There is nothing high-level available for this group of players during their off-seasons. That hurts, and it must be fixed!
During the holidays we held a 4 day camp for them.
It was a pilot program really, as we have never done such a thing, but I was pleased with the turnout.
Here’s the list of attendees and some status:
- Jose Gomez (Creighton’s #10 and currently training with Espanyol de Barcelona, Spain)
- Jonathan Prieto (reporting Jan 18 to Seattle Sounders for preseason)
- Bryan de la Fuente (Chivas USA)
- Carlos Alvarez (UCONN)
- Orr Barouch (Chicago Fire)
- Jacob Barron (Penn State)
- Victor Sanchez (Racing Club de Montevideo)
- Carlos Hernandez (Santa Ana JC)
- Ernesto Hinojosa (Cal State Bakersfield)
- Everett Pitts (UC Irvine)
- Cesar Zamora (Chivas USA – waived)
- Jose Altamirano (San Diego State, former U20 NT)
- Abraham Villon (San Diego State)
- Richard Menjivar (Cal State Bakersfield, Seattle Sounder combine invite)
- Andy Contreras (Rio Hondo College)
- Danny Rogers (Barcelona Academy youth coach)
- Tomislav Colic (La Blues, Anaheim Bolts)
- Miguel Sanchez (Anaheim Bolts)
- Shion Jahangiri ()
- Marco Franco (UC Irvine)
- Oscar Aguero (Cal State Fullerton)
- Christian Ramirez (Concordia University)
- Tarek Morad (UC Irvine)
- Alex Fitchen ()
- Ruben Gonzalez (German 4th division, former U20 NT)
- Nick Shackelford (Saint Louis University)
- William Lopez ()
Now that we’ve validated there are players at this level that are both interested and committed, it’s going to be full steam ahead with this effort.
wow! quite the impressive list! some more details about this camp would be great.
Thanks Kevin. What would you like to know?
What else have you heard about Jose Gomez? Was the MLS not interested in offering him a combine invite or why did he jump to Europe right away? He is an incredible player, so what is the likelihood he gets some playing time with Espanyol?
Well, Choco is a Junior.
And the MLS combine is typically for Seniors and GA players.
He’s in Europe primarily for training and so our contacts can get a good look at him.
His transition to the pro level is almost certainly next year.
Hola, you guys gotta let me know when you do stuff like this. I am always up to be around when you guys do your training. Oh yeah, you forgot to mention Andrew May in your list!
Haha. We just didn’t know how successful this would be. Now that it’s known, we’ll be giving everybody a heads up with ample time and specific dates.
No worries, just put me on your “test/beta” list, not looking to get in any photos, just being a life learner.
What made you want to give this a shot? Why do you think so many top players wanted to come, was it simply to play at a good level in their off time or do you feel it was something done specifically at your camp, such as the set up or the methodology, or the potential of pro contacts etc. Also, I’d just be interested to hear what the format was, the basic schedule, some of the things you did with them. Also, what was the feedback like, and anything you or the players might have learned from the camp. It sounds like it was a great camp with top players (and of course top coaching!!) haha so really any information, advice, words of wisdom etc. would be great to hear.
I’ll answer everything. But right now only this one:
“What made you want to give this a shot?”
A ton of reasons:
1) We’re obsessed.
2) Players with real potential need something like this (in an expanded form of course, not a dinky 4-day camp). And that’s where we eventually want to get to … 2,3,4,5 training sessions a week for the extent of off-season windows, and set up competitive games.
3) We want to be part of the solution and not just talk.
4) We aspire to the highest levels, and I don’t believe we’re amenable to the traditional means of getting there. This is just one piece of forging our own path.
5) We’re far more interested in working with the men’s game than the youth. It’s been a couple years since our U19s left us. Since then it’s been U10 & U11. This U23 camp gave us a temporary drug fix.
6) Learning. For instance, what nuances might there be in the mens game at the higher levels we may not be understanding. For years we were told by our colleagues that the men’s game is different and that we were able to play “the right way” because we were at the youth level. I always knew they were wrong (Akron proved it), but we want to do it ourselves. Let me tell you this camp only reinforced our position. Aside from that, there are other subtleties we want to get first hand exposure to.
There’s more, but my laptop battery is running low 🙂
“Why so many players came?”
A number of reasons:
1) A handful of them were our youth players.
2) A number of others were our opponents at the youth level, so they’ve seen our product.
3) Others came to know us through the blog.
4) All were made aware of who committed to attending, so that made them feel it was legit and of high level.
In all, these guys – as I’m sure many others – just want the opportunity to get together with like-minded quality players and play. It’s something that nobody really organizes. It’s great that there’s something like PDL coming up, but that’s not an option for professionals. And for the quality college guys, PDL is a hodgepodge of quality players mixed in with junk. The quality guys would rather be surrounded with others who “get it”. They want to be around others who are both humble and have flavor to their play. This felt like a retreat/escape for these guys. I think that’s part of what many were seeking, and that’s what they got.
Also, who is this Danny Rogers that’s a youth coach at Barcelona? is he an young American coach that is at La Masia? That’d be great to have an American coach and an American player in the best youth system on the planet! Any chance of doing an interview with him or something?
What about taking this group into PDL and coaching them in it over the summer?
This is a funny group of players. Did you invite them? I am guessing it was free,(which was nice). What are the options in the professional soccer world? Real options!
I’m new to your blog but where are you located? I wish we had something like this in souther Michigan… Also, what team is it that you coach? I keep seeing references to them but no name or anything