Friedel's Premier Soccer Academies has begun to name its first class of players: Romain Gall 1995 4'11" 88 lbs Midfield/Forward Victor Garza 1992 5’6” 130 lbs Midfield/Forward Joseph-Claude Gyau 1992 5’5” 130 lbs Midfield/Forward Justin Luthy 1991 6’0” 155 lbs Goalkeeper Andrian McAdams 1992 5'9" 145 lbs Goalkeeper Roi Bogning Momo 1993 5’2” 105 lbs Midfield Wil Trapp 1993 5'4" 120 lbs Center Mid Theodore “Sachem” Wilson 1994 5’2” 96 lbs Midfield/Forward All are from the U.S. Gyau's name stands out as the son of a former U.S. Nat who has trained with Chelsea and Stuttgart and played with national youth teams. Link (with some mini-bios): http://premiersocceracademies.com/Academy.html Also found an article on McAdams: Andrian McAdams, 15, a goalkeeper, is among the first 15 student-athletes recruited to join the year-round academy located on Leavitt Road in Lorain. He is currently a member of Cleveland United, a premier soccer team. In January, McAdams was part of a PSA team that competed in a tournament in Bolivia. ... The inaugural class is anticipated to have 24 players. Link: http://www.morningjournal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18299379&BRD=1699&PAG=461&dept_id=46371&rfi=6
Not a defender in the bunch...interesting. Also interesting is the size (or lack thereof) of some of those kids. They ain't dominating their peers physically!
I had a friend in grad school that played for the Jamaican Youth Nat's before he blew out his knee. He said that when a new coach, German I think, took over coaching the youth program he asked everyone to raise their hands who were defenders. He then told them the could all leave. I think the thing about defenders is that if you don't have a good coach during youth development, then your ball skills aren't up to snuff. Look at where some of our defenders used to play during their youth, as strikers (Spector, Onyewu, Bocanegra, etc.). At this age it might be easier training someone to play a new position than to try and improve their basic skills.
No relation on the Garzas. William Trapp is on the U14 MNT and is a VERY impressive-looking soccer player. Manny Schellscheidt singled him out during the camp they had at Thanksgiving, just an excellent soccer brain, and good feet too. I was given a tour of the faciility before I left the country and will be writing about it all next week.
This will be a very interesting experiment. I know many people on Big Soccer are looking to professional clubs to lead the youth revolution by identifying and providing training and unique game opportunities. This direction, however, I believe fits more into the American style of upbringing. The school seems very similar to any prep or military school setup, where growth of the individual as a student and citizen is as important as the specific additional training they receive by being at the academy. I believe this paradigm fits the educational mindset of US parents better than the straight soccer academy with a professional club. As a separate instituion, Brad Friedel's academy can truly put the student-athletes' interest above the club. I worry about soccer academies run by MLS teams rushing player development (i.e. pressuring young players with we need you to play now...lose college elligibility) for own agenda. With that said, I believe MLS teams could become major sponsors with these academies and have first choice of the player if they enter MLS. . Under this developmental system, I would like to see four or five more academies developed with locations spread accross the country (i.e. the Kasey Keller Academy in Seattle or the Tony Meola Academy in New York City Area). Each academy does not need to be sposored by an individual MLS team, but rather jointly supported by teams (i.e. Columbus and CHicago for Brad's). A key point I really like about Brad Friedel's Academy, and would want to see replicated at other schools, is the inclusion of foreign exchange students. The exposure of soccer skills from around the world in everyday training can only aid in the development -- technically, tactically, and psychologically -- of US players. THE KEY POINT of my rant is that Brad Friedel's Academy is the best model I have seen so far in combining the US mindset on education and childhood growth with the need to experience daily professional soccer training.
These names keep popping up. I guess we all know about Trapp and Gyau, plus probably Gall and Garza; Luthy played college ball and is in the PDL this summer. McAdams will be a senior at Ohio State in the fall. It looks like he's lined up to be the backup to classmate who started most of the matches this year. Wilson will be a junior at Liberty. As might have been expected, he has grown about a foot in the last seven years. This came up because I came across a fellow named Prince Lapnet (French-born, US-raised) with a club in Finland and when I was trying to find out more about his career I learned Momo was his brother. Momo was playing high-level amateur soccer last year. @GersMan, you're missed around here.
Collin Martin spent 2007 there as well. http://www.socceramerica.com/article/45735/collin-martin-youngest-u-20-callup.html