“We are a very inclusive club that feels like a family and I wanted the players to feel that way.”
Yoann Damet was sitting in FC Cincinnati’s weekly all-staff call when he thought of an idea. If FCC has this call every Thursday morning with all of their employees, why can’t the Orange and Blue have a call with all the players?
“I thought that was also a great moment to come together on the technical side,” said Damet, the club’s interim head coach.
Beginning last week, first team players started Zoom meetings with Academy players on the Under-15 and Under-17 teams. Split up by positions, youth players could ask the first team players about advice, different ideas that they should try or simply what it’s like to be a professional soccer player.
“I remember when I was a small kid, you always want to talk with the professional players and the players in the first team,” midfielder Haris Medunjanin said. “You want to know the most and you want to ask them questions. It was a fun time talking to them and hearing from them.”
Medunjanin said he spoke with the defensive midfielders about different topics that included taking care of their bodies, how they should prepare for games and the best way to play as a “No 6.”
“Hopefully they will pick up some things from what we said,” he added. “We will always be open for them whenever we want, whether we see them on the practice field or not.”
The FCC first team practices in the morning and the early afternoon, while the academy players show up later in the day. As a result, their interactions are limited – although some first team players have attended Academy games at the Mercy Health Training Center, as well.
With both teams prohibited from training with the ongoing pandemic, Damet and Larry Sunderland, FCC’s director of youth development, thought this was the perfect time to connect players across all playing levels representing the club.
“The connection between the Academy and the first team and that alignment on the whole technical side is critical to the club,” Sunderland said. “We want everyone to feel these touchpoints where our Academy players and our first team players grow a tradition in the club and they begin to feel this brotherhood and family. It’s critical and it’s been exciting to witness and a lot of fun.”
Sunderland said the youth players all studied and researched the background of the senior players and their previous clubs. So, for example, when they spoke with left back Andrew Gutman, they could ask about his experience going from the Chicago Fire Academy to a college career and playing as a professional.
Gutman said, it’s invaluable, citing his own experience as a youth player.
“When I was younger, I was always fearful to talk to (the first team), so it’s good what this club has done to put us in this situation and they can facilitate a conversation between us and the Academy kids,” he said. “I do think that a lot of Academy kids look up to the first team, but a lot of them are too shy to go up and say something themselves.”
These calls are an opportunity to break down those barriers.
While everyone wants to train at MHTC again and begin playing matches, these calls have provided an opportunity that didn’t exist previously – and have been unique throughout MLS.
“The idea is that the weight of the words from the first team players is so much bigger than anyone else because the players in the academy are looking up to the first team,” Damet said. “They’re role models for them. So, the fact they’re able to discuss a tactical situation, positioning or even life in general, it gives so much weight to these experiences.
“When the kids are going to watch the team play, they’re going to feel like they know the players a bit more than anyone else.”
