The first fully funded, professional soccer academy in Austin is on its way this fall. Austin FC announced Thursday that its inaugural Austin FC Academy team will begin play in August as part of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy.

The squad will compete at the under-14 level for the 2019-20 season, with more age groups to be added before the Major League Soccer team takes the pitch in 2021.

“Austin FC wants to produce players from Austin through our academy,” Tyson Wahl, the academy general manager, told the American-Statesman. “We have a style of play that we’re going to create that’s going to teach the kids how to have the skills to succeed with the first team, because I expect that style to be very similar.”

Junro Narita, the technical director at St. Stephen’s Soccer Academy and a former pro player from Japan, will serve as the U-14 team’s head coach. Wahl, who played 11 seasons in MLS and most recently served as the youth development director for the Austin Texans, was named to his position in January.

Players who were born in 2006 or later will be eligible for the U-14 squad. Wahl said the academy has begun scouting players around the area and has invitation-only tryouts planned for April and May. It is not planning to hold open tryouts.

Austin FC Academy will also begin a Center of Excellence training program for players born in 2007 and 2008 to help identify and develop future academy players. Players in those programs will not be asked to leave their current clubs but will be eligible for training sessions once a week for two nine-week cycles in the fall and spring.

“We wanted to start with an age group that was young enough to have a big impact on, and to really help them learn how to play the way we want to play,” Wahl said. “It will give them time to develop to become professional players.”

While a first-team MLS coach won’t be named until later, Wahl described the desired playing style as being an “attractive, intelligent, high-intensity, attack-minded soccer team.”

For the second season in 2020-21, the U-14 players will graduate to U-15 with a new U-14 team being formed of players born in 2007 or later. Players in born in 2004 and 2005 will also be closely scouted, and Wahl said it’s possible a U-17 team would be formed in year two. Interested and qualified players born between 2004 and 2009 are encouraged to complete a recruiting form on the team’s website.

The Austin FC Academy will train and play matches at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, where Narita will remain employed as the school's academy technical director. Eventually the teams will move when Austin FC’s permanent training facility is built.

Narita has been at St. Stephen’s since 2013. He was an assistant coach for the Austin Aztex of the United Soccer League in 2015 and before that coached in Japan and New Mexico. He was born and raised in Japan, played at the University of Mexico in 2001-02 and played one season in the Japan A-League in 2003. Narita holds a USSF “A” coaching license and speaks English, Japanese and Spanish.

He “has experience coaching in the DA,” Wahl said. “He’s had tremendous impact on a lot of young players with his work at St. Stephen’s, and he also hosts coaching courses. He’s a U.S. Soccer coaching instructor, so he has great relationships with coaches, and that’s going to be crucial for us to have those strong relationships in the area.”

The academy being fully funded means that families of players who are accepted will not have to pay for registration, uniforms and travel fees. MLS incentivizes teams to develop local talent with its Homegrown Player Rule. Homegrown players do not count against the MLS salary budget and may earn a higher salary than the league minimum.

Players who are ready can graduate directly from the academy to the first team at any point, or they can go to college and still be eligible to sign with their hometown team rather than being drafted. DeAndre Yedlin, Tyler Adams, Wil Trapp and Jordan Morris are examples of U.S. men’s national team players who took advantage of the homegrown structure.

“Our staff has been scouting the area heavily, and we want to identify players from all around Austin and in the nearby regions,” Wahl said. “We’re also relying and hoping for recommendations from coaches in the community because obviously they know their players best.”

He said information on the website and social media platforms will be displayed in both English and Spanish, and that the academy has already started working with primarily Hispanic youth soccer programs in East Austin, as well as the established Development Academy juggernaut Lonestar Soccer Club and other clubs in the region.

“That’s a community that we highly value,” he said when asked about plans for Hispanic outreach.

The all-boys academy was a flashpoint during Austin City Council deliberations about the MLS stadium last summer. Initially included as a part of the community benefits the city would receive for use of city-owned land near the Domain, it sparked a debate over gender equity in youth soccer opportunities.

In addition to its academy, Austin FC has a nonexclusive agreement to support the Lonestar SC girls Development Academy (120 girls) and its Women's Premier Soccer League club.