Was thinking this might be worth a sticky to track the local talent "in the pipe-line" so to speak. So the following 5, we might be able to claim as home grown according to list from a MLS forum: Tesho Akindele, So. F, Colorado School of Mines - Thornton, CO Paolo DelPiccolo, Jr. M, Louisville - Wheat Ridge, CO Ryan Kawulok, So. D, Portland - Fort Collins, CO Taylor Kemp, Jr. D, Maryland - Highlands Ranch, CO Dillon Serna M (Winger) U-17 team - Denver, CO- just Committed to Akron for 2012 season We were rejected on Robbie, I understand he is staying in school, so we could always draft him down the line. Robbie Derschang, So. M, Southern Methodist - Englewood, CO Anyone know if any of the above qualify as Rapids HG talent? This is all I could find on Home Grown player detail (from espn) The academy teams take in promising players usually around the time they are starting high school, and most cover all their training/traveling/competing costs. Although the players are not otherwise compensated -- thus maintaining their college eligibility
There's also James Rogers at New Mexico. Dillon Serna has been in our system for years and was offered a first-team contract like Davy Armstrong but chose to go to Akron instead. So he's definitely an HG. Rogers originally started out in FSL's system before his family moved to Denver and he joined the Rapids Academy. I've been told that its already been determined that he's a Rapids product since he spent most of his time in the Rapids academy, but that seems like the type of thing that may be debated again.
Thanks Jason! Tesho Akindele, So. F, Colorado School of Mines - Thornton, CO Paolo DelPiccolo, Jr. M, Louisville - Wheat Ridge, CO Ryan Kawulok, So. D, Portland - Fort Collins, CO Taylor Kemp, Jr. D, Maryland - Highlands Ranch, CO James Rogers, Fr. F, New Mexico - Fort Collins, CO (2 year resident Rapids Academy) Kyle Venter, So. D, New Mexico - Denver, CO (2 year Real Colorado- no mention of Rapids) Levi Rossi, Jr. F/M, New Mexico - Denver, CO (2 year Real Colorado- no mention of Rapids) Zac Portillos, So. M, Akron - Aurora, CO (Also Real Colorado club) Dillon Serna M (Winger) U-17 team - Denver, CO- just Committed to Akron for 2012 season Rapids HG claim rejected Robbie Derschang, So. M, Southern Methodist - Englewood, CO
Just a reminder that HG kids only apply for kids that have played for Colorado Rapids youth teams. Real Colorado and Colorado Rush players are not necessarily eligible to be classified as HG
I understood that, however, college websites don't say (other then Rogers) if Real Colorado time was considered Rapids Academy time as well.
DelPiccolo, like Portillos, Rossi and Venter, was never a Rapids player; he played at least 2 years with Real Colorado. We should probably remove them from this list, unless we want to keep track of "local boys" even if they're not Rapids players. I'd be okay with that. I'm less clear about Alex Tarnoczi of DU who I believe played a year with both clubs. Also, Ryan Kawulok is a senior, not a sophomore, and will be graduating in May. He was the WCC defender of the year for 2011. Strikes me as a potential camp invitee if not immediate HG signing. http://portlandpilots.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=2476&path=msoc The last real name we've missed is Brendan Roslund, San Francisco junior, the WCC Goalkeeper of the Year. http://www.usfdons.com/sports/m-soccer/2011-12/releases/20111115fmsr5v
More help provided by Angry... I am going to leave players on list until MLS officially rejects claims, then move them to rejected area below. Ryan Kawulok, Sr. D, Portland - Fort Collins, CO Brendan Roslund, Jr. GK, USF - Denver, CO Taylor Kemp, Jr. D, Maryland - Highlands Ranch, CO Paolo DelPiccolo, Jr. M, Louisville - Wheat Ridge, CO Levi Rossi, Jr. F/M, New Mexico - Denver, CO (2 year Real Colorado- no mention of Rapids) Tesho Akindele, So. F, Colorado School of Mines - Thornton, CO Patrick Slogic, So. D, Cornell (6'6"!) - Colorado Springs, CO (Rapids Academy) Kyle Venter, So. D, New Mexico - Denver, CO (2 year Real Colorado- no mention of Rapids) Zac Portillos, So. M, Akron - Aurora, CO (Also Real Colorado club) James Rogers, Fr. F, New Mexico - Fort Collins, CO (2 year resident Rapids Academy) Incoming Freshman: Dillon Serna M (Winger) U-17 team - Denver, CO- just Committed to Akron for 2012 season (rated #11 overall USA- 2012 grads) Shane O'Neill D - Boulder, CO undecided (MVP West All American Game, Rapids U-18 Team) Karsten Hanin M (Central) - Centennial, CO undecided (Rapids U-18 team) Rapids HG claim rejected: Robbie Derschang, So. M, Southern Methodist - Englewood, CO
Brendan Roslund is the real deal. I imagine a decent contract offer could get him to leave USF. He could be the No. 2 GK fairly quickly and then become a legit option to start a couple years later. Tesho Akindele has completely torn up D-II. He's a great athlete and needs a greater challenge, soccer-wise. It would seem signing a HG contract with the Rapids could be a win-win as it would get him under contact for Colorado and enhance his development while still letting him take classes at Mines. Patrick Slogic had a great year for Cornell and he certainly has great size for center back. The two questions with him are A) does he have MLS wheels and B) will he get enough salary in a homegrown contract to get him to leave Cornell?
