Alumni Of YMS Xplosion 92 Are Realizing Their Professional Soccer Dreams
Based on NCAA data, the odds of a high school boys soccer player being selected in the MLS SuperDraft is about .08 percent — or eight in 10,000.
Look at a club soccer team, made up of some of the better high school players in its area, and the odds of one of the players growing up to hear his named called in the draft may receive a slight boost.
Add a tight-knit group of players, a coaching staff with a vision and a schedule fueling development, and that’s YMS Xplosion 92 (PA-E) — a two-time US Youth Soccer Region I Champion and participant in the first two years of the US Youth Soccer National League that has had three players selected in the MLS SuperDraft over the last two years.
YMS saw former players Steve Neumann (fourth overall to the New England Revolution) and Jimmy Ockford (21st overall to the Seattle Sounders) taken at the 2014 MLS SuperDraft, while Manolo Sanchez was drafted by the New York Red Bulls with the 79th pick in 2015.
To have three players from the same youth team on MLS rosters less than four years after playing together for the Xplosion means quite a lot to the squad.
“If someone would have told us back when we were 6 or 7 or 8, I don’t know if anyone would have believed that,” said Neumann, who made 23 appearances for New England as a rookie in 2014. “We’ve been extremely fortunate with the support we’ve had growing up at YMS and also with the success we’ve had in college. We’re fortunate to be in the place we are, and that will continue to drive the three of us to have future successes because that’s the way we were raised.”
One person who might have believed the forecast of success for the young players is Jim Powers, who began coaching the YMS team as an Under-8 side that included his son, Brian, a close friend of Neumann.
Powers knew early on that the group was special, and the coaches tried to get the boys the highest level of competition possible for 8-year-olds. But for the first few years, it didn’t matter who Xplosion played — it just won. It wasn’t until around their Under-10 year that Neumann remembers “first being completely distraught” over soccer when the team lost in a penalty kick shootout to the Bethesda Roadrunners.
But any bumps in the road were overcome by the team’s bond, which kept it motivated and together while other teams saw turnover in its players.
“The friendships we had were a big part of that,” Neumann said. “Maybe we weren’t the most talented group up guys, but we were always near the top of the national rankings because we would play for each other and were very close. We wanted to win those games for each other.”
They weren’t just close. The YMS players were competitive. That proved to help them not only in games, but in training sessions as well.
When the team reached the Under-12 age group, John Greaves joined Powers and assistant coach Dennis Wysocki and took over a majority of training session coordination and head coaching duties. Powers remembers some of the best training exercises came during warm-ups, when the players would play small-sided keep-away games.
“Sometimes John might have said we’ll do that for the first 15 minutes and we’d end up doing it for 30 minutes because they were so competitive and played it at such a high level,” said Powers, who played college soccer at Syracuse from 1980-84. “They were all coachable and there wasn’t a lot of fooling around at practice. They all wanted to learn. It was just a team that continued to push each other.”
The team really began to turn the corner when Greaves joined the club. While the new coach was getting settled in at YMS, Powers and the boys traveled to England, where they played a few games, toured Old Trafford and Anfield, and attended an English Premier League match — after which they were brought onto the field by U.S. Men’s National Team goalkeeper Brad Friedel.
After getting a sense of the atmosphere surrounding professional soccer, the players returned to Pennsylvania with an even greater love and appreciation for the game.
Greaves then brought a professional mentality to the team and helped build their interest in the game while implementing a style of soccer that focused on sound defense, possession and technique. Neumann said Greaves helped further spark the interest in soccer for the team, and they continued to add on to their early abilities and knowledge of the game.
Powers said, even at 8 years old, Neumann had great vision and passing abilities, while Sanchez brought size, pace and power. He said Ockford came on when they hit their teens, as a growth spurt and work in the gym helped him become a dominant defender. Along with a full complement of talented teammates — including Eric Schoenle, a 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft pick by the Philadelphia Union — YMS continued to grow.
The Xplosion enjoyed great success in the Region I Premier League, but the side added an additional challenge when it joined the National League in 2007.
“That was invaluable. It’s one thing playing in local tournaments and leagues, but when you go to the National League and end up playing the best of the best from around the country, I think that was great for our development and our confidence,” Neumann said. “That’s where you hone your skills the most, when you’re playing against the highest competition and finding success in that. It was great for us and also a big reason why almost everyone on the team when to a D-I college and had success.”
YMS finished second in its first season in the National League, as it went 6-1-0 to qualify for the US Youth Soccer National Championships. The following season, the Xplosion finished third with a 4-1-2 record and the best goal differential in its age group.
Neumann said the team always looked forward to the National League weekends and prided themselves being a tough team to beat, as evidenced by dropping just two games in two seasons of National League play.
“The National League was a lot of fun, to be honest. We would treat it like it was a mini Champions League,” Neumann said. “Each game had a different challenge. There were different difficulties against each team. You had to have a game plan and strategy going into each game, and all the games were very competitive.”
Powers said the quality of the games also helped exposed the team to college coaches, which led to 14 of the 16 players moving on to play for NCAA Division I soccer programs — as YMS once again beat the odds.
The team’s success was a combination of hard work, commitment and the right people coming together at the right time. Powers transferred his love of the game to the young YMS players, and Greaves helped build on that and fine-tune the team to reach its full potential.
And that right-time, right-place theme continued until the very start of their professional careers, as they shared the excitement of the SuperDraft together in Philadelphia — just a short drive from Yardley, PA.
“It was incredible the way it worked out. I got to have a bunch of my YMS friends and family there we with me,” Neumann said of the 2014 SuperDraft. “It was probably one of the best days of my life — to be able to see my dream of being a professional player become a reality and also have all those friends and family there in Philadelphia to cheer me on. It’s a day I’ll remember for the rest of my life, and I owe a ton of where I’m at today to the family and coaching staff at Yardley Makefield Soccer.”
“The National League came around at the right time. We promised our kids. We said, ‘Listen, you’re going to play in the Region I Premier League. Now, you’re playing in the National League. You’re going to get the same exposure as the kids in the Academy with college coaches.’ In fact, it worked more in their favor. When we went to showcase events, the Academy would put 60-something teams into these showcase events. Here we were in the top group, playing with eight to 16 teams. We would have college coaches just sit there in groups and watch our entire games. When they would go to an academy event, they would have to watch 15 minutes of one, maybe 30 minutes of another and walk to the next. Their biggest complaint was, ‘We don’t get to see them… we’re trying to see too many kids.’ In ours, the National League gave us great exposure to college coaches who would come to these National League events, sit down in their chair and watch the entire game. It really allowed them to get a good indication of what type of player they were looking for. Like I said, we had 14 of 16 that went on to play Division I.” -Jim Powers, YMS Xplosion 92 Head Coach
Article Source: U.S. Youth Soccer
