Temecula F.C. is proud to announce the alignment of their U-19 team, coached by Alex Trujillo, as the official reserve team to the TFC first team. Tem
Temecula F.C. is proud to announce the alignment of their U-19 team, coached by Alex Trujillo, as the official reserve team to the TFC first team. Temecula F.C. competes in the National Premier Soccer League, the highest available level of professional soccer in the Inland Empire.
Player development is Temecula FC’s main priority, and the reserve team will provide a vitally important transitional platform for players to ease into the TFC first team. The U-19 reserve squad will play in the famed Coast Soccer League and consists of local players from within a 30 minute drive of Temecula’s home field. 5 reserve team members have already played in preseason friendly matches.
The reserve team trains closely with the first team when possible 3-4 times per month. The goal is to have 80% of academy players in the first team over the next 2-3 years. Players within the club now at U-15 age group (Birth year 2002) and above are very important, as they will have the first crack at breaking into Temecula’s senior set up.
U-15 Academy player Adrian Mendoza
The benefits to the reserve and other youth teams in the academy are very clear for all to see. The close training with the first team and coaching staff leads to faster and more streamlined development and understanding of the level of play needed to compete at the professional level.
The academy players see it every day at training. They see the fitness standards. They see the work rate. They see the commitment. They see the technical ability of the players. The first team coaching staff, as well as the academy staff, often discuss current players in the youth academy that might be ready to start training with the first team.
Temecula FC owner Brandon Jantz commented, “the process is simple as one of our first team coaches or scouts will watch the youth player in a few match over a few weeks and determine if they are ready to jump in training with the first team. The academy players stay registered to their youth team and will continue to train with both teams until they are ready to make the jump and get first team playing time.
We have a few players at the moment that are training and getting match time with the first team and we hope by 2017 most of our reserve team are in the first team squad. It does make for a very young and inexperienced team which can lead to some poor results at times against seasoned professional teams and players but the growth and development the players get is worth it.”
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