Ottawa Fury FC Academy

The Fury Academy was launched in 2006, under the umbrella of the original Ottawa Fury.^[1] At its peak, the Ottawa Fury FC Academy had more than 20 teams of various age levels, among both genders,^[2] with the aim of developing players for both its professional squad and women's team.^[3] The Academy works with community clubs in the Ottawa area to identify high-potential players, in addition to holding open tryouts.^[4] During their early years, they faced some unexpected pushback from other local minor soccer groups competing for youth players.^[2]

In 2015, they decided to field two teams in the Quebec-based Première Ligue de soccer du Québec, a Division III league,^[5][6] with their Senior team playing in the man division, while their Junior team played in the Reserve Division. Phil Dos Santos, brother of first-team coach Marc Dos Santos served as the head coach of the Senior Academy team.^[7] Fury FC citing the proximity of other teams as making the PLSQ a logical choice, as opposed to joining the Ontario-based League1 Ontario.^[8] They were the first club located outside of Quebec to join the league (Ottawa South United would later follow them in 2020).^[9] Their home games were based out of Carleton University and TD Place Stadium.^[10]

In 2016, the club decided to shut down its academy program and entered into an affiliation with Major League Soccer club Montreal Impact.^[11] The move to disband the academy was criticized as hurting the Fury's identity as a soccer club.^[12]