The United Sports Foundation in Pennsylvania provides opportunities to young hopefuls from six East Coast states.
In recent years, soccer leaders have recognized and addressed flaws in the way top young American players are identified. Regional and state administrators, following Steve Sampson’s Southern California lead, are reaching out to overlooked groups, including minorities and players in non-U.S. Youth Soccer programs. The results are promising.
More can be done, others insist. Proving that actions speak louder than words, one Pennsylvania-based organization is showing the East Coast how.
The organization is the United Sports Foundation, and the proof is a multipronged program. The driving force is Tony Williams, who spent 10 years developing youth players for British clubs. He came to the United States six years ago to do the same for the South Jersey Barons. Two years later, watching the U.S. national team play in Washington, he vowed to help produce players for that level, too.
Williams understands that identifying potential national-level players was not enough. Superb athletes, many of them African-Americans living in inner cities, could also have the potential to succeed. Without a soccer heritage, they might not even know how far they could climb. Williams wanted to nurture them.
He approached the United Sports Foundation, operators of a large soccer complex in Downingtown, 40 minutes from Philadelphia. His plan was to develop a regional center, use community leaders to help identify the most promising players within a three-hour radius, and bring those players in on a regular basis for training and character development.
Today they come from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware twice a week for 21/2-hour sessions that include cultural studies. Soccer, Williams believes, is the key to understanding the world.
United Sports Foundation is organized like a pyramid. At the top is a residency program for three boys. One is 11-year-old Devann Yao, from Harlem in New York. His father played professional soccer in France, his mother is Italian, and Devann is trilingual. United Sports Foundation arranged a scholarship to the private Montgomery School and housing in a private home.
Yao trains four days a week from 6 to 7 a.m. with Williams and the two other residency players, both 13: Ernest Winhoffer of Mahway, N.J., and Chris Cano, a U.S. citizen from Colombia who lives in Staten Island, N.Y. After school they have study hall with a professional tutor. In the evening they train with Foundation players.
Yao goes home on weekends to play with his club team, FC Westchester, and returns on Sunday nights. He’s been to England, where he trained with Manchester United and Arsenal. Arsenal invited him back in March.
“If we expect to compete for the World Cup in 2010, as U.S. Soccer has pledged, we must expose our players to the best competition,” Williams explained. “Giving them a residency opportunity until they’re 15 or 16, along with these other opportunities, is the best way we know to get them ready.”
Without a soccer heritage, they might not even know how far they could climb.
Below the residency program on the pyramid is the “Passport to Excellence,” which began in July 1999 with a $30,000 fund-raising event. More than 500 young players participated in training led by the Nigerian Football Association’s technical director. There also were cultural awareness and character-building sessions. Scouts watched small-sided games and selected 44 youngsters, ages 9-12, to join the “Passport to Excellence” weekends.
They live in six states, from New York to Maryland. Once a month they arrive, mostly by train. They play soccer, participate in leadership and “character counts” sessions. They even write book reports.
“We want to develop players who can make a living from the game,” Williams said. “But we realize only a few can do that. Our job as coaches is to use soccer to develop positive attitudes and teach social responsibility.”
There also is the “International Ambassadors.” United Sports Foundation brought in 30 players from Brazil, Nigeria, Japan, the Netherlands and Britain for a 12-day leadership program. Coaches from each of the participating nations ran field and classroom sessions. From that group, Winhoffer and 13-year-old Cameron Duffy of Virginia were selected to spend 12 days last summer in the Netherlands, training with PSV Eindhoven. Craig Brutas traveled to Nigeria for his own soccer adventure.
“We’ve done an awful lot in a short time,” Williams said. “But there’s still a lot to do. Our next step is to create a residential environment, so we can bring in even more players to live on site.”
by Soccer America Youth Soccer Letter Executive Editor Dan Woog