DC's Youth program

[mellon002]

OK, how does this work? With the signing of Harkes I was just wondering because I don't know much about it. If a player plays for a DC youth team, can DC call him to their roster at any time? Are his rights owned by DC United? If so, then wouldn't this mean that a draft is pointless? Does anyone know how it works?

[mellon002]

http://www.dcunited.com/index.cfm?section=main&cont_id=230225

In his new position, Harkes will oversee the launch of D.C. United's Soccer Academy and direct all aspects of United’s current youth teams that compete in the Y-league.

Do we even have a youth program yet? Does anybody know?

[Lowecifer]

There are a number of affiliated youth teams in existence that compete in, among others, the Super-Y league.

Here's an old article from DCUnited.com that talks about them.
http://www.dcunited.com/index.cfm?section=team&cont_id=94137

[mellon002]

But I still don't understand where they find the players and if they are under contract with DC United. What is the Super-Y league?

[GoDC]

www.superyleague.com

The players are not under contract to DC United. United fields boys and girls team. Most of these players play for the top Select Teams in the area and the DC United teams are kind of like All Star teams. Open tryouts are held to pick the teams. It appears that most of these teams play 10-15 games in the summer and then have the Super Y tournament after that. I am not sure how quickly they plan to expand these schedules.

[ButlerBob]

Actually more and more of the teams playing in the Y-League are regular clubs and this is just another competition for them. For exampl FC Delco, Chicago Sockers, Chicago Magic are USYSA teams that compete in the Y-League. They way they do most of their schedule is more like mini tournaments. Over a weekend, 3 - 4 teams from the same division/region will come to one site and play several games over the weekend. They have also moved their championship to the winter so that they don't lose players to HS teams.

It's interesting that USYSA is feeling some heat from the Y-League. They have started their own super summer league program for the bigger youth clubs.

The Chicago Fire started their youth program as an acedamy where players could come for additional training. They last year two clubs in Wheaton IL , merged and became the Chicago Fire Juniors. They are sponsored by the Fire and some of the players and staff are involved in coaching the teams. I'm not sure if they will be in the Y-League. Below is link on what the Fire is doing.

http://www.chicago-fire.com/youth/fire_juniors.asp

[mellon002]

So to summarize, because no one is under contract, DC's youth teams are like a big tryout for younger talent, allowing DC to scout them?

[Lowecifer]

New press release (http://www.dcunited.com/index.cfm?section=main&cont_id=232051) regarding youth teams for 2004.

[rocketeer22]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7209-2004Feb25.html

[Saltenya94]

Good catch - hopefully this is a good sign of things to come. I especially dig that name Spencer Darman Allen... hope to see him in a DCU unifrom some day being a dc native and all....

now if it could only be a year long-academy

[mellon002]

There was a mention in the article when Harkes was introduced that he would oversee the launch of a youth academy.

So I guess the youth league has no relation to the team except that they wear the DCU jerseys.

[JohnR]

Originally posted by mellon002
So to summarize, because no one is under contract, DC's youth teams are like a big tryout for younger talent, allowing DC to scout them?

Yeah, sort of, except that -

1) DC could have scouted them anyway, since the top players in the DC area are no secret

2) Any real prospect would go into the MLS draft anyway

Fire faces the same question, which is, "What is the purpose of a youth development program when you don't have signing rights to the trainees?"

The MLS clubs are a long ways from figuring out what to do with youth development. They're all in their early stages, trying to reconcile what the rest of the world does with U.S.-style economics.

[Bird]

Official Academy announcement (from MLSnet) with Harksie quotes. (http://www.mlsnet.com/content/04/dc0301academy.html)