Skillzone's Adam Gatcum will work alongside Billy Marshall as head coaches of the academy.
“What we're trying to do is bring a soccer academy into the Shepparton region to allow primary school kids to come and learn under the guidance of our staff and make some progress in our game,” Gatcum said.
“The environment we want to offer is something these kids can be proud of, so we want to structure it as close to professionally as possible.
“If we can catch these kids at a young age and help them progress with us through primary school, by the time they get to Grade 6 they can feed back into the clubs knowing that they've had a long football background and love it.
“It's about building that foundation from a young age.
“The participation rate is something that is really important as well, we want to see them come out of primary school wanting to play soccer — whether that's feeding into the local clubs or the pathways.”
The free program — which will run across four age classifications — is already close to capacity, but players are encouraged to sign up for the waiting list in order to be involved in the future.
“The initial registrations have flown, with people really keen to join in,” Gatcum said.
“Spots are pretty much at capacity, but we would encourage people to register on the waiting list as if we get enough numbers on there we'll make sure we can do something for them too.
“It will start next month — COVID permitting — on Monday evenings, with a pre-Prep and Prep group, a (grade) one and two, a three and four and a five and six, all in groups of 16.
“We launched Skillzone about 10 years ago now and we run a wide variety of programs, but now we're sort of looking to expand and move out in different directions.”
Interested players can head to to find out more.skillzonesports.com