| New Roster for U17 National Team and Bradenton Residency |
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| on 30 Dec 2006 | |
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Article from Top Drawer Soccer.com
Changes in program, ramped-up schedule, new roster coming in at U17 National Team and Bradenton Residency by Robert Ziegler 7/23/2006 With the first year of the latest Bradenton Residency cycle at IMG Academy complete, U17 National Team coach John Hackworth and his staff are busy finalizing the 40-man roster for the upcoming fall semester. The group has had a pair of training camps this summer and in all, is continuing the practice Hackworth instituted of giving more and longer looks to more players eligible for inclusion. While the scouting, training, evaluating and decision-making about the roster is exacting enough, it comes this summer in conjunction with the implementation of some subtle but significant changes in the Residency program. These changes reflect the staff’s evaluation of and the overall goals the U.S. Soccer Federation has for the Residency program. The most noticeable change is a considerably-juiced up schedule as the team accelerates preparations for the CONCACAF Qualifying tournament (in March) for the FIFA U17 World Cup (August or September in South Korea). Slight shift in program emphasis means more soccer But perhaps a more noteworthy adjustment is a slight drawing back of the academic schedule for players in Bradenton, replacing a fast-track courseload with a more standard pace, while in turn maximizing the soccer experience in terms of schedule and program for the squad. “We’re always trying to improve our player development programs. In this country we have a unique soccer culture and a unique interface between soccer and everyday life,” Hackworth said. “There is an underlying thought that you have to do everything and please everybody, but through these minor changes to our schedule, we want to better focus our players’ time and energy more to the development of their soccer skills.” With players taking 6 courses per day rather than the previous 8, some flexibility is built into the daily schedule. Hackworth noted that in slowing down the rate of coursework taken at the school attended by the players, there is an expectation of improving the quality of education given the boys at Residency (an education that has already been placing previous graduates in high-level universities around the country). “We’ve changed our daily schedule so the focus will be on soccer in the morning before anything else – and we’ve switched the school to the afternoon,” Hackworth explained. “So they’ll go back to the normal workload in academics, where for the past few years they’ve been taking 2 extra courses per semester. “This way the kids will come in a little fresher, not having gone through 8 classes in school before soccer. Also, by scaling back to an advanced curriculum, it gives them the opportunity to do extra sessions in the afternoon or have personal time to do their own training.” The previous schedule forced the squad to go through the IMG Academy’s state of the art IPI (strength, agility and conditioning) program beginning at 5:45 a.m., then have breakfast, go to school and rush back for training, then back to a study hall. With the change the team will get exclusive supervision for their IPI program, and also start a bit later in the morning. While the changes are likely to give the team a boost as they ramp up preparations for the CONCACAF tournament, Hackworth emphasized that they are made with much larger picture in mind. “As a staff we have been asking ourselves ‘what is the best way to concentrate and maximize our training efforts in terms of each player’s development,’” he said. “Every pro club around the world usually trains in morning, and there’s a reason for that. We constantly say we are in a professional environment, well we believe this will be a more professional way to get more out of the kids per day, vs. sending them to school for 7 hours and then racing to get on the practice field. It’s a shift in our philosophy but one we think can pay big dividends in the future.” Hackworth said the program is still designed as a 2-year residency, but noted there have been exceptions to this in recent years. Players who show potential and a desire for professional opportunities might be more likely to stay for a 3rd year as the program progresses. The opportunity for players to advance to college and college soccer will not be diminished. Additionally, some players in the future may be more likely to return home for a final year of high school, but not at this point. “In the future that could happen, but for this year nothing will change,” Hackworth said . “What other opportunities they have will depend on where they are as soccer players. We have to assess whether going to pro soccer or college at a very young age is the best thing for each person. We have to deal with that on a case-by-case basis. U.S. Soccer is looking very strongly at post-residency opportunities, and I know other organizations are doing the same thing. Ultimately we are trying to push forward in soccer and elsewhere, and we want to make sure we get it right. In providing college and professional