Well this is some good news. The Reign have now launched their girls academy for the 13-18 age range. Pretty exciting. Harvey is the Executive Director (does she have the time) and they are looking for a Technical Director as well as coaches. I can't help but think that ex-Reign products like Cox or even current players may use this as another source of income Seattle Reign FC launches Seattle Reign Academy with @SeattleUnited - ⚽️ Read more: https://t.co/7sqXZ49onj ☔️ pic.twitter.com/oZiCQSNWKt— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) January 15, 2016
This is a good move and hopefully something all NWSL clubs look into (I know some already have). If done right, Seattle could be churning out some future stars
Who won't necessarily play for the Reign because the NWSL does not have a homegrown player rule and likely won't until Portland (or maybe one of the other MLS teams) has a big star that came up in their system. (Boston's already missed out on a player because of this)
Snarky comments aside, it would be worth one or several of us doing some real research to see what each team with an "academy" really is doing. Is it simply partnering with a club? Is it simply partnering with a state soccer association? Is it actually providing coaching support to players? I have the feeling, hopefully wrong, that most (and maybe all) of the academies aren't really what a lot of us think of as pro academies.
From the press release it seems this is not just a partnership but a full blown academy that will be under the Seattle brand.
I don't think it's snarky. I think it's factual. Ok, well maybe it's a little snarky, but the snark really isn't intended towards Portland. Boston's GM stated that he wished the league had a homegrown player rule so they could keep MewTwo. How serious he was about this and how much he pushed for a rule change I don't know. Portland/Merritt, however, has shown the ability to get rules changed (and maybe at some point the other MLS teams will too). There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I'd say a lot of the changes that Portland has ushered in to the league have been positive changes. So what I'm really saying is that the league is unresponsive to team's needs until Portland speaks up and says something. And if Portland had had a player of MewTwo's calibre come through their youth system, you can very well be sure Merritt would've done something proactive about it.
Boston and Washington have extensive youth systems, as does Orlando. FCKC just absorbed one they've been heavily involved with, and Chicago also is heavily involved with one.
I didn't think anyone was being snarky towards Portland. We need details. Specifically, it would be good to separate the clubs' rhetoric with verified details about exactly how each team's "development" system works.
I guess, technically speaking, no team has a youth system as long as there is no homegrown player rule. But I was just using the term "system" as that's what I'm more used to saying than "academy."
Technically speaking, Boston and Washington have used players from their DII reserve teams - if you want to go deeper into the academies, the "systems" are still new enough that any of those players aren't NWSL age yet. And while not an official academy, Chicago has always had Eclipse player(s) on it.
Technical Director have been appointed. Comments welcome from those who knows her. Reign FC and @SeattleUnited name Tracey Kevins Seattle Reign Academy Technical Director: https://t.co/i9e6nrjEEg pic.twitter.com/3poUo99IFS— Seattle Reign FC (@reignfc) February 2, 2016
I think it's a good move from Seattle. She was with the LA Blues and before that the LA Strikers. So she's been involved in the youth environment for a while and worked with some of the top talent in the country.
This looks like a huge hire. Sounds like they had her targeted from the start, like Harvey has a really strong sense for how Kevins works. Really excited to see how this develops.
Prior interview with Tracey Kevins: http://www.examiner.com/article/la-...r-tracey-kevins-talks-soccer-success-and-nwsl
Tracey Kevins has been around a lot in England while at barnet and in the England youth set-up. Always well rated. She likes to have players running a lot in pre-season.
So three up votes so far. It is times like these that I wish Seattle had a functioning website so that we could keep up to date on the works of the academy.
True. https://medium.com/@ReignFC/seattle-reign-fc-careers-opportunities-bc0d87aeda98#.nu73ply4x In the above link, you can see that they are looking to hire a full-time content manager as well as a full-time graphic designer. Hopefully having a functioning website is in their plans.
I do not know much about the youth scene but what are the chances that the teams in the Reign academy will play in the soon to be launched (2017) ussf girl's DA? What are other alternatives in the Seattle area?
Sounds like the chances of at least some NWSL teams getting in on the DA are high: http://equalizersoccer.com/2016/02/23/u-s-soccer-to-launch-girls-development-academy/
Thanks. Which brings me to the home grown player rule. The last time Plush spoke about this he said this is not something they are discussing right now because it is not an immediate issue. With the league starting in 2017, I hope they start discussing it and do not wait for a scandal to happen before changing the rules. Also to add, developments like these warm my heart as one can't help but think it implies that NWSL should be around for the long haul. I mean it would be quite ironic to have a girls development academy if there is no pro league for them to play in.
Not to read too much into this but the Reign Academy TD Tracey Kevins just followed US Soccer Acad on twitter. So did the Breakers as well.
I had to go through two layers of social media accounts to get this link. Anyway the academy have hired a new coach. http://seattleunited.com/2016/03/seattle-united-seattle-reign-academy-adds-tim-reynolds-to-staff/