The KCW Juniors U-16 and U-18 teams will play their first-ever U.S. Soccer Development Academy matches over the weekend. Both teams face Texas Rush AJ Auxerre Saturday and Texas SC DTH Sunday in the suburbs outside of Houston, Texas. Kansas City Wizards ownership group OnGoal created the KCW Juniors program in 2007 as part of the Major League Soccer youth development initiative. The KCW Juniors are one of five clubs to join the Development Academy program for the 2009-10 season.
For more information on the Juniors program, visit www.kcwizards.com/kcwjuniors. A roster and a complete schedule for the U-18 squad is available here. A roster and a complete schedule for the U-16 squad is available here. Updates from this weekend's matches will appear on the KCW Juniors blog at www.kcwjuniors.blogspot.com.
"The U.S. Soccer Development Academy creates an environment that is focused on developing the player while providing competitive games that challenge each individual player and team," said Peter Vermes, Kansas City Wizards Technical Director and former U.S. World Cup veteran. "We are pleased to enter the Development Academy in 2009 with our KCW Juniors U-15/16 and U-17/18 teams. The KCW Juniors philosophy of player development matches the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, and we look forward to competing against some of the top clubs from around the country."
Joining the KCW Juniors in the Academy in 2009-10 will be California Development Academy (Sacramento, Calif.), Houston Dynamo (Houston, Texas), McLean Youth Soccer (McLean, Va.) and NJSA 04 (Holmdel, N.J.). The five Academy clubs were selected from a pool of 250 applicants. Clubs were selected based on their potential to generate future national team players as determined by geographic location, coaching staff, administrative capabilities and national team coach site visits and evaluations. U.S. Soccer has limited the number of clubs admitted into the Academy each year to maintain the highest quality of competition in the program.
The Academy program was created to enhance the player development environment for elite youth players in the United States, according to U.S. Soccer Best Practices, with specific focus on increasing the number of training sessions, decreasing the total number of games while increasing the number of quality games and maintaining the highest level of coaching, refereeing and competition available in an everyday environment.
Aside from providing clubs with a soccer-centric environment, the Academy program also provides a platform to systematically improve the player identification and development processes. Over half of the Academy matches are attended by a national team scout, resulting in a comprehensive system to evaluate player, coach and referee talent. Academy coaches and athletes also receive video analysis from ProZone, a soccer-specific athletic training curriculum from SPARQ and Nutrition and Hydration recommendations from Gatorade's Sports Science Institute. The physical capabilities of Academy athletes are measured using SPARQ's soccer-specific tests and Gatorade's fluid loss tests.
In its second year, the Academy program has already dramatically impacted the player development process in the United States. In 2008, more than 100 players from Academy clubs were included in U.S. Youth National Teams and almost 800 graduates from the inaugural Academy class participated in college soccer the following fall. Virtually all college programs use the Academy program as a scouting vehicle and the program has received increased attention from professional scouts representing domestic and international clubs.
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