USL Feature
Friday, May 20, 2011
By NICHOLAS MURRAY
When the Wilmington Hammerheads were looking at players to build their roster for the 2011 season, Coach David Irving know of one place that would likely be able to provide a number of quality young players for their squad.
And thanks to a number of former members of the USL Premier Development League’s Ventura County Fusion, the Hammerheads have hit the ground running, winning their first three home games of the season.
So far the leader of the latest group to join the club has been defender Ivan Becerra, who has a goal and has appeared in all four of the Hammerheads games. But Becerra has been joined by Emmanuel Guzman and Dylan Riley, both of whom have also played in all four games, and Hakop Aveysan, who has made two appearances off the bench.
The relationship between the Hammerheads and Fusion began thanks in part to a long-time friendship between Irving and former Fusion coach Graham Smith. The duo played together in the old North American Soccer League and remained friends long after their playing days were over and they went into coaching. With Smith leading the Fusion’s program, he was able to point Irving towards players who were ready to play at the next level.
“There’s a lot of players on the west coast that we don’t get to see and it was a great way to utilize them,” Irving said of the relationship. “I know they’re a good PDL model and that even though they’re amateur they’re pretty professional in the work they do and they have a good organization, and I know the players they would get would be good kids, good professionals and technically pretty good.”
While Smith retired after the Fusion won the 2009 PDL National Championship, the Fusion have continued to produce talented players. What’s impressive, though, is that while the club regularly loses a number of players each spring to MLS and USL teams, it has maintained its high standards of play year-in and year-out.
“I think our club’s philosophy is to look for players that we believe have the qualities that will allow them to succeed at the next level,” current Fusion coach Ole Mikkelsen said. “So although we had a rather large exodus from last year’s team, we’ve actually had players move on every season, whether it be MLS, or USL or even two that have gone overseas, so there is always a certain amount of turnover for us every season and the challenge is always to replenish your roster with players that we believe have the abilities that will allow them to move on.”
Mikkelsen was an assistant to Smith for two years before taking over upon his retirement. With the Fusion playing a number of games against MLS and international competition - in recent years the club has played English clubs Portsmouth, Burnley and Everton when they’ve been in California for preseason training - the players at the club are able to see up close what it takes to make it at the next level.
Getting to see so many of its former players have success in the professional ranks, including current Philadelphia Union rookies Michael and Gabriel Farfan, the Rochester Rhinos’ Alfonso Motagalvan and Plymouth Argyle’s Anton Peterlin, certainly is gratifying for the club.
Finding players that have the attributes to become professionals in the future is an important element the Fusion look for when trying to build their squad each season, and something they feel professional coaches like Irving value when trying to bring a new player up from the PDL ranks.
“I think David Irving has a background here having played in the old North American Soccer League, as I did, where we’re looking for similar qualities in players,” Mikkelsen said. “I don’t want to call it ‘old school’, but at the end of the day there are many elements to becoming a successful footballer, it’s not just skill on the ball and scoring goals and the like. There’s a lot of mental fortitude that is required and football intelligence, if you will, required, so it’s a full package.”
But the preparation the players get with the Fusion, who this spring played six preseason games against MLS competition as both got ready for their respective seasons, certainly shows when the former Fusion players make the jump to the next level.
“They’ve done a heck of a job,” Irving said. “They have a little different model to most where they have international games against Premier League clubs and MLS clubs and obviously their players are able to play more than most PDL clubs.”
With the Hammerheads and Fusion off to good starts in their respective seasons, the relationship between the clubs is certainly paying dividends for all concerned.