Toronto FC academy and junior academy head coach, Stuart Neely, returned to Varsity Centre for the second consecutive year to conduct an intense training session with the Varsity Blues men’s soccer team on Wednesday, August 25.

Neely is the second member of the Toronto FC staff to act as a guest coach during the Blues 2010 training camp after senior academy head coach Jason Bent stepped onto the pitch with U of T last week.

“I think the boys have been putting in a fair amount of work over the past week or so and you can see they’ve been doing a lot of defending and individual work,” Neely commented after practice. “Today was about group and team defending and it was a lot of movement and focus and I felt that they’ve done a good job.”

Varsity Blues head coach Anthony Capotosto has been working closely with Neely as an assistant coach with Toronto F.C.’s senior team.

Neely has several years of international coaching experience with Canada’s national youth teams and holds his Canadian “A” license, high performance coaching degree from the National Coaching Institute as well as a Masters in Physical Education. He is also a chartered professional coach with Sport Canada.

“I usually come this time every year for Anthony and the boys and it’s been a different feel to it this year they feel very composed, relaxed and focused so today was a very productive session,” Neely added. “I was really excited about it.”

The Varsity Blues open their season on the road Labour Day weekend against the Nipissing Lakers on Sept. 3 and Laurentian Voyageurs on Sept. 4. U of T returns to Varsity Centre for their home opener on Saturday, September 11 versus Queen’s. Game time is scheduled for 3:15 p.m.

The Blues are also the proud hosts of the 2010 CIS national men’s soccer championship, Novemeber 11-14, at Varsity Centre.