Crew Academy Players

The argument is their talent base is smaller.

I'm not sure why Colorado doesn't get more territory though.

 

Because there is not enough talent in Utah and lots in AZ. And there is very little talent in OK so who cares. Crew would have been smart to get KY and IN over to Indianapolis.

 

Oh and Fire now have affiliates in Indiana and KY. I think I may have seen something in Michigan now too.

 

Chicago has had the Michigan Fire Juniors in the Grand Rapids area for a couple of years. Basically the same territory as the ex-Grand Rapids Crew Juniors (now Midwest United FC).

 

Hey guys, I figured you may be the best people to answer this question. I met someone who is related to Charlie Reymann the outside back at Kentucky and I found out he is a Columbus academy kid. What are your impressions of him? Any good?

He starts pretty consistently for an OK Kentucky team, but didn't know if there are impressions of him being any good for pro ball (NASL or USL)

 

Andrew King ‏@AndrewKingMLS 1m1 minute ago
#CrewSC undergoing a fairly large academy overhaul. More details this afternoon.

Patrick Guldan ‏@GuldanMR 18m18 minutes ago
#CrewSC announced that @MichaelFMilazzo and @Nico_Estevez_ will work together under Gregg Berhalter to implement the new Academy vision.

Adam Jardy ‏@AdamJardy 4m4 minutes ago
Among news: Michael Milazzo named #crewsc academy director.

Patrick Guldan ‏@GuldanMR 6m6 minutes ago
Keeping the Berhalter Evolution in mind, I think USL is part of the plan, but at the right time. Manage the rate of change.

 

http://www.columbuscrewsc.com/news/2015/10/crew-sc-unveils-revamped-academy

With an eye on extending the club’s new soccer philosophy to Ohio’s most promising boys' soccer players, Columbus Crew SC today announced the creation of the new Crew SC Academy, as well as the hiring of several new Academy staff members.

Columbus Crew SC’s soccer philosophy – first implemented last season with the Crew SC First Team – prioritizes a proactive style of play, player-first culture and focus on individual development. The expansion of the club’s soccer philosophy into the Academy program is the next step in the evolution of the soccer identity of Columbus Crew SC. Under the direction of Sporting Director and Head Coach Gregg Berhalter, all Crew SC Academy teams will feature the same style of play and training methodology as the First Team as well as the club’s focus on a player-first culture off the field. The Crew SC Academy program features boys’ teams in three age groups (U-13/14, U-15/16 and U-17/18) that compete in the 10-month U.S. Soccer Development Academy and Generation adidas Cup, two of the most prestigious and selective youth soccer competitions in the country. The program is fully funded by Crew SC for the more than 60 players selected into the program and provides a direct pathway to signing a professional contract with the club.

 

Revolutionary!

Still awaiting an actual school/academy. That has to be one of the next steps. Get kids to live/eat/breathe Columbus Crew SC. Does that make sense for most kids? No, because most won't ever sniff the first team, let alone a USL team. But it's what is best for the club.

 

Complete overhaul indeed. Columbus Crew Academy is now Crew SC Academy. Next step, get rid of all yellow.

 

That article at the end is rubbish. I know of almost all the players mentioned at the end. Those players went to Crew on their own - I say that with certainty with at least 4 of them. One in particular clearly wasn't the top player on the former team mentioned. He does however have a relationship with a certain Crew leader's family which probably helped open the door for the opportunity - which he then seized. I will say I think there is starting to be more cooperation with other club leaders in town to some degree. I will also say that the training at some of those clubs mentioned is as good or arguably better than what Crew provides. Which is likely why GGG wants to buddy up with them...they are the ones actually doing development through the younger ages before the academy. Crew Jr. is not so hot in that area.

 

http://www.dispatch.com/content/blogs/covering-the-crew/2015/10/academy.html

 

To me, the biggest change here is at the lower age groups. It ends the fallacy that Crew Juniors was the way to progress through the youth ranks into the academy & into MLS. A lot of very talented kids left their local clubs to play for Crew Juniors and the Crew pre-academy, and were very disappointed. Long drives to practice, win-at-all costs mentality, and the overall quality of training / play was not very different than their local club.

Now it appears that the Crew is going to partner more closely with area clubs, thus acknowledging that there are many different ways to get to the Crew academy. Sounds like a good move. I'm guessing Crew Juniors will forge on, but will now be seen for what it is... just another local soccer club.

 

Win at all cost mentality? You weren't watching Academy or even pre-academy games.

 

Just bringing this back to talk about who we might sign as a home grown.

I can really only see Andrew Souders signing.

Alex Crognale has become a pretty solid center back for Maryland; named co-captain and 10 clean sheets. I assume they'll let him finish his senior year before bringing him in.

The same with Rylee Woods who I'm hoping Berhalter likes; not as fast as Afful but he serves a nice ball from the left. He lead Michigan in assists this season but again I assume he'll finish out his senior year before we bring him in.

Only non college guy that might be worth it is George Braima but I'm not sure how many spots Berhalter will want used up by development when we already have Swanson on the roster.

These are all CSA guys I'm getting less confident of signing a CSA Wolves guy until we actually do it.

That said Ahinga Selemani is a solid player and if CSA Wolves are home grown eligible I hope Berhalter is keeping his eye on him.

And just for fun with what's going on in the other threads right now:



No don't throw the tortillas!!!

