ACADEMY MODEL APPROACH - NEW FOR 2022!
We are excited to announce that we will be adopting an academy model approach for the 2022 season! After much discussion within the coaching staff, we feel this is the best approach for the current state of the program, and for the future. This model takes some aspects of the academy model seen in clubs throughout the country and applies it to a high school program. We feel that not only will the program benefit from this management style, but each individual player will as well.
So, what does this actually mean? To understand where we are going, let's take a look at our current model which is based on the traditional approach seen in high school athletics for decades. Today we form 3 distinct teams - JV Red (our "JV B team"), JV Navy (our "JV A team"), and varsity. At one time we formed a Freshman team instead of JV Red, but in recent years we transitioned to two JV teams. This gave us some added flexibility and it made sense for our player personnel. In our current model players can swing between our two JV teams, and players can also swing between JV Navy and varsity. Whether a program has two JV teams or Freshman/JV, this structure is pretty standard throughout the country. However, there are some drawbacks. It is VERY team centric. What this means is that our three teams operate independently, just under the same umbrella. In this sense, it is similar to how club teams currently operate in the Lexington area. Separate practices with separate coaches, which can lead to some division within the program. While we do swing players, there is not typically a whole lot of movement from where players are placed at tryouts. A lot of the management decisions made by the coaching staff are team based decisions. While there are some positive results of this approach, we are finding it is not in the best interests of all individuals and ultimately not maximizing the program's potential. Our current player pathway model is shown below:
Our goal moving forward is to be more player centric. While the team is extremely important, we feel a more player centered approach will enhance the development of all of our players and ultimately benefit each of our teams. That's where the academy model comes into play. Many have probably heard of an academy model within club soccer, especially at clubs associated with professional teams. They take on larger player pools, freely move players between teams, and constantly give deserving players opportunities at the highest level. Our purpose as a program is a bit different than these professional clubs, so we will not be adopting all ideologies, but there are aspects we can pull from this approach and customize it to best fit our program and culture.
First and foremost we want to place players in the most appropriate training and game environments for their individual development. This can go a lot of different ways, but our goal is to determine what kind of environment makes the most sense for each individual. For example, there may be a young player who benefits most from training everyday with varsity but is not quite ready to play in varsity games. This model allows flexibility for this player to train with varsity most of the time but play in JV games. There could be a JV player who would have been selected to our top JV team in our current model but struggled to find significant playing time, thus not maximizing his game development. This approach will allow us to place this player in the most appropriate game environment so he can play for longer periods of time and progress his game development.
Secondly, we want to create a more unified program all moving in the same direction, especially with our JV program. Our JV coaches will come together to form one JV Academy staff. Our young players will now be a part of our JV Academy, instead of separated on different teams. This allows all of our JV players to receive consistent training from the same staff, and have exposure to different coaches in training and games. Our entire JV schedule will be combined under one JV Academy schedule, including games. In order to accomplish this we will divide our JV games into tiers. Players will then be placed on game rosters for a specific tier based on each individual’s appropriate game environment as determined by our staff. Players can be placed in multiple tiers, and can be moved between tiers if deemed necessary. Ultimately this will mean smaller rosters for games, which results in more playing time per player. This also allows longer evaluations after tryouts both at the varsity and JV level, so a player’s season environment is not based mostly on a shorter tryout evaluation.
Finally, we want to allow more varsity opportunities to our best young players. This can mean increased training opportunities, or more opportunities to contribute in games earlier in the season. In the end we believe this will help our top young players develop at a quicker rate, and it will also make our varsity training environment more competitive. We are going to flip the traditional swing player model on its head. For example, a freshman may be selected as a swing player at tryouts. Instead of asking him to prioritize JV and then attend varsity activities when available, he will now prioritize varsity and only attend JV activities when directed. This will maximize the development of our top young players, and benefit our varsity team as well.
Our new player pathway model is shown below.
We know there will be some bumps along the way as we move from model theory to real world application, and to be honest we haven't really seen this done at any other high school program. However, we also strongly believe that now is a perfect time for us to transition into this model within the program. Our numbers continue to stay very high each year. Our depth has improved considerably over the past few years, especially in the younger grades. Now is the time for us to move to a management approach that helps us continue to push the program forward. One that puts individual development at the forefont while also creating a more competitive environment to benefit every level of the program in the long run. We are excited abut implementing this for the 2022 season and look forward to the results!