opportunities I think we’ve done an exceptional job to this point, but at same time we have to ask, can we give these individuals not just the opportunity, but a better chance to succeed down the road.” On the field, Hackworth said one of the things the staff is most enthusiastic about is the chance for players to do some additional technical work on their own. “Players now have the opportunity, and we believe strongly in this, to improve when the coaches aren’t around,” he said. “We’ll still have technical training, but a lot of a player’s development has to do with how much individual time a guy can spend with a ball. In the past they’ve not had that opportunity here. This will also open up some time that a coach can spend 1v1 with a player. We’re not going to mandate that, but our whole reasoning on this is it puts focus on more ways for the guys to improve. That can’t all be done in team practice. Right now we have kids with very good technique at striking the ball, but maybe aren’t as skilled in terms of control or dribbling. Others may be just the opposite, so this will allow them to work on those areas they need most, along with our regular team training.” Hackworth added that the revisions to the program are consistent with the methods advocated by US Soccer staff coach Bob Jenkins and others in producing the Best Practices coaching education document. Busy schedule ahead While these changes have far-reaching implications, players will likely be more affected in the short term by the busy schedule in store for them this fall. Since his hiring, Hackworth has preached the need for more meaningful matches in the team’s schedule, and it would be hard for him to argue he hasn’t gotten that for the next 6 months. A squad of players will be traveling to Japan for a tournament in August, including matches against Japan and the Czech Republic, followed by a qualification match. After school and training resume in Bradenton August 21, a squad of players fly to England at the beginning of September to play in the Pepsi Invitational, with matches slated against England, Portugal and Turkey. The group then proceeds to Portland to play in a tournament hosted at the Nike campus, with Brazil, Mexico and Portugal’s U17 teams scheduled to compete. The group will also embark on an October trip to Argentina, training and competing with some high-profile clubs, as well as playing 3 more international matches against South American sides, including Argentina. While part of the squad are engaged with the overseas trips, the rest will be in Bradenton with coaches, getting acclimated to the program and school, and playing in matches of their own. The team will host some international friendlies against CONCACAF competition in November, and then host the annual Nike Friendlies competition with top U.S. clubs the first week of December. “We’ve focused a lot of attention to play highest competition we can, especially international play outside of the CONCACAF region,” he said. “So that dramatically cuts back on college or youth club games, as well as regional ODP games. Those international matches provide us competition at our age level, and we don’t want to cram more games in beyond that. We don’t want to overload but find a balance of training 5 days a week and competing once, on the average.” Fall roster nearly complete While the programming and scheduling are no doubt vitally important issues, it’s the roster decisions that garner the focus of numerous families of players from the 1990 and 1991 birth years. U.S. Soccer will release an official roster sometime in August, but a number of decisions have already been made, with a few more question marks remaining to be cleared up via the upcoming Japan trip. Hackworth acknowledged the ongoing dilemma continues to exist between choosing players who might help in the qualifying tournament and world cup event, and spreading out Residency berths for players in the even and odd age groups, even for players in the 91 group who might be at a physical disadvantage due to varying growth and maturity rates for the 15-year olds. “There’s no question it’s a difficult process. Right now our primary focus has to be on the 90s and the 91s we feel can compete for a position in our team as we go into the 2nd year,” he said. “That’s not to say we won’t secondarily bring in some players to Residency who deserve the opportunity to develop in that program, but there’s going to be a difference between guys who are fighting for a spot and guys who we will bring in for a 2-year cycle in our development program. That means our numbers are going to be heavy on the 90 side. “The pool is quite large. The great news about that is we are giving a lot of players an opportunity to prove themselves at this level,” he continued. “I think it will help everybody, guys who make it and guys who don’t. They all should learn a lot of lessons and will be more motivated to push themselves.” We refrain from public tea-leaf reading when it comes to figuring out who will be there and who won’t, but it should be approximately 20 new faces on the Residency roster, considering the number of 88s and 89s who have graduated, and 90s who will not be returning for the fall semester. |
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