Pittsburgh Hotspurs, Arsenal FC announce collaboration for 2020-21 season

Soccer in Western Pennsylvania received positive news earlier this week when Pittsburgh Hotspurs and Arsenal FC announced a collaboration for the 2020-21 season.

The collaboration between the soccer clubs will allow players from both youth programs to earn a spot with the Pittsburgh Hotspurs NPSL or WPSL First Team squad, which fields a mixture of high school, college and post-grad soccer players.

Soccer platforms around the country continue to change, and this collaboration will enable top players to gain national exposure by participating in the NPSL or WPSL. When he was presented with the opportunity, Arsenal FC director Jon Velotta said it was too good to pass up.

“From Arsenal’s behalf, we’re always on the lookout for opportunities that would provide unique and better pathways for our players,” Velotta said. “We’ve always kind of had the mindset that there are probably too many youth clubs in the area for the amount of talent that there is out there. So, any time that the clubs can come together for the betterment of the development process and opportunities for players, I think that’s something we’ve always been open to.”

The collaboration between the clubs has several benefits for players and their families. Pittsburgh Hotspurs Academy director and coach of the women’s first team, Tom Ovenden, believes this type of structure will give players and parents a clearer picture of the development process.

“This collaboration is about creating a new development model and trying to create a cleaner and more visible path for parents going into soccer and how you would end up on a semi-pro team or a college team,” Ovenden said. “It’s very confusing, so we’ve tried to create that clear path.”

While receiving a clearer picture of what it will take to get to the next level, players in the older divisions, U-16 through U-19, also receive the opportunity to possibly train alongside college and post-grad players.

“If you look around the world at other models, that’s what clubs are,” Velotta said. “You have a 17-year old playing with older players and in our much, much smaller scale, that’s the opportunity we are providing. There’s no doubt that it will help in their development process, playing with older and more experienced players.”

This also gives older players who have come through each club the chance to come back after college, or during college, and play for a team in their home city. Ovenden believes this collaboration will provide those players a unique opportunity as well.

“You’re getting more of these guys that played at college, graduated and gone into nine-to-fives but still want to play,” Ovenden said. “The network of leagues is kind of where America is lacking right now, so NPSL has that opportunity to provide that network potentially as they grow and add more teams and players along the way.”