In the immediate moments following the Swope Park Rangers’ USL Cup Final defeat at the hands of New York Red Bulls II on Oct. 23, the disappointment and devastation around the team was tangible at Red Bull Arena. As players, coaches and staff took stock in the following days, a remarkable inaugural season that saw the Rangers claim the Western Conference Championship trophy came into perspective.
“It was a dream start for an expansion team,” Assistant Technical Director Mike Jacobs said. “To have them perform as well as they did on the field, along with the growth and development this team made, it’s a tremendous testament to the players and the coaching staff and the support staff.”
As with any MLS-owned USL side, questions arise about a team’s commitment to winning and challenging for the USL Cup trophy, with a large focus aimed at player development. However, with 2016 marking the first time the USL Cup Final was contested between two MLS-owned teams, those concerns have seemingly been put to bed.
“I give the coaching staff a tremendous amount of credit – not just the SPR coaching staff, but Peter Vermes and the SKC coaching staff also,” Jacobs said. “I think the collaboration between the two staffs really helped to be able to identify who our top prospects were and get them games. I just think the synergy between the two properties of Sporting Kansas City and Swope Park Rangers could not have gone better for our first year.”
One of the many reasons behind investing in a USL franchise is to provide a pathway for Academy players to develop while allowing first-team players the opportunity to get regular minutes in a competitive environment.
“The reality is that it allows us to catch up to the rest of the world,” Jacobs admitted. “Players who are 21, 22, 23 years old need to have a finishing school. Whether they’re coming right out of college or coming right out of the Academy, the opportunity to have somewhere you can get games, rather than the old MLS reserve league, rather than sitting on the bench and only getting to play in training – to get meaningful matches against really strong teams is a tremendous asset for our club.”
The presence of the Rangers has already started paying dividends for the younger age group, with nine players stepping up from the Sporting KC Academy to sign with the Rangers in the team’s first-ever season.
“The experiences that our young Academy guys got was so invaluable and I think you saw that because when they went back down to the Academy, they thrived and flourished.”
Forward Nansel Selbol, who was the SKC Academy Under-18s top scorer in the early stages of the 2015-16 Development Academy season prior to the introduction of the Rangers, made 24 total USL appearances in regular-season and postseason play in 2016. The 19-year-old represented the SKC Academy in the Development Academy Playoffs over the summer before making his Sporting KC debut in the CONCACAF Champions League on Oct. 19, scoring the game-winner in the 3-1 victory over Central FC at Children’s Mercy Park.
“(Academy Director) Jon Parry’s U-18s had an outstanding year – guys like Nansel Selbol could take the experiences that he got playing regularly with the Rangers to then go down and be an outstanding performer in his own age group – to me that shows the development process that we have is working,” Jacobs noted.
The list goes on. Center back Jaylin Lindsey became the first American born in the 2000s to make his professional debut when he appeared off the bench against Saint Louis FC on May 7 before joining the U.S. Under-17 Residency Program in August. Winger Will Little made nine appearances for the Rangers, while Ezra Armstrong and Patrick Wilkinson also saw minutes in the USL after stepping up from the SKC Academy.
“It seems like it was only yesterday we were in Tucson for preseason and Will Little came on and played against DaMarcus Beasley and the Houston Dynamo. I remember watching that so proudly, to see a kid from our Academy that’s 18 years old playing against a full U.S. international with over 100 caps,” Jacobs said. “The coaching staff identified the right players and put the right time in to helping those guys grow and that really is encouraging for our future.”
Selbol was not the only SPR player to represent Sporting Kansas City in the 2016 season, as Amer Didic, Tomas Granitto, Alex Molano, Tyler Pasher, Kris Tyrpak and Ualefi joined him in making their Sporting KC debuts in Champions League action.
“It speaks volumes,” Jacobs said. “I think of the identification process, but primarily the development of finding these young players, giving them an opportunity to play in the Champions League. I think it’s easy for someone on the outside looking in to see the vertical integration that we always talk about, but I think the proof was in the pudding from the standpoint that these guys responded positively when they got those opportunities.”
The Rangers earned plenty of plaudits during the tail end of the season due to their sterling defensive performances that saw the side post five shutouts in their last eight games, with center back pairing Oumar Ballo and Didic contributing heavily to that record.
The Rangers went 13-1-2 when Ballo and Didic started together in 2016 – with the lone defeat coming in the USL Cup Final – but both players were unsure of their professional futures a year ago. Ballo had been without a club since being waived by the Houston Dynamo in the Spring of 2015, while Didic, by his own admission, had no other professional options after completing his final season at Baker University last November.
“It’s not a coincidence that guys like Didic or Ballo had so much success this season,” Jacobs said. “We talk a lot about SKC DNA – players that we think fit our positional profiles, but also the characteristics that we look for in a player in our club. I’m really proud of the fact that not only did we identify players that we thought fit those profiles, but that we identified men who had the personal characteristics to embody what Sporting Kansas City is all about.”
“I think you’re going to see a lot of players from the Swope Park Rangers play in MLS in the future.”
