that time, you stayed at the same club no matter what, one because you knew you were getting the proper coaching but also because it was our club, our team, our family and everyone wanted to be a part of it. This magic mixture of fun, love, respect, education, acceptance and helping one another created some of the best experiences and youth teams in the area. Because of our diversity and philosophy La Academia was able to form some of the best talent in the entire country. More interestingly, that was not its main purpose. Of course the president wanted all his teams to play well and demanded excellence, respect, and a love for the game, but it was never with the idea to produce professional players. This came all by itself, later, over time.