It’s the final week of the school year and students are milling about in the hallway when seniors Kevin Carvalho, Mohamed Conde and Sean Wilson are summoned to the principal’s office.



But they aren’t in trouble. To the contrary, the three are being asked to practice their upcoming graduation speeches and explain the significance of the place from which they are about to graduate. And what they say shows they aren’t leaving behind your normal high school.

Carvalho: “I think we started something special here.”

Wilson: “It’s perfect, really.”

Conde: “I feel like we made history.”

This isn’t hyperbole. The three seniors were among the nine members of the first-ever graduating class of the first independent school in the United States to fully integrate a college-preparatory education with a Major League Soccer-affiliated, youth soccer development program.

The school – YSC Academy – opened its doors in September of 2013 in partnership with the Philadelphia Union. It gives the team’s academy members like Carvalho, Conde and Wilson a private education across the street from the Union’s youth facility. Training sessions are worked into their daily schedule. And it was all made possible by Richie Graham, a part owner of the Union, the CEO of YSC Sports and the founder of YSC Academy. He hopes the facility will help the United States pump out elite soccer players as teams do in Europe, where this kind of sports academy model is more common.

“The idea is: Can we build an American solution to a youth academy model that produces world-class players that are good enough to some day play at PPL Park and that are good enough to some day represent the national team and help us win the World Cup?” Graham said. “It’s a big vision but that’s the idea … It takes time though.”

“Taking time” is something that Graham and other Union executives and coaches have stressed. After all, of the nine players who graduated from YSC Academy earlier this month, none immediately signed with the Union as a “Homegrown Player” – an MLS mechanism that allows teams to sign local players from their own development academies without it counting against the salary budget. But all nine are bound for quality college soccer programs and can still be signed to homegrown deals by the Union in the next few years before entering the MLS draft or going another pro route.

Of course, while YSC Academy’s main objective may be to groom future Union stars – “Our dream is to put as many starting-11 players as we can from our local area, and this is how we do it,” Union CEO Nick Sakiewicz said at the time of the grand opening – the reality is that most of the school’s student body won’t be good enough to accomplish that goal. That’s why the school is aimed to help everyone reach their full potential, even if it ends up being away from the soccer pitch.

According to Head of School Dr Nooha Ahmed Lee, YSC Academy’s small class sizes and independent, modern approach to education has helped open doors for many of the 65 students enrolled this past year (up from 34 in 2013-14). Or, as University of North Carolina-bound graduate Wilson says of the school that looks more like a Silicon Valley startup with huge glass windows and conference tables in each classroom, “You can’t hide. You have to interact. And no one judges you here.” (Wilson doesn’t think he’d be suiting up for UNC in the fall if he hadn’t gone to YSC.)

As a self-declared “soccer novice,” Ahmed-Lee admitted to feeling some trepidation when she was first hired to run the school. But over the past two years, she’s learned how vital the integration of sports can be for student-athletes. On top of the early-morning workouts energizing students for the rest of the day – something that Graham says makes students “more capable to learn” – teachers also work the sport into their lessons (with a physics class on projectile motion in relation to kicking a soccer ball just one of the many examples). And because everyone at the school is a soccer player, students who wish to stand out must do so in other ways.

“I think it makes holistic sense in terms of how one learns,” Ahmed-Lee said. “I think it’s really a good model. There are many schools that are taking out [physical education] classes, they’re taking out art and music classes. But those are really important parts to the brain. I like this model a lot because I think it enhances learning. And I didn’t quite know as an academic that it would make such a dramatic difference.”

While no other American professional sports team is believed to be doing exactly what the Union are with their relationship to YSC Academy, the model does have some roots in the United States. IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, has been the home to US Soccer’s full-time residency program for the U-17 men’s national team since 1999 and has been central to the sport’s growth. And Burke Mountain Academy (BMA) was the first sports-specific high school developed in North America, dating all the way back to 1970 when it opened for elite ski racers.

Graham attended Burke Mountain Academy in the mid 1980s and said he always had “in the back of my mind” the idea to “create that kind of environment for soccer”. But while calling BMA the “conceptual genesis” of YSC Academy, Graham has also sought counsel from many European soccer people, inviting them to his corner of suburban Philadelphia to discuss the best ways to foster youth development in a country that still lags well behind their brethren across the pond.

“I don’t feel like we’re doing something that’s crazy new,” Graham said. “I really believe this thing can be successful because I’ve seen it work in other elements. I’ve seen what they’re doing in Germany and Spain and other parts of the world. There’s no doubt in my mind that we have the talent here to create something special.”

Graham added that some of his friends in Europe agree that the US could be a world soccer power if they figure out the youth puzzle. But, of course, that’s easier said than done. In Philly’s home territory alone, for instance, there’s a vast swath of territory to cover with over 800 local kids in the Union academy’s database. And beyond scouting players for the Union’s U-18, U-16 and U-14 teams, there’s a difficult application process to get into YSC Academy. Meanwhile, there are some members of the academy program that are not enrolled in the school as well as some YSC Academy students who are not on any of the academy teams. Part of the reason for that may be because playing for the Union academy is free while the school charges tuition – although Graham stresses that a vast majority of YSC students receive significant financial aid.

Graham will be the first to admit that there’s been a learning curve over the past two years. The academy has a larger residency component than it did in the beginning with some students staying with host families (including a small percentage that come from different parts of the country where they might not be near an MLS team), but the majority are local enough to drive to and from school or be driven by their parents. And Graham is open to the idea of letting girls attend the school in the future.

For him, the idea has always been to try new things – and he hopes other MLS teams around the country will do the same.

“US soccer has a residency program for our 17s,” Graham said. “Now imagine if we had 24 residency programs – high-level learning environments for our top players across all the big metropolitan markets. Then it really starts to get interesting. When I have Europeans come over, they know we have a lot of the ingredients in this country to be a future powerhouse. If you think about our population, our athletes, our commitment as a culture to sports, we have a lot of the right ingredients – we just have to get the environments right to get kids to maximize their potential.”

If nothing else, the emergence of YSC Academy should help a Union franchise that’s made the playoffs only once in its five years of existence and doesn’t sign big-name European superstars like some of their MLS rivals. Union head coach Jim Curtin, a lifelong Philadelphian, has made it clear that signing homegrowns will be a priority for him moving forward. And he’s invited many academy players to train with the first team, even taking some down to preseason camp in Florida this year for the first time.

“I think the environment that Richie Graham has created up there is as close to Europe as you can possibly replicate,” Curtin said. “It makes the kids’ day a little easier and it’s more focused. The setup is a unique one and one I wish I had when I was younger. The opportunity and the environment they’ve crated there puts kids on a fast track and gives them the best opportunity to become pros.”

The connection between the Union first team and YSC Academy is certainly tangible. In addition to the students training with the Union, some of the pros also come down to visit the school, where the Union logo is plastered all over the lockers.

That’s just one of the reasons why aspiring professionals like Carvalho decided to be what Ahmed-Lee called a “trailblazer” and attend a soccer high school – even if he wasn’t entirely sure what that meant at the time.

“Being here has helped us learn what the Union is all about,” said Carvalho, who will play for Northeastern this fall. “They have a young history that’s trying to grow every year. And it’s important that we’re a part of the process.

“I’m sure there are going to be other schools that start something like this based on the model we created,” he added. “But it’s pretty awesome to be part of the first graduating class of a soccer school.”