Contribution by Bievenue Iragaba – PDS –
The formation of The Professional Development Squad – The PDS followed the seamless and smooth transition youngsters from the Youth Development Phase were making on and off the pitch. From then on, all of youngsters are introduced to The PDS through the Young Elites Development Squad – The YEDS – an internal innovation within – The Scea AC – The First Team at the Scea Development. The PDS came into being on the 17 / 18th August; 2022 and is composed of 16 to 21 year olds; with the oldest player being 20 years. The squad developing at The Professional Development Stage or The PD-Stage is beefed up with outstanding youngsters from The YEDS which ensures the sustainability of The Scea AC. These youngsters are socially aware and from a team culture perspective; they understand the demands and expectations of The First Team environment. The intention of forming The PDS is to maintain a steady flow of youngsters to our First Team – The Scea AC.
Individual player development is the focus of practice, education and development of all coaching and non-coaching staff working with The PDS. The PD-Stage exposes players to a wide range of training- practices and game scenario experiences. Besides, it also introduces and exposes these young individuals to far reaching experiences in the areas of leadership, sustainability, developmental soccer and the psychology of exercise. Through The Scea Institute an in-house initiative, the lads continue to develop as young leaders under The Young Leadership Development Program -The YLDP – initiated in January 2021; whilst also developing as socially aware individuals with a developmental mindset under an internal mentoring scheme – in house and outsourced -. Individual soccer development combined with off the pitch educational and developmental programs is and will continue providing our young players with a platform to base on for them to reach their full potential.
Sessions like relaxation and meditation techniques are introduced at The PD-Stage to help and enable young players accept and understand how to deal with stressful situations and calm down under pressure on and off the pitch. The psychological safety, wellbeing and welfare of players comes first at The Scea Development as this is crucial to holistic player education and development. Using writing as a skill to complete projects and or assignments, The Scea Development is ensuring that young players at The PD- Stage enhance their skills in the areas of problem solving, critical – independent thinking, and social – task cohesion and decision making among a host of other life skills. Staff attach importance and analyse the character- personality, soccer potential and ability, mental and athletic potential, capability to cope with the challenging practice environment, the ability to handle stress and difficulty while absorbing skills.
The PDS plays in the 7th tier of The Kenyan Football System. An unstable operating soccer environment hinders the progress we are meant to make with The PDS under an internal innovative program that exposes young players to soccer at a level- division up. The focus of the program is to place all 17 and above year olds with outstanding potential at clubs playing in the professional leagues of Kenya – from Division One – National Super League to The Kenya Premier League. By learning and developing at the elite level and from experienced professionals, witnessing first-hand how first teams prepare for upcoming games whilst also travelling with match day squads; young players come to learn and understand what it really takes to perform each week in professional soccer and the standards or behaviors within a first team operating environment. We hope the program to benefit The PDS as we navigate the instability within the Kenya Football operating environment since we are always looking for unique and innovative avenues to expedite the development process of young players at The Scea Development.