No. The Union's Academy is actually free. The Prep School is a private entity. The majority of the students at YSC Academy receive financial aid to attend.
Average age (weighted by minutes) of each team's field players in 2017. Take heart, Rapids fans! pic.twitter.com/wLFsHVrDFu— Kevin Minkus (@kevinminkus) November 8, 2017 #YouthMovement
Positive thinking for a change of pace: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports...rld-cup-national-team-tab-ramos-20180105.html Still way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much of "the academy will save us" narrative.
965315095223062529 is not a valid tweet id If it wasn't for injury would the youth even be getting a shot to crack the starting XI? Maybe Trusty could beat out Marquez at this point, but not sure he'd have gotten a shot without Richie picking up a knock. God knows the CAMs would have been backing up Ilsinhio.... there was a narrative that Real was legitimately competing with Fabi at left back, but I don't buy it and seems like his knock may totally rule that out now. It still remains to be seen if Quasi-homegrown Rosenberry can get an edge over Ray Gaddis.
Trusty McKenzie Fontana Real all in the Home Grown Game during all-star week. Hopefully the CBs are back in time for the Timbers game.
Reading will face Calgary in the PDL final on Saturday. Any idea on how many key players on Reading are legit Union academy prospects? I know they have outsourced a lot of players in the past.
The game day program lists 18 out of 54 eligible players as "member of Union Academy". For last night's game 5 of the 18 were academy guys From what I've seen, their best 3 or 4 guys are not union affiliated.
Good interview with Richie Graham about YSC Academy: https://theathletic.com/456830/2018...ons-2018-homegrown-surge-only-the-first-step/ Yes, I realize it's the Athletic, and it has a pay wall. Seriously it's worth the $60/yr, most folks spend more than that at Starbucks each month. There's tons of great writers and stories on this site/app for all teams (76ers, Eagles, Phillies, Flyers, Union, and loads of others).
Pretty good read. Will the model be "sustainable"? maybe... but will that sustainability also lead to first team success? That is where I have my doubts. A winning team with 3 key contributors from the academy, that I can see... a championship team with 8 key contributors from the academy team? (which is the vibe I get in terms of what the team is thinking) That seems like more of stretch. Either way I like what they are doing and I'd like to see even more investment... go big baby... start up a D3 team as an additional landing spot for kids out of the academy. Build dorms. expand enrollment and higher more teachers to keep class size down. fully fund all student tuition. Would love to see stuff like that. I'd love to see a D3 team of 100% academy signings/players... D2 Steel team as a mix of top performing D3 players/Union Reserves/outside players with potential. Then only the best of the best will qualify for the Union first team.
I keep thinking about it, but the only team I follow in town is the Union, so I haven't been able to justify it...
this may need to be fact checked, but I read recently that 5 of the top mls academy prospects left for Germany when they turned 18, on free transfers. Interesting...