LouCity announces new academy program

Yesterday afternoon, Louisville City announced its plans to begin a youth academy program at their new practice facility at Champions Park. The club intends to serve boys and girls teams starting at U8 all the way up to the professional level. Boys will play under the Louisville City brand and moniker while the girls teams will play under the still-to-be-named NWSL team’s brand.

This is a big deal for Louisville City and Soccer Holdings because it gives them the opportunity to reach further out into the community at large, identify talent, and handle development themselves rather than relying on someone else that might have different aims.

Soccer Holdings’ move to start their own youth program will obviously shake up the existing youth soccer scene in Louisville. However, very little about youth soccer in Louisville has ever been particularly stable. The difference for kids in this program is they can at least conceivably offer a direct pathway to professional soccer that no other club in town can.

There’s already been some grumbling about how this is just a cash-grab by Soccer Holdings because the program is going to be pay-to-play. However, I like to believe this club isn’t going to be turning anyone away that has talent but lacks means. The mission of this academy is to find and develop the best talent the area can provide. It would be foolish for them to turn away someone with potential just because they can’t pay dues.

Obviously, that’s the way soccer in the US has been run for decades, but I the conversations I personally have had with the technical staff at the club lead me to believe that they recognize that problem and genuinely want to do something about it. What that is, I don’t know, and the club hasn’t publicly disclosed. However, Mario Sanchez has been running clandestine camps and clinics all over the city since he got to town eighteen months ago. I have a lot of faith in his, John Hackworth’s, and James O’Connor’s stated desires to make this effort different.

I could be proven wrong, of course. After all, someone has to write the checks for all of this, and youth soccer clubs do generate cash. But I’m going to hang on to hope that this new youth setup will be a force for creating opportunity rather than cutting it off. We’ll see.