

Posted by

Ian Clarke ,

April 9, 2014 Email

Ian Clarke



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Despite the leaps and bounds of progress made for soccer in Canada over the last decade, there is still a long way to go. There is no question the profile of the sport has increased dramatically since three of the country’s biggest cities joined Major League Soccer, however, there are many layers outside of the small handful of professional clubs that get limited exposure and missing from the Canadian consciousness. As a result, most believe the likes of the Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact and Toronto FC are the epicentre of not just the sport and player destinations, but also development. Financial resources and marketing have played a huge part in this, and as a result, many might think the paths for a professional footballer are extremely limited, or if these channels are not available, a successful career will not be within reach. What many Canadians might be encouraged to see is there are in fact options outside of MLS and their club academies. Coast to coast, Canada has a reputation of high level coaching and development, but the truth is it often does not get the recognition it deserves. If you were told this past year a Canadian academy showcased to 95 U.S. Colleges, comprising of ¾ of arguably the best soccer conference in the USA - the ACC - schools from the Big East, attracted perennial powers Connecticut, Akron as well as UCLA outside of California for the first time, and had established relationships overseas showcasing to the likes of Tottenham, Celtic, Mallorca, Espanyol, Club Brugges, Genk, Ajax, AZ, Hertha Berlin, Hamburg and FC Koln, would your first thoughts be it must have been one of the pro academies in Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal? The list of interested schools and clubs did not come to Canada for any of the MLS teams, but an independent academy operating out of Mississauga, Ontario. Sigma FC has emerged over the last few years as one of the top youth player development centres in Canada, yet is not in or a part of the national discourse to extent one would expect with their growing results. With the bridge between grassroots soccer and the mainstream still not as seamless as it should be, a realistic question is how many other academies like Sigma FC are delivering results in player development and influencing Canada’s future in football? Part 1: A Canadian solution for a Canadian problem