Because I'm sure most of you are unaware, yeah that's just something that Gaucho fans do, it's their version of Detroit's octopus.

 

George Braima, I have seen him play and he's really good at 6'3 he big too, I thought he played the same position as Tony Tchani and I think CB.

I read he committed to OSU.

 

Yep I'd be fine with bringing him in projects to be a better version of Tchani in my eyes but do we really have room? I really would like a USL team.

 

Let's face it... in the last three years, we've seen a complete overhaul of the Academy leadership. First it was Bliss out, then both Thompson's were shuffled to the side and quietly ejected from the program. That left a lot of butthurt with a lot of parents who liked they way the Thompson's ran things.

I'm not saying that the changes won't be better down the road, but the last two years have been transitional in nature. I'm not convinced that Greggggg has the same loyalty to the academy players that we've seen in the past, and part of that may be due to who was running it. Now that he's got his guys in there, and they're supposed to be teaching his system, I'm hopeful that he has a keener eye to the talent available to be developed.

Like it or not, and for better or for worse, Greg has the keys to the kingdom, and it's sandbox to do with what he likes.

I'm hopeful, as mentioned above, that we have a "Crew II" USL side next year or the year after. Clearly, the Aztecs loan thing wasn't working for us very well.

 

This is the one area I've always wanted the beat reporter to dig into more. I understand it's not always the most interesting topic but it's what will make the club more or less competitive in the future depending on what we do with it.

I'm kind of wondering if we won't almost have some lost years; I sill argue Bliss was doing pretty decent work. I'm not sure we have a good group coming up behind the last of his guys. I feel like after the next two seasons we might have a bit of a lull in our home grown options. After Crognale and Woods and if you set aside Braima and Zawadzki (and with Zawadzki you're looking pretty far into the future) I'd say the best prospects for a while are from Michigan.

 

In my opinion (which is worth about $1.96) the academy seems to have taken a step backward. While results don't matter per se, they are not doing well at several of the age groups. They have effectively separated the academy from Crew Jrs. and taken the appearance of pyramid away. Now they seem to be looking to other clubs to do initial development and then bring those kids in at older ages. Will be interesting to see how that goes.

I believe Zawadaski is like 15 or 16 now so he is really not that far off - probably a soph in HS. Behind him, only one I have heard much about is GGG's kid who is 14 or 15 - but I understand that team is really struggling.

But I agree with other posters above, it would be really cool if they did a better job of updating the crew fans of what is hapenning in the academy and introducing some of the young stars. Probably won't happen though and that's probably OK. A 12-13 y.o. kid doesn't need that kind of spotlight and pressure.

 

Generally I agree with this but I'm taking a wait and see approach because it feels like it took awhile for Berhalter to get his changes in place; we'll see where it goes from here.

Yeah I didn't mean to act like he was an eight year old or something but I don't feel like we even have two or three good prospects per year coming up. It's pretty much hit or miss on one, maybe even as bad as getting lucky on a dark horse.

I in no way meant I wanted Dispatch Reporters to write a story on these kids every week but put some pressure on the adults running it by asking questions. What is working, what isn't working, what needs changed, and how will it change.

 

The Academy is still very, very young. The program did not begin until the 2007-2008. I'd say we've done ok so far: not amazing, but probably better than others.

1 star in Wil Trapp.
1 young guy with potential in Ben Swanson.
3 guys who are respectable MLS players: Chad Barson (2,834 minutes in 3 seasons; minutes have decreased every year but he's still here), Ben Speas (1,918 minutes in 4 seasons; likely to find work in MLS), and Matt Lampson (1,310 minutes in 4 seasons; good chance of making some MLS roster).
5 guys who were never really good enough but we gave them their first shot: Matt Wiet, Ross Friedman, Matt Walker, Kyle Hyland, and Aaron Horton.

We aren't going to be producing Wil Trapps very often. More than likely, we'll sign 1 guy/year who'll end up being here for one to four years as a backup. What we need to hope for is more guys who can actually start: not stars with national team prospects, but guys who can play 90 minutes every night and you don't have to worry about their quality. Barson is a fine player, but a bit athletically limited (not fast enough for a wingback, not big enough for a center back). Speas has done ok but just hasn't adapted to MLS play as well as we'd have all liked (no denying he has the talent). Lampson has done well and his release is a little bit of an odd one as he was making the minimum, played well when called upon, and was incredible in the community (I guess he may have requested a release to get more playing time or Gregg already has another keeper lined up).

 

Just to be clear when i say two or thee good prospects I mean guys that are reasonable camp invites not the next Trapp. This year we probably have Souders and Gregg might invite Braima we'll see. Next year we've got Crognale and Woods I really wouldn't be all the positive about anyone beyond that for a while and that's not even saying they'll make the cut. Yes it's young but I think you've got to measure yourself against LA and Dallas and in five years I think we might actually be father away not closing the gap. But again Berhalter has pretty much rebuilt everything from top to bottom so I'm certainly willing to give it time but as @Smithsoccer1721 and @catfish9 pointed out results aren't that important but as the only metric we have to go off of they aren't inspiring yet.

 

I think those parents were more pissed that their kid wasn't the star they thought he was, and they thought that because of the pipe dream of being pre-academy. When that went away, kids moved to other clubs that had teams that were fully funded. Some of those kids may have potential but I think most of the disappointment was from the younger age groups.