Premier Soccer Academy approaches opening with facility, inaugural class

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/articles.aspx?article=2327
by Robert Ziegler 5/8/2007

 

LORAIN, OHIO - One of the more talked about new arrivals on the elite player development scene in the U.S. is now adding its most vital ingredients.

From the beginning Brad Friedel’s Premier Soccer Academies, which opens its flagship facility this summer, was long on concept and vision. Friedel and his colleagues have been able to generate and attract an impressive amount of publicity and finance. More recently, the facility has begun to take shape in the form of bricks, mortar and sod.

This month however the most crucial components of flesh and blood are being grafted in to the mix, with the first 8 American players having been announced for the Academy’s inaugural class, beginning in August of this year.

PSA has been using its camp and some traveling opportunities as primary recruiting tools. The opening class will have approximately 24 players, including 7 already-committed players from overseas (Brazil, Trinidad, Chile, Bolivia, and Venezuela so far) to live, train and compete alongside the Americans. The class is not yet complete, and an announcement on the international players won’t be made until various immigration and passport issues are worked out, but among the American players named thus far the age ranges from 1991 to 1995 birth year players. Future classes will have as many as 30 players on hand.

I was able to tour the facility recently with PSA Chief Operating Officer Craig Umland. While the above photo may give an idea of how grand the main building is, neither that picture nor my attempts to describe what I saw will do it justice. Simply put there is nothing like it in American soccer, particularly given that all the players on hand at the academy will attend free of charge.

Among the features are a 5,000 square foot workout room, a-more-than 60,000 square foot field house including 2 full lockerrooms and a full-length indoor field, 3 ½ outdoor fields including one synthetic and a half-field exclusively for goalkeeping training, a small stadium field for community events and feature matches, full-sized classrooms fully wired for video evaluation, live-in dorms, lounges for players and coaches, junior coach quarters, physio and training rooms, doctor’s office, meeting rooms, full lockerrooms (separate from the field house lockers) and probably some other stuff I’m forgetting.

While the organization has benefited from some substantial corporate sponsorship, the business plan also reflects the maturity of recognizing that multiple revenue sources will be needed. The workout facility will be open to the public during players’ school hours for instance, and the field house can be rented to area youth teams (soccer and otherwise) during time slots when it isn’t being used by the Academy playing staff. A number of local outreach initiatives to area soccer organizations will also be utilized.

Additionally, the organization is using a series of camps and tournaments as player identification opportunities, and while the players who are selected for the Academy are free of charge, the recruiting events aren’t. Given the time until PSA will realize any revenue from the stated goal of delivering players to the professional level at home or overseas, it is quite prudent for these alternative revenue streams to be developed.

“We want to learn to walk before we run,” is a phrase Umland is fond of in describing the organization’s approach, but from this viewpoint we are talking something like Olympic race walkers here. Friedel has secured the services of former IMG executive Umland, along with former U.S. MNT player Desmond Armstrong as lead scout and camp director.

Former Swiss International and veteran European youth coach Marc Hottiger will be the Academy Director, with Sheffield United Youth Academy coach Scott Sellars and Newcastle United goalkeeping coach Roy Tunks also slated to be part of the coaching staff, with a quartet of junior coaches also in residence for the sake of coaching education opportunities and additional manpower at the facility.

All of which makes sense given the organization's primary goal of preparing players for the professional level. While college eligibility will e protected in the meantime, PSA is about professional-style development for players with an ambition to play at the top.

Armstrong acknowledged that questions about 14-year old boys leaving home for such a setup are usually among the first he has to deal with when recruiting potential players.

“The concerns on most parents’ minds are things like ‘Who are you? Where am I sending my son? How are you addressing the educational aspect?’” Armstrong said. “I try to assure them that I’m a father myself and would be thinking about the same things.”

Umland stressed a very strict program in terms of discipline and security, with constant eye on the well-being of the resident players. The organization also has an arrangement with a nearby school district to provide for the players’ education. While these aspects of the program will likely address the most pointed questions, there is still the issue of families sending one of their own to live somewhere else full-time.

Columbus midfielder Trapp ready to seize the opportunity

Gahanna. Ohio’s William Trapp is one of the initial 8 Americans to be selected for the Academy. Trapp’s mother Elizabeth admitted she was the final holdout in the family’s decision-making process of whether to send her son from their suburban Columbus home to suburban Cleveland.

“It’s a sacrifice in our family circle. It’s going to be a huge change for us,” she said. “Being as young as he is and how much we’ll miss him it is not an easy thing to do, but Willie is a determined little boy, or young man I should say. He loves the sport and practices a lot and wants to realize the dream of playing as a professional.”

Elizabeth said soccer has been in her family since she was a little girl, as her father was born in Greece and used to play at parks in Columbus in the 1950s and 60s. An older brother and sister are supportive of William’s ambitions but have expressed a sense of loss with the family’s youngest leaving home at age 14. She also said her son’s constant accompaniment by a soccer ball reminds her of an interview she heard with Brian McBride’s mother, describing much the same phenomena during that U.S. National Team star’s youth.

“It’s going to be a change for us but it’s something he wants to try and I have to let him try it,” she said. “It’s exciting to be on the ground floor of this, but it’s scary too.”

William’s dad John Trapp said the player has shown an appetite and capacity for something extra almost since he began playing soccer.

“He has a lot of drive and ambition. He just has a desire to elevate to a standard I’m not sure naturally occurs in many other kids,” John said. “His current coaches have always pulled me aside and talked about how this kid has a gift, that you have to do something sooner rather than later to find the best learning atmosphere as you can. That’s been pretty much the case the last couple of years.”

The senior Trapp credited club coaches at Columbus East SA, his first recreational coach, Ali Razi, and Nigerian-born trainer Andy Uzomba (with whom William still works with) with having a significant effect on his development. Additionally Trapp is a leading light on the current version of the U14 Boys National Team as a 1993 birth year player, receiving accolades from head coach Manny Schellscheidt following the team’s Thanksgiving camp in Florida.

For his part, William Trapp is convinced that the program at PSA is what a player in his situation needs to have a better chance at making it to the professional level.

“That is the main thing that wanted me to try it out. It sounds like something that can really help me get to that goal,” William said. “It will be so much better than just training 2 days a week. The training is going to help me sharpen the skills and there will be more competition. It’s just so much easier to play and you learn so much more playing with and against the best players.”

Trapp said he recognizes leaving home for PSA will require some adaptation.

“It’s definitely going to be really hard, but this is an opportunity I can’t really pass up,” he said. “I can always come back and see people, but I don’t want to pass it up for anything. “


(For a complete listing of all United States players currently committed to attend the Academy this year please visit www.gopsa.com.)