Prior Lake native Teal Bunbury is a good example of the unique ways top-tier soccer players have been developed recently in the United States.

Before college and starting his Major League Soccer career in 2010, Bunbury was on the development academy team at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School in Fairbault, Minn. Instead of going to a traditional high school, Bunbury played for Shattuck’s squads within the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, a nationwide system for developing elite boys players.

As Minnesota United FC enters MLS as an expansion franchise in spring 2017, the franchise is laying groundwork to start its youth development academy within U.S. Soccer’s structure. An early step came Thursday when the Loons announced the hiring of academy director Tim Carter, who ran Shattuck’s program and was instrumental in Bunbury’s progress from 2005-08.

United’s development academy will have an exclusive-to-MLS area to scout and recruit players to eventually play on three teams based on age: under 14, U16 and U18, and it could later include girls teams. The academy’s plan is to provide educational and training opportunities for the boys, while creating an advancement avenue for the best players in the academy to reach MLS.

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United FC’s TV partnership for MLS up in air, but club likes groundwork laid United sporting director Manny Lagos said the club is being diligent in establishing the academy and has yet to determine its start date and other details. Lagos said they want to get it right the first time because they understand the academy’s success will be vital for a medium-sized market like Minnesota to be competitive in MLS.

“We have to make sure that we get it right with the community,” said Lagos, whose position with United is the equivalent of a general manager in other sports. “It’s the only way we can be competitive. … This isn’t a market like New York or L.A., where (the academy) may be a secondary initiative. It’s going to have to be a big initiative for us to be successful.”

United will build its roster many ways, through bigger, higher-priced names coming in as designated players, through the expansion and collegiate drafts, transfers and loans for players on other clubs as well as current Loons players competing for the club in the North American Soccer League.

United gave the academy’s reins to Carter based on his extensive 30-year resume, including the director of player development with the MLS club Chicago Fire in 2001 and other leadership roles within the U.S. Soccer Federation in the late 1990s. Carter started Shattuck-St. Mary’s program in 2005, and Bunbury was one of 18 players in Carter’s inaugural recruiting class.

“I wanted to take my game to the next level, so everything he has done at Shattuck-St. Mary’s has been a testament to his knowledge of the game, his understanding of getting the best from youth players,” said Bunbury, now a forward with the New England Revolution.

Carter will be tasked with involving existing soccer entities in the state, from the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association to youth leagues in local minority communities. He will look to best practices from MLS locales such as FC Dallas and the Philadelphia Union, as well as other soccer programs around the world. The MLS-mandated academy structure is an attempt to have players competing from fall to early summer, a much longer schedule than offered in high schools and colleges, in order to catch up to the level of play in other countries.

In Minnesota, there are two existing U.S. Soccer-affiliated academies — Shattuck’s-St. Mary’s and the Minnesota Thunder Academy, a vestige of the former pro team from 1995-2009. What will set United’s academy apart from those two will be a higher level of investment, more resources — and a direct avenue to MLS.

“To get to the top sort of looked like a path through the woods, and it wandered and meandered,” Carter said. “Now, over the years, that pathway has gotten straighter.”

Bunbury didn’t have a direct avenue to MLS. After Shattuck, he attended the University of Akron and won the Hermann Trophy, given to the best player in college soccer. He left college early and was the fourth overall pick in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft by the then-Kansas City Wizards.

Hypothetically, if Bunbury were in United’s academy for a year during his youth, the Loons would have been able to sign him to a “homegrown player” pro contract, and he would not have been to subjected to the draft.

Current United player Ish Jome provides a different example of the many ways Minnesotans have become pro soccer players. Jome, 21, was in the Thunder academy, and then was named Minnesota Mr. Soccer as a high school player at Prairie Seeds Academy in 2012. He played three years at the University of California-Santa Barbara before leaving early and signing a pro contract with United in March. United has since set him up with an avenue to get his college degree.

“He is a young fellow that you would hope to have in your (academy) system,” Carter said. “Now there comes a point in time (when you have to decide), do you go to college or do you go professional? There is a decision that is made along the way, but what better way to know than to come through your process to know whether this is a good bet or not a good bet.”

United’s reserve team will serve as the bridge for player development from the academy to the first team, which will play in MLS. United currently has a loosely affiliated reserve team, and going into next season, the league the reserve team will play is yet to be determined.

United would like to establish its academy at the National Sports Center in Blaine. That’s where the club trains and currently plays its home matches. They will move matches to the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium next season as its $150 million stadium in St. Paul is constructed; it opens sometime in the 2018 season.

“One of the things is when you look at the academies around the world that have success it’s if they have brick and mortar,” Carter said. “National Sports Center provides a tremendous home.”

United and MLS have yet to determine the territory the academy’s staff will be able to scout. Clubs in big markets are limited to a 75-mile radius of their home stadium, while smaller-market clubs have larger areas. Sporting Kansas City, for instance, has the entire states of Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.

“There is a lot more development work going on,” Carter said. “What we hope to have here is a lot of kids not just dream the dream but actually realize the dream.”