Youngsters travel with Reserve squad

Three Juniors traveled with the Reserve team on Sunday night to play in Sporting KC's first official Reserve match of the season against Houston Dynamo on Monday morning. Nate Opperman (U16), Wes White (U16) and Konner Knoll (U18) were the three selected. Opperman and White were both in the starting lineup at forward.

The game started at 10 a.m. CT. Follow @SportingKC and @HoustonDynamo on Twitter for live updates of the game.

National Signing Day

Will Witherspoon signing for Virginia Tech

February 2nd marked the official National Signing Day, when high school seniors across the country could send in their Letters of Intent for the first time to commit to college programs to continue their playing careers. Congratulations go to nine players from the Sporting Kansas City U18's who were announced amongst the signing classes for a range of schools across the nation.

• Marques Mayoras is set to travel north and join an Ohio State soccer team that has brought Sporting KC a number of players in the past few seasons with recent draft pick Konrad Warzycha, as well as current starter Roger Espinoza.
• Konner Knoll and Jordan Rideout will remain teammates as they are each headed to nearby University of Missouri - Kansas City. In 2010, UMKC finished as the No. 1 team in the Summit League. Both Knoll and Rideout were given the chance to train with the Sporting KC senior squad last fall.
• Paul Oliver and Tom Adams will join Knoll and Rideout in the Summit League, but with opponent Oral Roberts.
• Forward Will Witherspoon (pictured above) is going out east to the ACC to join Virginia Tech. Witherspoon was another player who played in every game last season for the Juniors.
• Lee's Summit North High School teammates Shane Bowlen and Michael Oakley will aim to grab spots on the back line at William Jewell. The Cardinals made it to the NAIA Final Four last season.
• Asher Herbet will sign his LOI to Long Island University (Brooklyn Campus) on Thursday at Shawnee Mission South H.S.

Two Juniors Trial for First Team

Sporting Kansas City Juniors Konner Knoll and Kevin Ellis were invited to show their talents at the senior team's invitation-only combine, which began today and continues through Wednesday as part of the club's 2011 pre-season. This marked the second straight season that Knoll was given the chance to impress the coaching staff and the Wichita, KS native said he was excited to go through the experience alongside a fellow Juniors product. Ellis was part of the U17 squad that finished runners-up at the 2007 SUM Cup and the Oak Park H.S. alum was also a member of the U19 team at the Kansas State Cup last year.

On the first day, each of them was more than happy to be given the chance.

“You’ve just got to play like you’ve been playing your whole life and make the most of the opportunity,” remarked Ellis. While Knoll was a little more blunt when saying, “You can’t be scared.”

The two Juniors are taking the experience in stride and no matter how it turns out, are enjoying the ride.

"I'm grateful for the Juniors program," said Ellis. "It gave me this opportunity as a teenager and not a lot of people can say that they've participated in a professional-level environment like this."

-- Written by Adam Zdroik.

Konner Knoll Receives Award

Jon Parry, Konner Knoll, Konner's Parents and his GF.


Konner Knoll was awarded the first ever "Bob Gansler KCW Juniors Player of the Year" Award for his outstanding play in the 2009-2010 season. This award was presented to Konner by director Jon Parry at the last home game on Oct 23rd when the Wizards defeated San Jose. This will be an annual award going forward. Congrats Konner!

Catch Up-Some Old, Some New

I am sure I am forgetting plenty of articles about our Juniors but here is some of them from the past few months. There was a good profile on Konner Knoll here. Cameron Wallace of the U16s was given the award as "Star of the Day" here.

The U15s coached by Edmond Rugova won their division while playing in the Premier Heartland league by defeating KCFC Dragons 1-0. The complete table can be found here.

Jon Kempin and three other members of the Senior Squad visited Blue Valley North HS to play a little Soccer Volleyball. Since we only had four players, Kempin grabbed two of his U18s teamates: Jordy Rideout and Paul Oliver to make a full 6 man team. Check out the video from the event.

Juniors with the First Team

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, three KCW Juniors players joined the first team for training. Defender Konner Knoll (from Wichita), goalkeeper Jonathan Kempin (US U-18 National Team) and striker Jordan Rideout (2010 U16 leading goal-scorer and son of Paul, former Wizards player) became the first Juniors players to get an extended look with the first team. Watch the video above to see what Peter Vermes thinks about having the young players get a look with the senior team and how the guys themselves thought the experience went.

Three Juniors Players TRAIN with the Senior team

Jordy Rideout gets interviewed after training with the Senior Team

Peter Vermes, head coach, invited three of the KCW Juniors U18 players to train with the senior team this week. The players are forward, Jordan Rideout, who scored 14goals this year in the USSF Development Academy. Defender, Konner Knoll who is a very physically strong; technically smart outside back. And lastly GK, Jon Kempin who is consistently ON and a real force in the net.

The boys seemed to mesh with the team and visibly fit in well. Jordy's quote after training was "that was hard and fast but a lot of fun." We will let you know how the next three days go....

This could be the start to our future; player that grow up in our system...a little HomeGrown Player action Love it!

