As MLS announces its new youth development program, the Houston Dynamo are keen to take hold of the growing opportunity and maximise their efforts.
Hundreds of teams and thousands of players got the news on April 15 that U.S. Soccer Development Academy was shut down. Major League Soccer immediately jumped in and took over youth development in America. And now the Houston Dynamo pledged to take the bull by the horns in this resulting development frenzy.
This is Houston’s opportunity to look through their region and start identifying potential future stars and developing them from young ages.
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Since the confusing April day that the Development Academy was abolished, MLS has doubled down on its commitment. The new organization now combines efforts of U.S. Youth Soccer in development. That means additional participation with at least 95 teams, 30 of them to be MLS-affiliated, will be part of the process.
Houston Dynamo Academy Director Paul Holocher is a veteran of youth soccer and remains enthusiastic about this level of development. He believes that the U.S. Youth Soccer Association partnership connects players from 55 state associations with the new MLS Academy system’s resources and opportunities.
This expands the reach for elite soccer youth development nationwide. And, in a statement on the official website, Holocher emphasized that players within the Dynamo region will be reached as never before with this new effort:
"“If there is a kid from a small area, like Corpus Christi or Laredo for example, there is now possibly a mechanism that helps them go to Olympic Development Program (ODP) or these regional events that puts them in the view of professional academy scouts.”"
Since the MLS club academy began in 2007, the program produced 250 homegrown players in the professional and national team ranks. That’s 11 Houston Dynamo Academy alumni. Three of those are on the Dynamo first-team roster: defender Erik McCue, midfielder Marcelo Palomino, and midfielder Memo Rodriquez.
The ODP is a U.S. Youth Soccer program formed in 1977 to identify a pool of players in each age group for national team selection, headed for international competition. The focus isn’t only for high-level training to develop young players. The aim is also to develop and improve coaching.
Dynamo’s Holocher is a former state and regional ODP coach. He recognized that the ODP platform has needed a development partner. In the tragic implosion of Development Academy, MLS has presented itself as that ODP partner Holocher had always sought. Both MLS and ODP will experience synergy, in Holocher’s view: “This collaboration is a fantastic opportunity to work together, develop, and grow the game.”
For those under-developed areas not only in Texas but throughout the country, youth may now be reached where they were missed before. And as youth development grows, so does North American soccer.