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Introducing Toronto FC Academy

By lo admin, 05/29/14, 4:00PM EDT

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Introducing Toronto FC Academy

Thu May 29 
Written By: Rollins, Duane
 

Toronto FC Academy (TFCA) has a unique place within the League1 Ontario framework. 

On one hand, they are part of the highest profile club in Ontario. Toronto FC plays at the highest level of professional soccer in Canada, and the club has captured the  Amway Canadian Championship's Voyageurs Cup four times. 

TFCA has graduated several players to the senior team, including regular MLS and national team starter Doneil Henry. 

More recently, players like Quillan Roberts and Jordan Hamilton have gone from TFCA to star at the Canadian international youth levels. Both of those players are now starting regularly for the Wilmington Hammerheads of USL-Pro, where they are on loan from TFC.

This is a club that has already established itself as a strong player in the Canadian development system, in spite of its relatively young age. TFCA has only been operating since 2008.

With many of the clubs in League1 having been around much longer than TFCA, there is bound to be some resentment in Ontario development circles about the quick success of the club. That was underlined recently, as some in the Ontario soccer community thought that maybe TFCA was moving away from operating within the Canadian system.

Whether those perceptions were accurate in the past is debatable. What is outside debate is the current commitment to being an ongoing part of the Ontario soccer community, says TFCA director Greg Vanney.

"I wasn't here before (this year)," Vanney says, "so I don't know what the relations were. I do know that we're not here to say we are the biggest, baddest, greatest club around. We are just one part of the community."

Vanney stresses that TFCA's goal of identifying and developing the best local talent for its senior team cannot be accomplished if they are acting outside the domestic system. That's why TFC is the only MLS team that has decided not to attach itself to the American academy system – a distinction that is not shared by the other two Canadian based MLS teams.

"We want to be a part of building this league," Vanney said.

Beyond a philosophical belief that they should be part of the community, TFC sees League1 Ontario as providing its senior academy with a significant challenge. TFCA will likely be the youngest team in the league, with many of the players three to four years younger than their opposition.

That competitive challenge will help grow the prospects as players. Ultimately, Vanney suggests, learning to win in League1 will teach the young Reds to win at the next level as well. 

Ideally, as part of TFC and the Canadian national team.

Toronto FC Academy open their League1 Ontario campaign at the Ontario Soccer Centre on Friday May 30 at 8 p.m. vs. Vaughan Azzurri. 

The club's home opener is scheduled for June 22, 1 p.m. at the Kia Training Ground vs. Internacional de Toronto.