The FC Dallas Youth teams have picked up more than their share of accolades in 2015, but it’s one of the coaches who is now being recognized amongst his peers.
Scott Dymond, FCDY’s College Director and coach of the 17U and 18U Premier Boys teams, has been named Coach of the Year by North Texas Soccer, the governing body for all youth soccer in the DFW area.
“It was a great honor to be nominated, first of all, and then to win it, it was great,” Dymond said. “I always try to surround myself with great people and I have a couple of coaches that help and then the support of FC Dallas is fantastic.”
As the North Texas representative, Dymond is now up for the same award at the regional level – covering the entire southeast portion of the U.S. The Region III winner would then be up for the national award.
While his teams have enjoyed continued success – winning Dallas Cup twice and going to Nationals in four of his five seasons with the organization - it’s Dymond’s role working to hopefully send each player across the Youth system to college that he finds the most rewarding.
“When I first came in I spoke to Dan [Hunt], and one of the big myths running around was that we only cared about our players turning pro,” Dymond said. “Dan definitely didn’t want that. He wanted our players to not only have a path to the pros, but also a path to college.”
Now, five years later, around 100 FCD Youth products realize such dreams each year between the Academy, Premier and ECNL teams.
“We’ve had quite a few of those kids that [can say] ‘I’m the first person in my family to go to college,’” Dymond said. “What a great experience for them and a great way to change their future [through soccer].”
Every player in the FC Dallas Youth system has dreams of being the next Homegrown signing – like former Academy players Alex Zendejas and Coy Craft – but the larger body of athletes can benefit from more time to develop on the field, while earning a college education off the field.
“It’s only going to happen to a very small percentage,” Dymond said of making the jump from the youth level to the pros. “College is a great avenue, not only to get your education paid for, but to be seen and to be tracked through your college career to maybe come back into the program.”
Now that the first products of Dymond’s early years in Frisco are completing their time at four-year universities across the country, the professional technical staff has an even larger body from which to find the next FC Dallas Homegrown star.
“It’s even bigger decisions for our pro guys,” he said. “They look and say, ‘Ok, we’ve got these Academy kids who are 18, are they the next pro? Or is it the kid that is coming out of college, are they the next pro?’”
And as the FCD Youth program continues to grow – now over 3,200 kids strong – the club is building of model for youth development – from world-class facilities like the Toyota Soccer Center, to Academy players training with the first team on a daily basis, all the way to people like Dymond helping each player realize his or her dream.
“We’re a professional organization. To me, that’s the difference. We provide every aspect for every player and what they want to do,” Dymond said. “They have access to so much more here and I think it’s just fantastic.”
