It wouldn’t be too difficult to convince even the casual soccer fan that North Carolina FC has one of the country’s most successful youth academies. The numbers speak for themselves: in the last five years, the program has produced 33 players called into U.S. youth national team camps, nine players signed professionally in Major League Soccer, the USL Championship, and across Europe, 18 players signed to academy contracts with NCFC's Championship side, and more than 100 players committed to play college soccer.

In a soccer hotbed like the Raleigh area, which is also home to numerous collegiate powerhouses and the organization's outstanding National Women's Soccer League side the North Carolina Courage, which itself is coming off back-to-back league titles, it may seem easy to build this kind of success. But those behind the scenes have built a top-notch professional pathway for local youth players using a strategy with one key element behind it: connectivity.