Revs’ Fagundez all grown up now
FOXBORO — There is a certain postgame cadence to Diego Fagundez’ life now. He never imagined the process quite this way when he signed with the Revolution as a 15-year-old prodigy, but the passage of time allowed him to turn the fantastic into the familiar without too much fuss.
The ability to establish that normalcy is why the 22-year-old midfielder hunches over at his locker as he has done now for years and ponders how exactly he emerged as the first Homegrown field player in MLS to reach 10,000 minutes earlier this month.
“It’s kind of crazy to think about it,” Fagundez said. “Ten thousand minutes is a lot of minutes.”
The accumulation of appearances and milestones justifies the decision to pluck a clever and technical teenager out of Leominster and spend the better part of a decade shaping him into the effective and incisive player he is today.
Fagundez and fellow midfielder Scott Caldwell (a Braintree native expected to hit the same mark next month) are the most successful products from the Revolution Academy, a program designed to identify talented players throughout New England and nurture them as they head toward college and a potential pro career.
Every MLS team boasts some sort of Academy program, but the Revs align their objectives differently than most. Instead of opting for scale or signing several prospects to see who makes the grade, they focus on picking out players capable of making an impact on the first team.
“We’ve always had our stated goal internally: We want to be among the league leaders in minutes played by our players,” Revolution president Brian Bilello said. “It’s never been about signing the most. It’s about how many guys are going to contribute at the first-team level. That’s always been our goal.”
Fagundez’ journey reflects the seven-figure investment and the significant time required to put those Academy plans in action. Former Revolution coach Steve Nicol introduced Fagundez into the first team gradually before current boss Jay Heaps took charge prior to the 2012 season, while director of youth development Bryan Scales provided ample support from the Academy setup.
The gradual progression — punctuated by flourishes like scoring a goal 20 minutes into his MLS debut in August 2011 — allowed Fagundez to develop physically and learn his trade. He endured the fits and starts of growing up in a public setting and figured out how to find his place in the squad and on the field along the way.
“I think Diego was a perfect example of signing a young kid, but putting a structure in place that allowed him to grow within the first team,” Heaps said. “And then what I love about Diego, is for me, how much he’s grown over the last three or four years.”
Each of his 153 MLS appearances rises to the fore every time he steps on the field. He is more confident, more consistent and more influential from game to game now without sacrificing his ingenuity. His production isn’t at the peak he reached in 2013 (13 goals, 7 assists), but it fits better within the framework of the team.
All of those experiences inform his perspective now. The bulk of his career is still ahead of him. There are ample strides still left to make, even with a milestone in the rear-view mirror. At this point, it is about maintaining the balance achieved over this lengthy journey and setting the stage for the next 10,000 minutes.
“I have a good family that keeps me grounded,” Fagundez said. “I know what exactly it took to get here. I just have to keep focused, keep doing what I’ve been doing, keep being hungry to play and keep helping this team as much as possible. Hopefully, the more minutes that come, the more I can help out this team.”