Hidden Gems: Meet Mark Girard of The Edge Soccer Programs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Girard. 

Hi Mark, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Hi, my name is Mark Girard and I am the founder, owner, and head coach of Edge Soccer Programs. I’ve been in the soccer coaching arena for over 25 years and have trained players that have advanced to the top-level clubs, colleges, and professional teams. I’ve also coached and trained teams for CASL (now called NCFC) (including their U23s), TFC, Cary Clarets PDL team, Raleigh Elite and was an Assistant Coach for the Carolina Railhawks professional team. 

However, my passion has always been coaching youth players and helping them achieve their goals and dreams. After many years of coaching in different businesses and arenas, I decided to open my own company, Edge Soccer Programs, which has now been open for 6 years. It has truly been the best thing I ever did! However, I couldn’t do all of this without my fantastic coaches & staff. Our Team is comprised of specialists, coaches, and dreamers, tethered together by passion and the love of soccer. We consist of former professional and collegiate players, coaches, and trainers who are dedicated to coach and mentor our players. 

Kids are such an inspiration and it’s great to see them in this environment doing something that they love – playing soccer! They come here for one hour each week and work hard while having tons of fun! They can forget everything else going on in their lives for that time and just focus on their sport – which is especially important during this time of COVID. 

Our training sessions supplement a player’s outdoor/club team training sessions. Their outdoor/club team training focus on the games and our sessions provide the technical training, footwork skills, and technique that they use in their games which separate them from other players on their team and allow them to excel. Our training sessions are designed to enhance each player’s skill level so that they may maximize their opportunities to perform in recreation, club, academy, and scholastic competition. Our team is committed to providing training sessions that encourage, and positively reinforce every player’s efforts while promoting friendship and fun. We push them to challenge themselves to become better each week so they can achieve their aspirations. 

The Edge facility is an indoor training facility like no other! Designed to build confidence, promote creativity, and inspire our players at any age. We have a parent viewing room, state-of-the-art on-field video, and sound system — and just like the pros, a ‘players only’ boot room. Our 9,200 square foot facility is kept the perfect temperature throughout the year and has top-of-the-line turf with no rubber infill. The positive energy of our facility greets you as soon as you walk in the door. We also have small group sizes and an abundance of coaches which allows us to have a great coach to player ratio on the field and enables us to be able to focus on each child. 

Everything we do is for the players. We want to give back to the community, help the youth in any way we can and soccer is just our tool for doing that and teaching them life skills on and off the field. We are truly a family at Edge. We support each other, and promote friendship among parents, help each child grow on and off the field, and give back to the community with annual food drives to support local food banks, school supply drives for teachers, or whatever else we see is needed. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Overall, it has been great and a smooth road. However, the last year and a half during the pandemic have presented challenges and obstacles but we’ve been able to pivot and adjust so we can continue to do what we enjoy and provide a place for players to work on the sport they love. 

We’ve been impressed with The Edge Soccer Programs, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Edge Soccer Programs is a technical training program and is known for helping players improve their soccer skills, grow their confidence, we’re also known for our coaches. The players adore the coaches at Edge! They’re fun, funny, tough, smart, push players to challenge themselves, and lend a good ear if a player needs to talk or wants advice on how to play a specific position, etc. Edge is also known for being a family – everyone at Edge (players, parents, grandparents, coaches & staff) are all one big family and we support each other! The atmosphere and positive environment at Edge is unmatchable anywhere else.

In addition to the above items, there are also many on the field aspects that set us apart.  Our training sessions are a total experience – from the time the players & parents walk in the front door and are greeted every time to a where field where every detail has been carefully thought out from the session planning, session detail & goals, to a special boot room (locker room) for the players, to the parent room where parents can watch their child and get to know other parents, to the coach to player ratio on the field, to the music, to the graffiti street art wall, to the coaches we carefully select to work with our players.  As we tell the kids, every detail matters.  In our training sessions, there is no standing around – ever.  Players are constantly moving and are engaged with the session, they’re mentally & physically challenged during the entire session and then at the end they scrimmage every week so they can incorporate what they’ve learned into game situations so that it translates to their outdoor club team games.  All of our sessions have game like movements & game like touches during the entire session so that it all puts all of the puzzle pieces together for the players so that they can achieve their goals & dreams on the field and with their teams.  There are 5 – 6 coaches on the field for a group of 12 – 15 players so we see everything, we can make sure players are doing a movement correctly – not just doing it – there’s a big difference between those two and we can pull a player off to the side if they need additional help.  We also attend games of our players so that we can see how they’re doing and see what needs to be worked on in our sessions to help them improve with their game.

Our web site is www.edgesoccerprograms.com and our telephone number is 984-439-0999. If you prefer to send an email, please direct it to karen@edgeprograms.com. 

If you’d like to see more about Edge, please click here to watch this video about us. 

https://www.wral.com/triangle-youth-soccer-program-giving-kids-a-competitive-edge/19729115/ 

We have modernized the approach to soccer training – from how training is run to the types of sessions/drills done to how they’re executed on the field to engaging the soccer player as a whole and helping them reach their aspirations. We also have an outdoor turf soccer field at our facility so to mix it up, we sometimes do training on our outdoor field. 

We are conveniently located in the Brier Creek area so we’re close to every city in the triangle area (Raleigh, Morrisville, Cary, Apex, Durham, Wake Forest, Chapel Hill, etc.) and very easy to get to. We’re near the RDU airport and easy to access from highways 540, 70, 40, and 440. 

I don’t know that there’s one thing I’m most proud of. I’m proud of everything and everyone at Edge. We all work very hard at Edge and everything matters here. Every day I walk in the front door makes me proud. 

Players at Edge range from 3 years old to 18 years old. We offer programs that will help all of them, it just depends on what they’re looking for. We offer: 

* a Little Edgers program for our 3-6-year-olds 

* a 6-week training session for players that want to focus on fundamentals & technical training 

* a 10-month program for the more serious soccer player that wants to train with us for 10 months 

* summer and winter training programs 

* private soccer lessons 

* team training for teams in the offseason such as winter and summer 

* auxiliary programs such as Finishing, Goalkeeping, high school training, pre-tryout prep clinics, and more! 

We also offer summer camp and track-out camps. These are activity-based camps for children ages 6 – 12 and our campers stay active the whole day with gams such as cross the ocean, capture the flag, camouflage, kickball, soccer, relay races, slime making, and more! Our camps are offered the whole summer and during all track-out periods for children in year-round schools. We also offer it on teacher workdays, school holidays, vacation days, etc. Parents can register their child for a full week or individual days – whatever fits their schedule best. 

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Yes. COVID has been one of the most unique and challenging crises any business or anyone has had to deal with. We have learned to pivot and adjust on a moment’s notice – it is paramount during something like this. While we were completely shut down during the pandemic, we took our training sessions online so that our players could continue to receive training, see their coaches & stay connected with them, and continue working on their soccer goals. We adjusted our group sizes to meet the indoor group size limitations implemented by the CDC and our governor. We have been and will continue to monitor & follow CDC, NCDHHS, state, and local guidelines closely for our safety protocols to keep Edge families & staff as safe as possible. The safety, health, and wellness of our Edge players, their families, our coaches/staff, and their families is our highest priority.

Contact Info:

• Email: karen@edgeprograms.com
• Website: www.edgesoccerprograms.com
• Instagram: @the_edge_raleigh
• Facebook: The Edge Soccer Programs – Brier Creek
• Twitter: @TheEdgeSoccer
• Youtube: The Edge Soccer Programs