USL Communications’ Nicholas Murray penned a lengthy look at Louisville City FC’s youth academy system that has already produced a handful of professionals, including 17-year-old phenom Josh Wynder. See an excerpt below, and read the full story here.
It takes a lot to build a club from scratch.
Pulling together not only a team of players, but a staff that can deliver on the high expectations everyone enters an inaugural season with is an arduous task, and one that can set the platform for everything that will follow.
For James O’Connor – the current President of Louisville City FC and Racing Louisville FC, but previously LouCity’s first Head Coach and Technical Director – that was the aim as he transitioned from the playing field to the sideline and front office.
Of course, there were long-term aims for an Academy structure, but the focus was on the here-and-now, putting a winning team on the field and establishing a culture that would make that a habit year-in and year-out.
Still, that first season did provide a glimpse into what that future could hold.
“There’s a great picture of Josh Wynder, actually, as a supporter as a young boy – he’s still a young boy now,” said O’Connor recently. “I think he’s probably 10 or 11 and there’s a picture of him at Slugger with Niall McCabe, and it’s great to see that aspect. We’ve had a young child who’s been supporting the team in the stands and now is playing outstandingly well every week.”
While LouCity is one of the younger Academy programs in the Championship compared to those at clubs like San Antonio FC or Orange County SC – it officially opened its full-time program in 2020 – the groundwork began being laid two years prior when the organization hired current Academy Director Mario Sanchez as its Director of Youth Development and Community Relations. An experienced college soccer coach and former professional player, Sanchez had previously worked at the University of Louisville during his coaching career, which offered him some knowledge of the talent base and youth soccer landscape.
At that time, the road to a fully-fledged Academy program began at the grassroots level.
“We initially just started just doing training sessions, open to the community,” said Sanchez. “I would go around different parts of Louisville and then it was free clinics, allowing every kid the opportunity. Slowly we started pulling in some of the better kids.”
Those community-based sessions allowed LouCity to put together a team that participated in the inaugural USL Academy Cup in May 2019. Among the players in that group led by Sanchez were both Elijah and Joshua Wynder, whom Sanchez had gotten to know as youngsters at University of Louisville soccer camps, as well as defenders Owen Damm and Sebastian Sanchez, and midfielder Carlos Moguel Jr.
“That was a great experience for us as a club,” said Sanchez. “Seeing these kids integrate, and I think for those kids to see the professionalism both from our club and from USL, they saw what the end game was, and that there was already kind of a pathway.
“After that event is when we started having kids train with the First Team.”
Three years later, all five of those players are now signed to professional contracts on LouCity’s First Team. It’s a testament to the collective belief within the club of its culture and methodology but also to the investment from the club’s ownership. The arrival of not only Lynn Family Stadium as the first “next-generation” soccer-specific venue in the Championship two years ago but the opening of the Lynn Family Sports Vision & Training Center has put player development at the forefront in the way O’Connor originally envisioned.
