The Kids Are Alright

Two big pieces of news on the youth front this week.  We'll start with our newest player.  Today the Rapids announced the long-rumored signing of 16-year old RB Sebastian Anderson from the Academy.  Anderson trained with the first team in preseason and plenty of hints have been dropped in the last month that this signing was coming.  While nobody expects Anderson to immediately make an impact in MLS, the Rapids leadership are saying that he is ready to play at the MLS level and will likely get some spot time this season (USOC maybe?).  With no natural backup at RB for Rosenberry there does appear to be a need he can fill.

Also this week 16-year old Academy keeper Abraham Rodriguez got the start for the Switchbacks (apparently Academy players can play for the USL side without losing college eligibility) and made 11 saves.  His play was so good that the USL named him the player of the week.  While the Rapids don't need to sign a 4th keeper right now, with Howard retiring and both Irwin and Rawls on short term contracts there should be spots opening in 2019, might Rodriguez be a future Homegrown Player?

Two great signs that our youth system is developing talent.  Now the next step is to use that talent to help the first-team, either by pushing the play of the first-team to the next level or selling that talent to buy players that will help the team.  Shane O'Neill is the best example of the latter, that's the model a small club like the Rapids can use to be competitive against teams with greater resources.