San Jose Earthquakes Academy is on its way!

If you're gonna be in fresno and watching the reserves take on the Fresno Fuego, keep your eye out for some acadamy players.

 

What would the academy players be doing in Fresno with the President's Day Showcase going on in Morgan Hill?

 

something to shoot for... we need to make our academy bigger and better.

FCD swung and missed with their first few homegrown signings but lately it's been paying off in spades for them with london woodberry and kellyn acosta.

 

Frankly I don't think the FCD "youth system" is the ideal model to follow AT ALL. There is no reason to have so many teams (and for that matter any girl teams) if the guiding principle is to develop MLS-level professional players. What you want is 20-30 players per age group starting at U8 to make up A/B teams (and perhaps C/D teams at the youngest ages). Then build a strong development philosophy, get some top-notch practice facilities, eliminate pay-to-play fees, and hire the best coaches you can afford.

In FCD's case it looks to me like they are trying to cover their Academy expenses by milking their lower level players and teams. "Select" team fee is $2600/year and uniforms are $400 ... those are "fat profit" levels like the other big names. If anything, an MLS club should be subsidizing the cost of its youth program ... not making it into a profit center.

 

Thats u-17s, the U-18s don't participate in the GA Cup. To the best of my knowledge...

 

Yeah but all academy players are encouraged to be there and lend their support (the U15s on down also have scrimmages in Morgan Hill on Saturday).

 

Hmmm play with the 1st team reserves, or "support" the u17s... I talked to one of the u18 kids on twitter and he said he will be in Fresno.

 

http://instagram.com/p/kYZsdpk23q/#

http://instagram.com/p/kYYK4Tk21r/#

 

They got no rhythm but they sure have soul

 

That was their first try ... hopefully it will get better!

 

If you cant make it to Fresno, check out the academy kids in Morgan Hill. the big game is at 4. Timbers vs Quakes U17.
http://instagram.com/p/kcdFB0E2wN/

 

You heard it here first. Bashti and Marcinkowski will be homegrown players for us. I've been saying it for awhile.

 

Therefore, college is still their best option....
Bernardo Carabelli - Stetson University
Bryce Clark - Southern Methodist
Luke Dennison - Cal State University Chico
Rodrigo Gonzalez - Yavapai College
Alex Liua - UC Santa Barbara
Max Mirner - Saint Mary’s
Josh Morton - California
Dalton Pando - UC Santa Barbara
Dominic Scotti - Wake Forest
Josh Totte - Yale
Juan Velasquez - Iowa Western

 

It will still be the case for all but a select few prospects.

 

As I've believed all along.

 

The nice thing about the homegrown system is after their college careers are done if they look like MLS prospects we can still sign them as home growns.

 

Yeah I guess that is good but I do not foresee too many players skipping college to go pro. At least not unless a lot of money is offered which won't happen.

 

I think very few skipping it all together. I think a few more will play a year or two in college. We need a much stronger and robust relationship with a USL Pro team to really properly support a player coming right out of high school who isnt a super talent that can play and excel against MLS talent at 18.

 

USL-Pro ruins their college eligibility. That's why the Quakes PDL team is key.

 

The options after U-18 basically are
1) College and PDL
or
2) USL
IMO when the USL gets stronger/better we will see the majority of kids go from U-18 -> USL -> MLS.