‘We’re doing a lot of things correctly’
Whitecaps’ academy technical boss wants team to make most of its resources and talent pool
Craig Dalrymple is a believer now.
It only took five short weeks, but now he knows: the kids can play.
After stepping in as a caretaker coach for the Vancouver Whitecaps’ first team, the club’s academy technical boss has seen up close and personal what it takes for a player to succeed at the Major League Soccer level.
“I believe more now in the youth than I did five weeks ago. I understand that gap that we talk about being very big, is actually a lot smaller for some players than some people realize,” said Dalrymple, who’s incorporated academy players as young as 15 into the first-team practices since stepping in for the departed Carl Robinson.
“Now I can say it from a voice of the known (quantity), rather than the voice of ‘well, I think so.’ I’ve been in there with them for five weeks, in the trenches. I understand how they train, their training habits, I understand their levels.
“We’ve been to three away matches … difficult environments to go to, against top players. I’ve seen it from five feet off the sidelines. I was around with Carl and the group, and I was at the training sessions and I was at the games, but it’s about training habits and it’s about general life skills to get you to that next level.
“The players are a lot closer than some thought they were, and I’ll be pushing that message every day.”
It’s a philosophy that has worked in other clubs around MLS. FC Dallas and Red Bulls New York are frequently lauded for their development talent pipeline. The Whitecaps’ opponents this Sunday, the Portland Timbers, became the first U.S.-based club to have its MLS team, USL team and women’s pro team all make the playoffs in the same season.
Theo Bair has a first-team contract with the Vancouver
Whitecaps for next season, and could factor in for MLS minutes even with the formation of a new touring U23 team. The Whitecaps’ academy was a trendsetter in MLS when it was started, but the results have been mixed.
Seventeen players have been signed to Homegrown contracts from it, but only
Russell Teibert and Alphonso Davies evolved into impact players. Forty-one players have gone on to play professionally, but not with the Whitecaps. The future could be radically different, though.
There are currently three Homegrown players under contract for next season: striker Theo Bair, and midfielders Michael Baldisimo and Simon Colyn. Midfielder David Norman Jr. and goalkeeper Spencer Richey, both out on loan, have club options for next year, as do USL products Sean Melvin and Myer Bevan.
Baldisimo and Bair have been called up to play for Canada’s U20 team for next
month’s CONCACAF U-20 Championship tournament in Bradenton, Fla., along with other academy players including goalkeeper Thomas Hasal, midfielder Noah Verhoeven, forward José Hernández.
Richey has been loaned out to FC Cincinnati — a club that’s directed by former Whitecaps’ FC2 coach Alan Koch and will make the jump to MLS next season — and developed into one of their top goalkeepers, with six shutouts in 15 appearances.
Dalrymple said “100 per cent” he could see any of those players pushing for minutes next season.
“The blessing for me being in this role is I’ve been intimately involved in it. I understand what the players need ... we just have to make sure those pathways are not blocked,” he said, “and we bring them in at the right time, educate them, support them, make sure they get knocked down when they need to get knocked down, but also get picked up again when they need to be picked up.
“We’re doing a lot of things correctly. Our academy is strong, our recruitment spaces in the youth level is very good, we’re combing the country, turning over every rock.
“We need to create an identity at the first team level now, and the new coach will come in and do that. Improve on the culture that we have, and make sure we use the resources and talent pool within the system correctly.”