Athletic Lab is the training home of professional and elite athletes as well as adults looking to get in the best shape of their lives. Our community is diverse and vibrant. The commonality across our diverse community is that everyone is hard-working and goal-minded.

Each month we highlight one (or more) of our members in our member of the month feature. For the month of April, we’ve been forced to close access to our facility in support of the global fight against COVID-19. But we still have 100s of athletes and fitness enthusiasts following our online and virtual training options. Perhaps the most impressive commitment to staying fit in spite of the challenging conditions are the players of North Carolina FC Youth. We have had almost 600 players voluntarily commit to our online soccer fitness program. For this amazing dedication we’ve selected the players of the club as our April members of the month. You can also check out our previous members of the month here.

Athletic Lab trains the Academy, ECNL and Classic Elite level teams of North Carolina Football Club Youth. Additionally, Athletic Lab’s Mike Young is the Performance Director for the club’s men’s & women’s senior Pro teams (North Carolina FC and North Carolina Courage).

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How many players are in the club? The club is one of the largest in the world with over 13,500 players across all levels. The club has over 900 coaches.

What makes NCFC Youth so unique? The club provides a full service experience not often seen in North America. NCFC has players that start learning the game as young as 3-4 years old and we have professional teams on both the men s and women s side at the top of our soccer pyramid.

Who are some notable players who have come through the club who have earned accolades or professional contracts with the MLS, USL, NWSL or European Clubs The club has produced dozens of players at the professional level including:

Over 30 players have earned Youth National Team caps or Camp invitations and 4 players have played in Youth World Cups:
  • Brianna Pinto
  • Taylor Otto
  • Morgan Reid
  • Christina Gibbons
Two players have been called into full Women’s National Team duty:
  • Christina Gibbons
  • Brianna Pinto
Two players were recently recognized as Girls Development Academy Top 11 players in position:
  • Tori Hansen – CB (2017)
  • Paige Tolentino – LB (2018)

What are some notable team accomplishments of the club

  • In the last five years, the NCFC Youth Academy has had 33 players called into youth national team camps, nine sign professional contracts with MLS clubs and over 100 commit to play at the college level. Three players from the 2019 NCFC U-23 squad were recently selected in the 2020 MLS SuperDraft, including first-round selection Jeremy Kelly, a product of the NCFC Youth Academy and the NCFC first team.
  • The club boasts hundreds of players at the D1 collegiate level and many more at the D2, D3 and NAIA levels.
  • At the Girls Academy Level, the teams are consistently ranked as one of the top 15 programs in the US for development and in the past 2 years, there have been several Top 5 ranked teams.
  • At the Boys Academy Level, the teams are consistently ranked as one of the top 25 programs in the US for development and in the past 2 years, there have been several Top 10 ranked teams.
  • At the Classic level, NCFC Youth has teams competing at all possible divisions of Classic league play that US Youth Soccer offers in the country, from 2nd Division NCYSA all the way through National League. The Classic level teams have produced countless State and Regional Championship teams. Each year the club has 75-100 graduating seniors move on to play college soccer from the Classic level.

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Special thanks to NCFC Youth directors John Bradford, Steven Curfman, Paul Forster and Sean Nahas and for their assistance.