United made two major announcements in regards to their youth academy and development program this week. First, the club announced that their U-23 squad will be playing in the Premier Development League (PDL) in 2015. The move up to the PDL is part of a partnership with Evergreen FC which is a club based out of Leesburg, Virginia. The team will be managed by Richie Burke, who was an assistant under D.C. United when Ray Hudson coached the club.
The team will be eligible to play in the U.S. Open Cup, which gives United supporters three opportunities to see a team with ties to D.C. United win the title. Earlier in the month it was announced that D.C. United would extend their affiliation agreement with USL side Richmond Kickers.
The second piece of news that came out this week was that the club will be setting up a Residency Program with the Calverton School in Baltimore. The deal calls for United to provide coaching expertise and professional training for both male and female players.
For those unfamiliar with the region, the Calverton School is a small private school located in Huntingtown, Maryland located about 30-45 east of Washington D.C. It is a K-12 school that only has about 350 or so students but is a powerhouse in athletics. They participate in the Metro Independent School Athletic League and their Boy’s and Girl’s Soccer teams have won a combined 9 league titles.
Both of these moves speak to United’s desire to grow in the region. For years, the club was hamstrung by the stadium situation with the club always retaining the right to move out of the area. Now that the stadium deal is done and ground is expected to be broken the club can look to expand its influence in Maryland and Virginia.
What is interesting about the deal between United and Evergreen FC is that Steve Goff of the Washington Post had reported that the club was looking into getting their own USL team in the future with Leesburg being a possibility. Hmm…
The other interesting piece of this deal that really has not been mentioned is that D.C. United are currently engaged in a partnership with Sunderland, while Evergreen FC have a partnership with West Ham United. Although those clubs probably have bigger issues to worry about in the U.K., it would seem likely that one of those partnerships would end given that two Premier League clubs would likely not want to work with one another.