US Soccer ranks Academy's. Ok, Found out about these rankings from a Sounder posting... According to them, Rapids finished 5th among the MLS team academys. I will take their word on this since 77 Academy organizations are present in PDF. Here is Year end report: http://www.ussoccer.com/Teams/Development-Academy/Academy-Overview.aspx Colorado Rapids Academy (Member since 2007) Formation 4-4-2 (Diamond) 2010-11 US Soccer Development Academy end of year club rating: 2.5 stars Player Development: 3 stars Style of Play: 3 stars Training Environment: 2.5 stars Adminstrative: 2 stars Facilities: 4.5 stars Funding: 4 stars Respect: 3 stars side note this category was added in 2010 by Claudio Reyna Zone 1 & Early Zone 2 Curriculum: Complete No clue what this means
It would open up a huge can of worms if MLS approved any HG claims for academy players who NEVER played for an MLS club. There are situations like Tarnoczi, or Dilly Duka a few years ago, or Tony Cascio of Connecticut, who played for multiple clubs or only played briefly for an MLS academy. But if the likes of Derschang and Kemp are eligible for homegrown status then it defeats the entire purpose of MLS teams investing in their own academies and developing their own players. Taylor Kemp has played for the Rapids organization as many times as I have. As I said, I'd be fine with keeping track of these "local boys made good" - I really enjoyed watching DU-UNM this year with Tarnoczi, Venter and Rogers on the field- but let's not pretend that the Real or Rush guys are going to be homegrown selections because they haven't been "officially" rejected yet. After all, MLS didn't say anything about Robbie Derschang, Ives did.
MLS has rejected several claims but they do not seem to officially "put it out there", just look and all over Soccer sites you will see the occasional mention that MLS rejected HG claim (Or approved). If I recall correctly, in one of past 2 drafts their was a player listed as draftee until day or 2 before draft where it then was said he was HG to team X. I think the main problem is MLS secrecy when it comes to rules (Or just about everything for that matter). There are some huge threads over in MLS area that shows there is no pattern yet on getting HG status. Heck US Soccer only has a handful of MLS academies certified. Portland and Seattle had academies before they were in MLS, so that is all up in air if they have real claims. I am sure going forward with kids coming out of high school, it will finally follow a predictable pattern, but anyone in college right now seems to be a crap shoot. Straight from MLS: (F) HOME GROWN PLAYER SIGNINGS A club may sign a player to his first professional contract without subjecting him to the MLS SuperDraft if the player has trained for at least one year in the club’s youth development program and has met League criteria. Players joining MLS through this mechanism are known as Home Grown Players. There is no limit to the number of Home Grown Players a club may sign in a given year.
Any chance we could sticky this so it doesn't get lost in postings? Just was reading through article on Nick DeLeon and Tony Cascio possibly being RSL's HG (They will not). Have to agree with Angry now on guys we really would have no legit HG claim on. Solid Rapid HG claim from what I can see: Ryan Kawulok, Sr. D, Portland - Fort Collins, CO Brendan Roslund, Jr. GK, USF - Denver, CO Patrick Slogic, So. D, Cornell (6'6"!) - Colorado Springs, CO James Rogers, Fr. F, New Mexico - Fort Collins, CO (Also played for RSL's Academy) Incoming Freshman (Solid Rapid HG Claim): Dillon Serna M (Winger) - Denver, CO- just Committed to Akron for 2012 season (rated #11 overall USA- 2012 grads) Shane O'Neill D - Boulder, CO undecided (MVP West All American Game) Karsten Hanin M (Central) - Centennial, CO undecided Can't find anything on Denver club he played for: Tesho Akindele, So. F, Colorado School of Mines - Thornton, CO Local talent, do not seem to meet HG rules: Taylor Kemp, Jr. D, Maryland - Highlands Ranch, CO Paolo DelPiccolo, Jr. M, Louisville - Wheat Ridge, CO Levi Rossi, Jr. F/M, New Mexico - Denver, CO Kyle Venter, So. D, New Mexico - Denver, CO Zac Portillos, So. M, Akron - Aurora, CO Rapids HG claim rejected: Robbie Derschang, So. M, Southern Methodist - Englewood, CO
He played for Storm, which is part of the Rapids Adidas Alliance. He did play some games for the Rapids U17 team. From the former Rapids Undercurrent: http://rapidsundercurrent.blogspot.com/2009/07/2009-sum-u17-cup-is-underway.html DAY 2 Colorado Rapids 3-4 Chicago Fire: In a back in forth game that came down to the last couple of possessions, the Fire, led by Patrick Mullins’ hat trick, earned a much needed three points. Chicago’s Matt Lalonde opened the scoring in the 20th minute to give the Fire a 1-0 lead; but Colorado would strike back. Rapid’s striker Curtis Stecyk ripped a shot into the back of the net in the 35th minute to tie the match just before the half. A high scoring half began when Mullins tallied his first goal in the 53rd minute and gave Chicago a 2-1 lead. But yet again, the Rapids had an answer. In the 64th minute, after a full field sprint, Luke Chapman was rewarded with his first goal of the tournament and all the sudden the game was tied again. Mullins would go on to score two more goals in a three minute period (67th and 70th minute) to deliver what he thought would be a sure Fire victory. But the Rapids showed great resilience once again. Tesho Akindele scored in the 75th minute and gave the Rapids a chance. As the final whistle drew near, the Rapids, similarly to yesterday, created a couple great scoring chances, but were unable to connect
