Since San Antonio FC concluded its inaugural season in the USL, Assistant Coach Nick Evans has been busy fulfilling his alternate role with the club as SAFC Pro Academy Director. Evans was appointed to lead the academy in June, and was tasked with building the program from the ground up. Today, we caught up with him to get a brief update on the academy’s progress and his impressions of the players so far.
www.sanantoniofc.com: Now that the academy boys have been working for a few months, how have the teams and players progressed?
Nick Evans: “The players have done very well to adjust to the expectations and standards that we have for our players at San Antonio FC, and it has been really positive to see how enthused and motivated they are about being with the club. The objective for us is trying to continually foster and develop the love they have for the game while having them work within our framework for development. There are lots of really positive relationships forming within the player group, and being able to take players away for weekends to play MLS academies and spend time together in hotels and on buses allows for these relationships to gain strength, which serves us well on the practice field and the game field as we build our SAFC culture.”
Was there anything that surprised you about the players when you first started working with them?
NE: “Each player that we have in the academy program has some unique individual something to their game that excites you, or you see something in the way in which a player carries himself on and off the field that shows his discipline and eagerness to always do the right thing, which gives them a platform to potentially be successful. I give credit to the kids, their families, and previous club coaches who have worked with these players because there has not been one day when we have had to question any player’s commitment and desire to want to learn. None of this was built in the 10 weeks of this program so far; this was built over time before the players got here. We hope as a staff that we can continue to build upon this foundation that is already in place.”
How do the boys view their role as part of San Antonio FC and the responsibility of representing this club?
NE: “All the players are young and so it’s about educating them in regards to their responsibility and opportunity that they have here with us at SAFC. Being part of the only professional soccer franchise in San Antonio brings about an added responsibility because the microscope quickly falls on you and people externally will look at the way you conduct yourself on and off the field. We want to grow people first and foremost so our players can be good community citizens, student athletes, and good representatives of their family. We are very fortunate that soccer is the vehicle through which we have been provided this opportunity to work with them.”
The academy has faced some tough opposition, including some MLS academies and other quality clubs in Texas. How has that level of competition impacted their growth?
NE: “All of the opposition that we have faced so far locally and regionally have provided us with difficult games, which has forced us to continually drive our individual to collective potential each week as a group. Every day we are seeing growth in our players, but that covers many areas, from leadership qualities in a player who at the beginning was introverted and reserved, and is now being open and engaging, or players adapting to different “asks” in the game objectives. Our game schedule has been designed to force all our players to have to constantly be prepared for anything on and off the field.”
How are the SAFC Pro Academy and Elite Training Program helping to improve the soccer landscape in San Antonio?
NE: “Every coach and program in San Antonio is contributing to help make our youth soccer landscape better. What we are doing at San Antonio FC is trying to extend the number of opportunities available to our players that you wouldn’t be able to have at a regular club program. For example, interactions with professional players, who we use daily as mentors to the [young] players, and being around a professional organization where the club is always bigger than all the individuals in it, but can only be as successful with the people in it. Game development opportunities with local and foreign teams help to provide unique programming experiences. The ETP has been a very positive programming addition for SAFC. The players who take part in this program are getting to interact, understand, and be exposed to the training expectations and program expectations of SAFC, while also getting to stay with their own clubs, who primarily serve their development attention until we select players to move into our Pro Academy full-time.”
Since San Antonio FC concluded its inaugural season in the USL, Assistant Coach Nick Evans has been busy fulfilling his alternate role with the club as SAFC Pro Academy Director. Evans was appointed to lead the academy in June, and was tasked with building the program from the ground up. Today, we caught up with him to get a brief update on the academy’s progress and his impressions of the players so far.
www.sanantoniofc.com: Now that the academy boys have been working for a few months, how have the teams and players progressed?
Nick Evans: “The players have done very well to adjust to the expectations and standards that we have for our players at San Antonio FC, and it has been really positive to see how enthused and motivated they are about being with the club. The objective for us is trying to continually foster and develop the love they have for the game while having them work within our framework for development. There are lots of really positive relationships forming within the player group, and being able to take players away for weekends to play MLS academies and spend time together in hotels and on buses allows for these relationships to gain strength, which serves us well on the practice field and the game field as we build our SAFC culture.”
Was there anything that surprised you about the players when you first started working with them?
NE: “Each player that we have in the academy program has some unique individual something to their game that excites you, or you see something in the way in which a player carries himself on and off the field that shows his discipline and eagerness to always do the right thing, which gives them a platform to potentially be successful. I give credit to the kids, their families, and previous club coaches who have worked with these players because there has not been one day when we have had to question any player’s commitment and desire to want to learn. None of this was built in the 10 weeks of this program so far; this was built over time before the players got here. We hope as a staff that we can continue to build upon this foundation that is already in place.”
How do the boys view their role as part of San Antonio FC and the responsibility of representing this club?
NE: “All the players are young and so it’s about educating them in regards to their responsibility and opportunity that they have here with us at SAFC. Being part of the only professional soccer franchise in San Antonio brings about an added responsibility because the microscope quickly falls on you and people externally will look at the way you conduct yourself on and off the field. We want to grow people first and foremost so our players can be good community citizens, student athletes, and good representatives of their family. We are very fortunate that soccer is the vehicle through which we have been provided this opportunity to work with them.”
The academy has faced some tough opposition, including some MLS academies and other quality clubs in Texas. How has that level of competition impacted their growth?
NE: “All of the opposition that we have faced so far locally and regionally have provided us with difficult games, which has forced us to continually drive our individual to collective potential each week as a group. Every day we are seeing growth in our players, but that covers many areas, from leadership qualities in a player who at the beginning was introverted and reserved, and is now being open and engaging, or players adapting to different “asks” in the game objectives. Our game schedule has been designed to force all our players to have to constantly be prepared for anything on and off the field.”
How are the SAFC Pro Academy and Elite Training Program helping to improve the soccer landscape in San Antonio?
NE: “Every coach and program in San Antonio is contributing to help make our youth soccer landscape better. What we are doing at San Antonio FC is trying to extend the number of opportunities available to our players that you wouldn’t be able to have at a regular club program. For example, interactions with professional players, who we use daily as mentors to the [young] players, and being around a professional organization where the club is always bigger than all the individuals in it, but can only be as successful with the people in it. Game development opportunities with local and foreign teams help to provide unique programming experiences. The ETP has been a very positive programming addition for SAFC. The players who take part in this program are getting to interact, understand, and be exposed to the training expectations and program expectations of SAFC, while also getting to stay with their own clubs, who primarily serve their development attention until we select players to move into our Pro Academy full-time.”