It's only one year into the Seattle Sounders Academy program, but the commitment to youth development is already starting to pay immediate dividends.
Last fall, the Sounders entered two teams into the U-16 and U-18 levels of the USSF Development Academy play. A look at the standings shows how well they’ve done: Both sides are at the top of the Northwest Division in the Academy’s West Conference.
For Youth Development Director Darren Sawatzky, it starts as the top with the team’s owners.
“We have an incredible ownership group with the Sounders, and they’re very committed to the youth initiative,” he told MLSsoccer.com over the phone.
Sawatzky, a native of the Pacific Northwest (originally from Portland), was handed the reigns of the Youth Development initiative in Seattle’s first year. Prior to that, he had played across several levels of US Soccer, including MLS, USL and MISL and been an assistant coach with the Sounders prior to their jump to MLS.
One of the first steps taken by Sawatzky was to set up training camps around the state. Working alongside Washington Youth Soccer, they hold one-week training programs to help improve some of the state’s best and brightest.
“Basically what we do is we bring in kids pre-Academy age groups, we train them and send them back to the clubs,” he said. “It’s free for the player. It’s an identification tool as well as a developmental tool to help the best players get identified and get better.”
By helping to create and train that player pool, it gave the Sounders an idea of who some of the best players might be when they hit the 16-to-18 age range, at which point they are eligible for the Development Academy.
“The whole point is that by the time the kids hit 15, 16 years old, there’s no secret, everyone knows who the [best] kids are," Sawatzky added. "It just gives us a jump-start in helping their growth, so it’s a joint effort."
One of the most difficult aspects of the Development Academy is ensuring that players are in games that matter, and that requires playing against the same level of talent.
Despite being in just its first year, the Sounders FC Academy has managed to identify several talented players in the Seattle region, and this week, 10 players confirmed their college destinations.
Sean Okoli is perhaps the best and most promising of that group. He’s committed to play at Wake Forest in the fall, and has trained with the Sounders' first team in the past, including in Arizona this past week. Okoli also traveled with the US U-18 team to play in Israel last December.
A second player is Nick Palodichuk, who has already graduated high school early to enroll at Duke University, where he’ll play in the fall. Palodichuk represented the US at the U-17 World Cup in Nigeria in 2009.
Others, including DeAndre Yedlin (Akron) and Drew White (Washington) will wrap up the season with the Sounders Academy before heading to school later this year.