Thanks 30 Something, so here we go: In Alliance with Rapids Academy: Colorado Storm Colorado Fusion Colorado Edge Downtown Las Vegas Soccer Club (Nevada) Rainbow Youth Soccer League (Also in Vegas) New Mexico youth clubs (I have heard of NM Rush) also would make a ton of sense, they should work on that. Will have to research if any highly regarded players have come through Vegas Org's. Solid Rapid HG claim from what I can see: Ryan Kawulok, Sr. D, Portland - Fort Collins, CO Brendan Roslund, Jr. GK, USF - Denver, CO Patrick Slogic, So. D, Cornell (6'6"!) - Colorado Springs, CO Tesho Akindele, So. F, Colorado School of Mines - Thornton, CO James Rogers, Fr. F, New Mexico - Fort Collins, CO (Also played for RSL's Academy) Incoming Freshman (Solid Rapid HG Claim): Dillon Serna M (Winger) - Denver, CO- just Committed to Akron for 2012 season (rated #11 overall USA- 2012 grads) Shane O'Neill D - Boulder, CO undecided (MVP West All American Game) Karsten Hanin M (Central) - Centennial, CO undecided Local talent, do not seem to meet HG rules: Taylor Kemp, Jr. D, Maryland - Highlands Ranch, CO Paolo DelPiccolo, Jr. M, Louisville - Wheat Ridge, CO Levi Rossi, Jr. F/M, New Mexico - Denver, CO Kyle Venter, So. D, New Mexico - Denver, CO Zac Portillos, So. M, Akron - Aurora, CO Rapids HG claim rejected: Robbie Derschang, So. M, Southern Methodist - Englewood, CO
Does "in alliance" mean that playing for those clubs counts towards the one yr term of playing in a team's academy? If so, I agree w/the Goal.com writer that this is yet another area where MLS needs to define their rules and make the process more transparent. It came up (again? I don't follow this aspect of MLS too closely) after the Galaxy made their recent home-grown signing. If all you have to do is funnel a little money and make an alliance with every area club, then in the end it seems MLS would not have done much to change soccer training in the US (which I thought was the point of MLS academies), but would have changed the ways teams acquire players, and in favor of the larger/denser population areas.
"T" Dia was a standout at Mountain Vista H.S., state 5A runners up in 2010. He is a great player and goal scorer, but having seen both in person (assistant coach against their teams) I always rated Davy Armstrong (current Rapid player) as a better player than "T", but he had a great freshman season at Clemson and got called up to US U-20 team, so big props to him. Our U-17 and U-20 teams really have an international feel to them now, with more Mexican-American, German-American, English-American, and African-American players than ever before. Seems like a theme under Klinsmann so far.
That is for sure they need to define rule more. I am embarrassed to say I got Alliance straight from Rapids site (Never noticed in there before) under Youth after googling Rapids Academy, that is where list is. From way its written sounds like we can claim HG for any player from the list of clubs. Rapids must cover all expenses (except uniform from what I read), making it "free" and they must do minimum of 1 year. However, there is final mystery of "also meet league Criteria". RSL actual has the only "residence" academy and drawing flak from bringing kids from all over, including highly rated Canadians into fold. They had rejected 2 claims on guys in this years draft rated as top 5 midfielders. That being said Chicago just signed a kid to a HG deal, from southern US via this same "Alliance" tactic. ESPN College article on possible effect of NCAA Eliminating Spring soccer: The academy teams take in promising players usually around the time they are starting high school, and most cover all their training/traveling/competing costs. Although the players are not otherwise compensated -- thus maintaining their college eligibility From MLS website: (F) HOME GROWN PLAYER SIGNINGS A club may sign a player to his first professional contract without subjecting him to the MLS SuperDraft if the player has trained for at least one year in the club’s youth development program and has met League criteria. Players joining MLS through this mechanism are known as Home Grown Players. There is no limit to the number of Home Grown Players a club may sign in a given year.
We do not, Real Colorado is separate entity with US Soccer and still independent from Rapids Academy. see list of local talent and they also played with Real Colorado, thus not going to get HG attachment.