While the Kansas City Wizards senior team struggles to find the right mix, the Wizards Juniors are humming along.
Teams at the under-16, under-17 and under-19 levels won Kansas state titles the weekend of June 7 and will be off to compete in the regional tournament in Rockford, Ill. this weekend.
The under-16s and under-17s are coached by former Wizards striker Paul Rideout, and the U-19s are coached by recently appointed youth soccer director Jon Parry, a former indoor player with the Kansas City Comets and Attack, as well as Wizards technical director Peter Vermes.
Winning games is always nice, but it is not the goal of the Wizards Juniors.
"The No. 1 goal behind the whole program is getting the best players at those age groups together so that we are developing them, hopefully someday for the first team," said Vermes. "... [Winning] is not our end result. We're trying to develop these kids to be prepared some day to play at [the MLS] level, so sometimes you have to sacrifice results for that success. That's a big difference between us and a lot of the individual clubs. It's not an insulting statement, it's just the reality of what we can do based on what we have."
As the current teams continue their journeys, teams and plans for the future development of players are set. For the 2008-2009 season, there will be six Wizards Juniors teams: U-13, U-15, U-16, U-17 and U-18, as well as a U-19 event team.
The Wizards provide players in the Kansas City metro area and beyond with opportunities -- a player from Canada and a few from Iowa are part of the club -- and the philosophy, the expansion, and the facilities the Wizards provide makes them unique.
"It's a big difference when you are able to come to a facility like [the Swope Park training facility], train every day, have the full scope of an entire field to work on with your team -- you have goals, you have lights. There is just a lot more that you can do," Vermes said.
Not to mention the financial benefits.
"Right now, we fund everything, except for the kids' travel to the event. In a year from now -- the fall of '09 -- our 16s and 18s team will be in the United States Soccer Federation's Academy league, which is the only thing we can play in, and everything will be paid for. It's fully funded," Vermes said.
"You can't do that at a youth club, but we don't expect youth clubs to be doing that. What we're doing is completely different. ... We're trying to develop these kids to play in a professional team someday because they have the commitment and desire to try and be the best they can be as a soccer player. Not every kid wants to do that. We completely understand that."
And one can surely understand the development at every level that was missing only a few short years ago. The Wizards and teams across MLS are now ably fulfilling that need.
