Islander founds Global Football School

Charles Dennis is attempting to turn good soccer players into great ones. If he is successful, he will also help the same student-athletes become even better students and citizens.

The 46-year-old Dennis, who lives on Daniel Island, is the founder and Executive Director of the Global Football School, which serves the Charleston area. Yes, the sport, worldwide, is known as football, not soccer.

Dennis and his associates traveled more than 165,000 miles across 26 countries on six continents, while visiting more than 100 youth clubs and academies to come up with the formula that will give students in grades 4-10 a chance to become better soccer players because of better training, and an academic curriculum that is based on the home-school approach.

“We’re using the European model,” Dennis said. “To give you example, in a country like Germany, there might be 40 schools like ours.”

But it is believed this is the first football school in the United States that combines athletics and academics all in one location, The Riverside Sports complex in Mount Pleasant. Student-athletes begin their day with a good workout that sharpens their soccer skills and keeps them in top condition. Then it’s off to classes for the students, who call it an academic day at 2:30 p.m. The students do all their work in the classroom, so there is no homework. That gives the students more time to work on their soccer skills, usually with their club team.

The cost for this sharpening of athletics and academics skills is a tuition bill of $750 a month for 10 months.

Fifteen students enrolled in the Charleston Football Global School for the 2015-16 academic year. Fourteen will return. The one who is not coming back is headed to Denmark to play soccer.

Enrollment for the 2016-17 academic year currently stands at 24 students.

Dennis said the objective of the GFS is to develop the complete player, by placing ‘intelligent decision making’ as the cornerstone of the football foundation.

“The relationship between physical activity (sports) and academics is well documented.” Dennis said, “Athletes who excel in the classroom are likely to transfer these achievements into adult life.”

Dennis said public and private schools have de-emphasized physical education over the years. The Global Football School demands high physical standards.

The soccer skills and drills exercises are held indoors at the Riverside complex. That means foul weather will not interfere with a player’s development. Dennis says a typical player will lose 30 percent of practice time during a year because of bad weather.

But Dennis said academic talent is a must to succeed in sports and in the big picture of life.

“We combine a classroom education with a training environment, challenging our student-players mentally, physically and psychologically to perform at a higher level,” he said. “Football is not just an after-school activity, it is a topic taught alongside of math, English and science.”

The total concept works in Europe. Now, it’s time to see if it will fly in the U.S.

“The results are mind-boggling,” Dennis said.” In Europe, the students who attend this type of school are years ahead of their peers.”

And if the Global Football School really takes off, Dennis will be years ahead of his peers.