Interview by Mike Woitalla
The U.S. Soccer Federation launched the U-17 boys Residency Program in Bradenton, Florida, in January 1999. In October of that year, the USA, with ateam that included Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Kyle Beckerman, finished fourth at the 1999 U-17 World Cup in New Zealand. The USA has notwon a knockout-stage game at the biennial U-17 World Cup since 1999. But the more than 300 players who have attended Bradenton include Eddie Johnson, Michael Bradley,Jonathan Spector, Jozy Altidore and Omar Gonzalez.
John Hackworth served as John Ellinger’s assistantcoach at Bradenton from 2002 until taking the U-17 head coaching position in 2004. He coached the U-17s at the 2005 and 2007 U-17 World Cups — where they made second-round appearances. In 2007-09,Hackworth served as full national team assistant and served as the inaugural Technical Director of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy.
After assistant and head coaching stints with thePhiladelphia Union, Hackworth returned to the U.S. youth national team program as U-15 boys coach in November 2014. Last December, he was named U-17 head coach, replacing RichieWilliams, and returns to run the Residency Program in Bradenton.
SOCCER AMERICA: The Bradenton Residency Program for the U-17 boys national team was launched in 1999, when theAmerican soccer landscape was much different. As far back as 2007, we discussed whether Bradenton Residency is still necessary …
JOHN HACKWORTH: Clearly, I thinkthere’s still a need for it right now.
When we made the decision in 2007 to start the Development Academy, the whole idea was that once we had enough clubs, specifically MLS clubs,operating at the same or better level than [Bradenton] Residency — then there would no longer be a need for residency.
We’re so much closer to that than we’ve ever been, but atthe same time we’re not there yet.
U.S. Soccer has reached an agreement with a couple of MLS clubs to allow their players to stay with their home academies. But yet there are so manyclubs that need to increase what they’re doing in terms of player development.
Some of those things are simple. Training more days a week. What U.S. Soccer is trying to get across to MLSacademies is they train five days a week, play one game, and have a day off. That’s what we do in Residency.
The idea is simple. Once we can get our Development Academy clubs at the sameor better level, there will no longer be a need for Residency.
John Hackworth (Photo courtesy of U.S. Soccer)
SA: You answered in part what was going to be my next question: Why would an MLS club that’sspending millions of dollars on its youth program think it needs to send its players to Bradenton?
JOHN HACKWORTH: There are certain individual situations where theclubs think it’s better for the player to go to Bradenton. Part of what I’ve been doing in the last weeks is having a lot of conversations with all the MLS clubs and trying to come up witha plan — which is very different than how we’ve ever operated – for those individuals coming into Residency.
We want it to be very collaborative. If there are times when the MLSclubs want their players to play in their GA [Generation adidas Cup] competition, and when we feel it’s a better competition than what we can give them — and it’s important for MLS clubsto compete against each other — we’re going to release the players back to those clubs.
Some clubs want to have some of these young men involved in their preseason training with theirfirst team. Some want to have them involved in USL training for some time. So we’re trying to work with each individual club based on those needs.
It should be a very collaborativeprocess about how we push an individual in ways we collectively feel are best for that individual.
There will be oversight and communication in place so we’ll know what the players whoare with their MLS clubs doing on a daily, weekly, seasonal basis.
(Editor’s Note: Generation adidas Cup is an annual tournament among MLS U-17 academy teams and foreignclubs.)
SA: Are there any similar arrangements with non-MLS clubs?
JOHN HACKWORTH: No, not at the moment.
SA: The results ofthe last two residency cycles were: failing to qualify for the U-17 World Cup (in 2013) for the first time ever and not advancing to the second round of a U-17 World Cup (2015) for the first timesince 2001. How do you respond to the argument that such results indicate Residency isn’t working?
JOHN HACKWORTH: I get it that everyone only measures thesuccess of the program by the results in the U-17 World Cup. However, the No. 1 objective of the Residency program is player development. If you look at the players who have come through Residency thelast four and a half years, there are some exciting young players who have taken the next step in their careers and are now playing professionally.
From that standpoint, Residency is stillworking. The second objective is to build a U-17 national team that competes internationally. This last cycle had some outstanding results, but ultimately did not reach the expectations placed uponthem in the U-17 World Cup. From that standpoint, it is understandable that people were disappointed.
SA: If a player turns down a Bradenton invitation and is not with an MLS club thathas an arrangement, will that player still be tracked and considered for the qualifying tournament or World Cup team?
JOHN HACKWORTH: Absolutely. We are in a muchbetter place to scout and track individual player development than ever before.
Wow, that was illuminating?
as long as there is little less play and play and more emphasis on vision and movement and positioning we will remain where we are today. It is still pay to play and that has to change…..
” SA: Are there any similar arrangements with non-MLS clubs?JOHN HACKWORTH: No, not at the moment.”MLS should not own US Soccer. When do we get to the point US Soccer no longer carries the water for MLS? Competing leagues and alternate interests must be accommodated. Otherwise, US Soccer isn’t much better than the stiffs in CONCACAF.
Great point R2Dad. I wonder why someone with such a vested interest in keeping the Brandton Place up and running, ik.e. having his bread buttered nicely on both sides by US Soccer? MLS? would be speaking so glowingly for its continued existence? Also, I wonder, just wonder very much, just how are they “…are in a better place to scout and track individual player development than ever before…(sic”??? Does he mean they will be tracking one dozen, several hundred or more players now with him at the helm? How many players do they house at Bradenton, do they have more scouts? How will this be any different than it was under Williams? Wow, does US Soccer and MLS think they’re now dealing with a bunch of nincompoops that don’t know jack about futbol-soccer when it comes to player development? Lastly, Joe Linzer above sure put it succinctly and to the point!
WOW! 17 years and still nothing. The same people who have been screwing in up for 17 years keep telling us they how to fix it and we keek believing them. Insanity people.Those residency programs are European way of doing things, not American. Eventually we may get a couple of players out of it but it will take generations for this to produce world class quality teams (20 to 25 players) capable of winning World Cups.
Hey John Lander, excellent point! Say do you know, or for that matter how many of SA’s readers even know that the Bradenton place was initially set up to house up and coming young TENNIS players? And as an aside, methinks that “the same people who have been screwin…up for 17 years … know how to fix(sic)…” this broken system! Go figure!!!
I do not thing Bradenton camp per se is a bad idea, I think the problem is that we need to develop our youth at the local level similar to Europe, where we have a local MLS team that develops there youth at U-14, U16, and U-17 level and allow there players to train with the senior MLS squad. Alex ferguson would go and scout his youth and say In One year he’ll be playing in the champions league, why cant we do that or at least have th goal to do that?
If your goal is for the US MNT to win a world cup, then Brandenton or even a dozen MLS residential academies are not the answer. It will create individual players, but compared to successful programs in other countries, the approach is too narrow and too exclusive to create the large pool of players necessary for success. This is largely due to the inability to identify future stars. The inherent danger of a closed system is that false success in predictions appears to happen when national team players are only promoted from within the closed system. So claiming the residency program is successful because so many players have progressed to the national teams is misleading because the selection process is tainted by the exclusive nature of the USSF’s process. This is how some will argue that the USSF DA is successful. What you have to consider is the quality of all the players coming out of the program.