Dallas Texans and Pool Work-Out

Last night the U16 Jrs took on the Dallas Texans who were the 2009 National Champs. It was a must win match if we wanted to have a chance to go on to the Finals. As we need to finish 1st in our group; so we need to win tomorrow and need Baltimore Bays to lose. Anyway, it took us about 25mins before we settled down and started actually moving the ball around and looking like a team. Shortly asfter Jordy Rideout scored a goal that was very similar to Friday's goal. Jon Kempin got the ball to Derek Schrick and Rideout chipped the keeper once again. The second half was very physical with Kempin making a few huge saves and one of their players getting a red card. The "extra time" of four minutes honestly felt like an HOUR. But we came away with a 1-0 victory.

Today we started with a pool workout that was comedy. We did jumping jacks, leg kicks, skipping all in the water and then ended the session with some relay races. Konner Knoll was an expert in the back stroke and Romeo Munoz really wanted NOTHING to do with swimming. All in all is was good to get the boys moving on their day off. The rest the day was spent at the mall, movies or visiting colleges (UNC & Duke).

We play Chivas USA tomorrow at 11am so stay TUNED.

Team Dinner and Baltimore Bays

We arrived here is Greensboro on Thursday Mid-day after a very early departure from MCI. Had a few problems at Enterprise Rental car (of course) before finally getting vehicles and driving to the hotel. Jimmy Johns is across the street from the Hyatt and has been the go-to for lunch. And man they are FAST.

Last night(Friday) we played our first match against Baltimore Bays the #1seed. The game was super intense from from the beginning and we got on the board first. Jordan Rideout chipped the keeper and the goal was big time. Minutes later we had a PK after their GK fouled us. Derek Scrick stepped up to take it, but unfortunately it was saved. A few minutes later...they got a PK on us after one of the Bays "flopped" inside our 18.

They converted the PK to equalize the match 1-1. Their were a couple more opportunities created by us in the second half by Lucas Throckmorton and Nate Opperman; but none went in. Bays had a free kick in about the 60min that they converted which made the score 1-2 which stood as the final. Such a bummer, our boys played so well and the game could have gone either way. Our defenders, especially Konner Knoll and Eric DeJulio played amazing along with keeper Jon Kempin.

We play Dallas Texans this evening and we just saw them eating Steak and Shake for lunch...hopefully it has an effect on them! haha

Slow to update on Chicago

AB scores the lone goal for us against Fire to win 1-0.

All-
So sorry it took me ages to write about last weekend, I just got caught up in ordering uniforms for next season and working on summer camp stuff....So here it goes:

For the third week in a row the Junior Academy teams are on the road. This week we're in Chicago to face division rival Chicago Magic (1-3-1) on Saturday and Chicago Fire (4-1-1) on Sunday. The U16s kicked up first and didn't not look great for the first half. They barely strung together more than 2+ passes and we went into half time 0-0 with Magic in complete control of the match thus far. After a few subs and a re-focused team the 2nd half was extremely different. We opened up scoring on a free kick that was taken by Derek Schrick and headed in by Konner Knoll. About 20mins later we were awarded a PK that was taken by Jordy Rideout. He followed his own shot and scored off the deflection. Final was 2-0

The U18 were and are down 5 players right now, everything from torn ACL to a broken foot. So with that said they had a tough weekend. During their match on Saturday, two players were red carded and the game was dominated by Magic. We did score one lone goal by Patrick Fogilo in the 27th min. The game ended with us losing 1-3 and with 8 field players.

Sunday's games were against the Chicago Fire Juniors. Both teams were very competitive and we went into half time with no score. A few minutes into second half AB scored the lone goal and won the game 1-0.

The U18s were not as lucky. With a smaller than usual roster due to red cards and injuries, we had a couple players from the U16s play with the older boys. The younger boys played their hearts out but Fire was just too tough. They scored two goals each half and the final score was 0-4...all FIRE.

This weekend (tomorrow) we play at home against St Louis Scott Gallagher MO. U18s kick off at 2pm and the U16s at 4pm. Come check it out!

Juniors off to a solid start at Showcase

U16's Eric Moore (left of our GK) scored in the 79th Minute


Our Juniors were both in action today in sunny but chilly Phoenix, AZ at the Development Academy Winter Showcase. They both faced teams from Seaside United from Hampton NH. The U16's kicked off at 10am and completely dominated the match. Seaside's GK was unbelievable and defiantly kept them in the match. In the 60th minute Eric Moore subed in at left midfielder and scored the lone goal in the 79th minute. He received a cross inside the 18 from our right defender, Konnor Knoll, and then took a touch inside to finish from 12 yards out. So the final was 1-0 and tomorrow is all about stretching/resting and free time to work on homework.

The U18's kicked off directly after at 12pm and ended up playing 90mins to a 0-0 draw. The Wizards dominated most of this game as well, but were unable to find the net. Again our coaches were very complimentary to Seaside's U18 GK for his strong play today. Our leading scorer, Mhango Mbulunji, and another impact player, Tony Young, were both subed out with injuries at halftime. Hopefully they will have time to rest and be ready to play on Sunday.

Both team will be back in action on Sunday, Dec. 6th against Richmond Kickers. In the meantime the boys will enjoy a great game tomorrow night (Saturday) which will feature the U17 US National Team vs U17 Brazil National Team.