FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – In an effort to align themselves with the international academy structure, the U.S. Soccer Development Academy has adjusted their age groupings ahead of the upcoming fall season.
As part of the restructuring, the New England Revolution Academy will now feature five teams at the Under-13, Under-14, Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19 age groups. This is a notable change (and expansion) from the previous age groupings of Under-18, Under-16, Under-14 and Under-13.
According to Bryan Scales, the Revolution’s Director of Youth Development, this shift will provide the greatest benefit for players in the younger age groups, who can continue to grow both physically and mentally while playing alongside teammates and opponents of the same age.
“These kids are still developing in every single aspect of their game; size, cognitive ability, technical ability. They’re growing at all different rates,” Scales said. “You have single-age birth years where they can move from one age group to the next age group.”
Then, as the players mature, they’re tested against bigger and better competition at the U17 and U19 levels, where players of different ages start to merge. Meanwhile, coaches will still have the option to bump younger players up to an older age group if they believe it’s the right move for their development.
“By the time they get to the U17s and U19s, now the best guys will stick, and the players who aren’t the best guys won’t stick,” Scales said. “You start to whittle it down. Your pyramid gets tighter.”
Parallel to the restructuring the Revs have made a pair of additions to their Academy staff, bringing on Josh Neff to coach the Under-14 side and Patrick Ouckama to lead the Under-15s.
Neff has worked in Major League Soccer with both the Chicago Fire Academy and first team, while he has additional experience with the Chicago Red Stars (NWSL) and Spanish club Levante UD. Ouckama was most recently the head coach at Ithaca College, where he spent two years with the Bombers.
Both Neff and Ouckama have received their “A” coaching licenses from the U.S. Soccer Federation.
“It restructures and adds two more full-time coaches, experienced guys,” said Scales. “They’re really good with young players, helping to develop them. They have the right temperament, the right demeanor. It’ll be a real help for us, so we have a good structure.”
Scales sees the expanding coaching staff as just one piece of a rapidly growing academy system, which he says has progressed enormously in terms of coaching education, minimum standards and facilities within the past five years.
“The league in general is now spending more than 40 million dollars a year in youth development,” Scales said. “It’s expanding quickly. This is all part of that initiative to really push and develop the next guy.”
Brito, Vang both honored as “Best XI” selections for their age groups
Joe Brito (Bolton, Conn.) and Kevin Vang (Cranston, R.I.) were both recently honored for their stellar 2016-17 academy seasons, named to the U.S. Soccer Development Academy’s Eastern Conference “Best XI” at the Under-18 and Under-16 age groups, respectively.
Brito led all Revolution Academy players with 16 goals in 25 appearances, while Vang was the Academy’s assist leader with 13 helpers while largely playing up with the Under-18s.
Both names will be familiar to Revolution fans, as the duo spent a portion of preseason training with the first team in Tucson, Arizona, during the annual Desert Diamond Cup. Brito made a pair of appearances in the tournament, featuring against the Houston Dynamo and Colorado Rapids.
Scales believes those experiences in February – and continued opportunities to train with the first team throughout the year – were critical in pushing Brito and Vang to test their limits.
“It’s a game changer for their development,” Scales said. “It’s the confidence, their ability to play fast, the mentality for them to be able to play under pressure and want the ball.
“It was fun to watch them play this year. They were important guys for us. Hopefully there’ll be a few more here coming down the pike.”
