The OPDL Spotlight Series, presented by Toronto FC, highlights stories, teams and initiatives from around the league. 

This week features comments from Dave Diplacido, Technical Director of Aurora FC, on how OPDL has impacted their organization. 

Having been a part of OPDL since its inception, Aurora FC has dedicated much of our human resources including the Technical Staff, office staff and volunteers.

The program has assisted the club's organization from grassroots level up, with 25 plus players graduating from Aurora's OPDL program into Adult High Performance. 

Aurora FC is most looking forward to this year the progression of players and coaches that have come through our system.

It's exciting to see how they've developed year after year.

In the fifth year, we're really starting to see players who entered at early grassroots stages, developing into strong OPDL players.

There has been many areas of OPDL that have improved.

After being in OPDL for many years, our club has a better understanding of what is involved and the fact that Ontario Soccer and OPDL have remained consistent in their delivery and expectations has allowed us to grow as a club.

The standards placed on the OPDL program sets it apart, as we see it putting an onus on clubs to have their organization properly prepared which, in turn, funnels down to the development the players and coaches see from growing in the program.

One of the benefits Aurora FC has seen is how our involvement in OPDL has helped put a focus on each development stage, making the requirements easily known and implemented, thus strengthening the technical skills being seen on the field in the players and coach's abilities.

Dave Diplacido, born and raised playing in Aurora, oversees the development / implementation of Aurora OPDL and is excited to see players move through the pathway. He is also a former National Team Player, and has previously competed in a World Championship.