Alum Matt Arrington (‘06) is right back where he started, on the soccer fields of Bethesda. While he may not be winning all-state awards playing with the Vikes anymore, he’s trying to develop players who can.

Arrington, a former Whitman and Bethesda Soccer Club standout, has returned to Bethesda after a few short stints playing professionally in Italy. In 2012, he founded a soccer academy called Arrington Training & Development, and it already consists of over 150 players. He knew he wouldn’t be able to start his brand alone, so he called his former high school teammate Dennis Schardt to help him run ATD. They both joined the high school coaching ranks for the first time this year, taking over the boys JV team.

Arrington’s academy is divided into age groups with specific goals. The focus for players ages 12 and younger is on individual skills and introductory passing methods. For ages 13 and older, players focus more on intricate passing methods and teamwork, with a final goal of maximizing individual talent and team success, according to Arrington’s website.

“We’re looking to instill a different philosophy of soccer in our area,” Arrington said. “We want to develop players at a young age even if they aren’t the best athletes.”

Arrington said he is currently coaching 10 MSI Classic teams from ages 10 to 16, in order to accumulate money to prepare for the next step—starting a European-style academy where players would train everyday.

“Eventually we want to make a deal with a private school,” he said. “Somewhere where we could use classrooms for a few hours after school to tutor the kids and keep their grades up, and hit the training ground after.”

Arrington said his gradual method of skill improvement is different from many of the area’s clubs, which focus on winning games from an early age, instead of player development.

“I started because I didn’t want to work at any of the clubs in the area,” Arrington said. “I wanted to do something unique, different.”

Arrington’s academy also differs from local clubs because it costs less than Bethesda or Potomac’s teams, he said. Arrington and Schardt plan to make scholarships available to any player who cannot afford to play on their team, Schardt said.

In addition to including more players, Arrington and Schardt’s primary focus is giving their players the necessary tools to succeed, JV soccer player sophomore Evan Goldsholle said.

“They care about all the players, no matter what ability,” Goldsholle said. “He understands what it takes to improve on the technical aspects of the game.”

Arrington recently travelled to Italy and England, visiting clubs Fiorentina and Manchester City to try to market his brand. Arrington has also built a strong friendship with the director of Ghana’s Right to Dream Academy, one of the best youth soccer academies in the world, he said.

Arrington said he wants to eventually form strong enough partnerships with foreign clubs so that they come to run clinics and camps for his players in the U.S.

Ultimately, developing players on and off the field is the main goal for ATD according to Schardt.

“We want to use soccer to build better people,” he said.