FRISCO - When FC Dallas returned from a week-long preseason trip to the desert on Tuesday, it wrapped up the first taste of professional life for five members of the club’s Academy.
Luis Carillo, Jesus Ferreira, Mark Salas, Devin Vega and Toshiki Yasuda all spent the last week in Casa Grande, Arizona, going through the same grueling three-a-day practices that the first team does in preparation for the MLS season.
“Three-times-a-day training sessions were tough, but we got through it,” Vega said. “You can see in all the pro players their eating habits, the way they treat themselves, the way they recover and stuff like that - it helps us Academy guys learn from them. Obviously we want to be there one day and it was an experience that was once in a lifetime.”
Similar to when Alex Zendejas and Coy Craft joined the traveling roster during the 2015 Playoffs, as Dallas continues to develop it’s next Homegrown stars, it’s these small looks at professional life and the next step that help push its young Academy kids to the next level.
“These kids had the opportunity to closely see what it takes to be a professional, not just on the field, but off the field - how the professionals take care of their bodies, the level of intensity in training - and that for us is priceless,” head coach Oscar Pareja said. “It’s part of our program and the professional players understand that too. They’re willing to help them, teach them and work with them and it makes the FC Dallas program different than everybody else.”
And the lessons learned from the pros extended beyond soccer as Academy players were officially welcomed to the group by partaking in the annual rookie ritual - getting custom haircuts from the Dallas veterans.
“It was good,” Yasuda said laughing. “It was nice to see what they do to all the rookies and newcomers and it was a good [bonding] experience.”
“I see them in that learning process with the professional players being very special with them,” Pareja said. “I think they understood that we have a culture here with protocols and a tradition that [the rookies] shave their heads and do all those things and they were very serious about it - accepting that it was a part of their welcome to the group and understanding that they were the rookies of the preseason, it was the first time in preseason for these guys.”
The youngsters didn’t just practice, but also got to see some game action during their first preseason. Wanting to see trialists and draft picks in action, Pareja filled out the roster in two preseason friendlies with members of the FCD Academy. Carillo, Salas and Vega all played a full 60 minutes in a 2-1 win over New England last Wednesday, and over the weekend all five players saw time in a 4-0 victory over Grand Canyon University, with Vega picking up the lone non-Timo Pitter goal.
“We ended up just playing and starting four kids from the Academy - and they’re 98s and 99s, so we’re talking about kids that are 16 - and they coped with the game very well,” Pareja said. “They won the game 4-0, they played in a high-intensity level and for me it was a huge step for our Academy program - these are kids and they were great playing [against] men and for me, that’s worth it. That’s the way we want to take this program.”
“The whole week’s been a really life-changing experience,” Yasuda said. “Probably one of the most challenging weeks in my whole entire life, but it’s only going to make us stronger and better and ready to just excel.”
FRISCO - When FC Dallas returned from a week-long preseason trip to the desert on Tuesday, it wrapped up the first taste of professional life for five members of the club’s Academy.">