Bobby Smyrniotis grew up playing in the Canadian soccer system. A highly touted youth player, a story not uncommon in sports, had to end his dreams early of being a professional player due to knee injuries that took their toll by the age of 20. Knowing his passion for the game and wanting to remain involved, he took the steps to pursue coaching at a young age, finding his way eventually into the youth set up of Olympiacos in Greece. It was there that he formed a relationship with Ajax to run schools and camps to identify players, and Bobby became one of the key technical organizers and would solidify his relationship with the Dutch club. It was during this time that he saw firsthand, and realized, the philosophies and structure that were developing and producing players both in the Netherlands and Greece were lacking back home in Canada. “What do I mean by structure?” Bobby explains, “Having a universal philosophy of how you train, of how you develop players from a young age all the way up to the first team. This includes a style and vision attached to the methods you use. We have nothing like that in Canada. We have good athletes and players who are thrown onto the pitch to try and win games.” It was a problem that both Bobby and his brother Costa knew well from growing up in Canada. After working abroad, and building relationships with key technical and organizational people in the sport, they knew there was a solution from there that could work. However, Costa’s vision went a step further than simply borrowing the European framework and transplanting it back home. “I don’t like to refer to it as an outside approach because I believe you need a Canadian solution. When there is a local problem, you should find a local solution. We are a country that does an excellent job of catering to 99% of players, but what we never did was cater to that 1%. We never looked after putting together a plan of how we’re going to carve out that 1% and take players from point A to point B and put Canada on the map in a time where Canada was not on the map.” “The Canadian national team was a reflection of that,” Costa continues, to further show the motivation that began to manifest, “As we were working outside of the country in soccer, someone was always asking you ‘why aren’t you doing work in Hockey?’ Well, you can either agree or take it personally. We took it personally, and as a challenge.” Bobby eventually moved back home to Canada and with his and Costa’s experiences in Europe, they were approached by community clubs to put in technical plans to further local programs. However, as Canadians know all too well through the sport, the plans were received with enthusiasm and accepted by the technical staff, but time after time, the board would reject the changes. “That was when it really became obvious,” recalls Bobby, “and I turned to Costa and said ‘we’re going to have to do this on our own.” It began with the relationship that had been forged with Ajax and Bobby and Costa received an offer to set up camps for the Dutch club to do player identification in Canada. An opportunity came to take a group of 11 year olds to Mallorca for an international tournament, a group that would seven years later go on to become the academy’s biggest graduating class. As it was their first real initiative, there was significant pressure to deliver results, but it was two-sided. A long process of looking for the right group of young players took place, and that was needed in order to impress their contacts with Ajax and maintain that relationship. However, ensuring a successful experience for the players was paramount to build their reputation moving forward. “We had these camps with Ajax and brought in 6 coaches from the club that we knew well. That was a great way to get players in to see them and for kids to see the training environment,” Bobby explains, “It was our own coaches, Ajax coaches, so that was a positive first introduction into things right at the beginning and then having a training program of our own that continued after that.” “From the camps and that group,” Bobby continues, “people started giving feedback that they liked the training; why can’t we do it all year? From there we put together a training program in for the first year, then it turned into; we’re training here, we have camps here, why can’t we have teams?” That was the beginning of Sigma FC, comprising of two age groups: 11 year olds that would include names such as Cyle Larin (UConn), Richmond Laryea (Akron) and Chris Nanco (Syracuse), and 15 year olds that had the likes of 2013 MLS first round draft picks Kyle Bekker and Emery Welshman. It went from training and travel squads with players already in club environments, to formalizing teams in 2008. “We spent about a year at the fields just watching games and training,” recalls Costa, “that was one of the most important things we did back then. We went from field to field; Monday night we’re going to watch this age group, Tuesday this age group. We went all over the province, understanding the players, the landscape of the region, everything. The process was invaluable.” Preparation was one thing, delivering was quite another, especially when parents were putting the future of their children in someone else’s hands. The political nature of soccer reared its head early on as the magnitude of what Sigma was offering had caused discomfort for many within Ontario. Both Bobby and Costa knew that what they had set up in terms of camps and training sessions had to remain of the same quality once they formalized teams, if they were going to succeed. “What was important was that the quality was consistent,” Costa explains, “You can’t one day put on a great show and when the bright lights fade, you can’t deliver. It was very difficult back then because you had the whole system telling these players, ‘Hey you’re going somewhere where nobody has gone before – meaning this path – how are you going to give up everything that you know today? How are you going to give up national teams? Being seen by provincial coaches? How you going to give up the current top league to go somewhere where you have no idea what it’s going to be like? You’ll be shunned and you will never amount to being a great player.’ It was a giant leap of faith for a lot of parents and kids at that point.” “Essentially soccer purgatory is what people were told they would enter getting involved with us,” adds Bobby, “I don’t mind saying there were people over us trying to change kids’ minds, people from high association positions trying to get players away from our academy.” “But the key thing was, we never got involved in any of that,” states Costa, “We always told the players, wherever you’re going to be, you need to believe in the environment. If you believe in the project, what it can bring you long term, go there. If not, then don’t go there. We never “sold” things or acted like salesmen. All we said is – if you put in hard work, there’s a good chance positive things will come to you.” Sigma avoided the politics in Ontario and Canadian soccer, and began to focus on what was important and ultimately the main goal: developing elite players. From their initial two age groups, they have evolved into having teams from U11 up to their first team, delivering a true professional academy with a team at the top of the club for players to aspire to. Beginning in 2014, Sigma FC will also compete in the Ontario Soccer Association’s League 1 as one of the founding teams alongside their existing teams in the OSL Elite Division and OSL Provincial U21. “It was a huge challenge to stick to your morals, what you believe in and have a relentless focus that our way and the way we’ve planned it out is going to work and deliver five, six, seven years down the road. And stick to it, and those who were going to come along for the ride would achieve the success they had set out for.” In part two of the series, we will look at Sigma FC’s approach to youth and player development, their philosophies in training, as well as reasons behind a roadmap that has made the NCAA an integral component to their vision. Look for it to be published the same time next week.