Thursday, April 3 LONDON, ENGLAND – Wednesday and Thursday were eventful days for the 12 boys selected to accompany United Soccer Leagues on their tour of West Ham Academy in London, England. The highlight of Wednesday was their training session and evaluation with former West Ham United first-teamer, Paul Heffer.
“The boys are working hard on the technical aspects of the game to be up to the West Ham standard,” said West Ham Academy Coach, Paul Heffer in an interview with USL’s Senior Director of Youth League Development, Jeff McRaney. “The boys are fit, but they also have to adapt to a faster speed of play. They are learning and they can certainly compete.”
“Paul [Heffer] ran us through our training session today,” said Bangu Tsunami goalkeeper Cody Cropper of the training session. “I worked with the West Ham Academy Goalkeeper Coach [Jerome John] the first few days, but today the goalkeepers trained with the field players. We all worked on footwork – making sure our passes were both firm, and on the ground.”
Following their training session, the boys attended an Education and Welfare seminar with West Ham’s Nick Haycock.
“That went well,” continued Cropper. “Nick ran through a few things with the group that focused on the importance West Ham places on education while players are in the academy. His job is to place academy players in nearby schools and to make sure that those players are performing well in their studies.”
“The wellness half of the seminar dealt with the West Ham Academy schedule,” said Cropper. “It is set up in a way that players will avoid getting burnt out. They have a maximum training schedule of 30 hours per week or three full matches. He explained that anything beyond that limit leads to your body absorbing too much of a beating.”
“The coaching staff at West Ham is very thorough,” added Cropper. “They give you a lot of individual attention. I used to let my leg come out from under me when I slid to make a save, they corrected that right away. They also taught me a quicker way to get across the goal by using smaller steps.
I had some quality defenders yesterday [Tuesday] so I was not tested too much, but I feel I am a stronger goalkeeper, technically and tactically, than the West Ham players at my age level. I believe I have more to offer.”
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Justin Maheu
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Ottawa Fury
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Alan Narvaez
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Juventus Sport Club
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Cody Mizell
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Atlanta Silverbacks
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Renato Pezzulo
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Parsippany SC
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Glenroy Chapman
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South Jersey Barons
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Ryan Lehman
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Atlanta Fire United
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Aaron Liang
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Santa Cruz County Breakers
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Cody Cropper
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Bangu Tsunami
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Sekani Sinclair
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Schulz Academy
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Giovanni Freitas
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Sunrise SC
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Fabian Bastidas
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Sunrise SC
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Antonio Schneider
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Chicago Magic
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The boys met Thursday with current West Ham first-teamer and U.S. National Team Member, Jonathan Spector.
“I liked the Q & A session with Spector,” said Fabian Bastidas, who played for Sunrise SC in the Super Y-League last season. “I asked him how he got to where he was today. He said that he never thought he was going to be a professional soccer player until he was about my age [14].”
“The best part of this trip for me so far was the chance to walk on the pitch and see the locker rooms of the first team,” said Bastidas. “It felt so good, so professional, to walk around in there and wear the same sweaters as the professional players. I felt like I was part of the West Ham team.”
