FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Growing up is already hard enough on its own. But navigating the twists, turns, and pitfalls of adolescence while also possessing and doing your best to further hone the skillset of a professional athlete – still a very privileged position to be in, of course – in many ways only brings more challenges.
Fortunately, here in New England, up-and-coming young players within the Revolution’s Pro Pathway can continue to develop themselves while also enjoying the comforts of home just around the corner from the club’s Training Center through the Revolution Academy Residency Program, a setup run by live-in members of the Academy staff that includes three houses in and around Foxborough. And even as these dedicated staff members are helping these talents grow as both players and people, the program itself has reached an important early milestone, with Friday, August 30, marking the fifth anniversary of its establishment.
The program was put in place to help the team in attracting and developing promising young soccer players from around New England as well as throughout the country, with the ultimate goal of, as Sporting Director Curt Onalfo put it in a recent interview, “[getting] solid contributors for the first team.” And to be sure, it has already demonstrated clear success toward that goal; winger Esmir Bajraktarević and defender Peyton Miller are prime examples, and there are plenty of others still working their way up.
But along the way, even as all parties involved have focused their efforts on this sporting goal, the human aspect of watching and helping the young men in the Residency houses grow as people, not just players, has come through in every case. BJ Noble, Revolution Academy administrator and an assistant coach for the youth teams, lives in one of the homes alongside his wife Shannon and their own preteen son, and he said that the impact he is able to have on these players is never lost on him.
“It’s basically, we’re their parents away from home,” Noble said, seated on a metal bench next to the club’s training field as Bajraktarević, one of his former residents, and Miller, living with him currently, went through their paces with the rest of the first team. “We have an 11-year-old, so anything we do for him we do for the players, as far as haircuts, to meals, to whatever they need day-to-day, whether it be helping them with their schoolwork, making sure they’re getting to school, and so forth. But the primary thing is providing an avenue for the high-potential players that we bring in from out-of-market or from further proximity than commuting distance, and just providing them that opportunity to be here in the Academy and the Pro Pathway.”
And the players, focused as they are on their soccer, also cherish the relationships they build in the Residency houses. Miller, a native of Unionville, Conn., acknowledged that his own parents went to great lengths to get him the opportunity to be involved with the Revs in the first place, before moving closer to the club ever looked like it would be an option.
“I mean, my first year in the Revs, my parents made sacrifices to drive me almost two hours every day,” he said, as he thought about where his soccer career might otherwise be today. “So, me being able to live in the Residency helped tremendously, with my parents and me. Being able to have the facility in my backyard has been a big help of where I’m at right now.”
But since he’s made the move, the connection he’s built with Noble and his family has become much stronger than simply player-to-coach.
“I basically think of them as my second parents, as a mom and a dad,” he shared. “Just having that relationship with them is big. And not only talking about soccer with them, but talking about, like, personal life, just like school and stuff like that, having that emotional support there. It helps a lot.”
Noble, for his part, said he seeks to strike a balance; naturally, he places a deep value in the connections that get made, but he also recognizes that there is a job to do, and that these players ultimately still have their own families back home.
“For me, you have to balance being professional but then also being there for them,” he said, “to bounce things off of, to hear their problems, hear their issues, but then also be there for all the joyful moments, little monumental moments that they have.” He sought to properly capture the unique nature of the relationship. “It’s almost like, I don’t know, more a big brother than it is – I’m never going to replace their father, right? But just somebody that they can talk to, they can be open with. My wife does a lot; she’s the rockstar of the home. It’s different when they can talk to a female and share their feelings and have a different emotional side of things. But yeah, we’ve still got to remember that they’re kids, right? They need somebody to be that confidant for them.”
Onalfo, who was pivotal in seeing the program expand from one home to three early on in his tenure with the Revolution, said that this dynamic between a player and their household was all part of the plan. The program, he felt, expanded the club’s options in identifying and growing top talent, while also providing the ideal environment for that talent to grow.
“The goal is to basically get solid contributors for the first team,” he said. “We’ve had a strategic approach, there’s been a plan, and having the houses just helps us implement it. And having people like BJ and his wife, and [Under-14s coach] Liam [Connors] and his wife [Kaley], it creates an environment that’s really great for these kids. So again, we’re trying to hit all cylinders on our Pro Pathway, and that’s part of how we’ve done it. It’s an investment from the owners, and we’re grateful for that. And then it’s just a matter of implementing it, and [Academy Director] Rob Becerra has been incredible in terms of the energy and everything he’s put into the Academy, and his staff.”
And Onalfo underlined the fact that the Residency Program is only one aspect of the club’s broader approach to recruitment and development.
“For me, we want to have a thriving Pro Pathway,” he said. “It’s just a small portion of what we’re doing, but if you can get that part right, and then if you can do the U22’s right, and then if you can do the DPs right, and you can manage your cap right, then over time you end up having a more robust roster, and that’s the goal. The goal is to have the most robust roster we possibly can, so we can have as much talent as possible. From what avenues? From all avenues.”
For Bajraktarević, who just recently provided an assist to childhood hero Edin Džeko on his senior debut for the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team, the Residency Program represented both a chance to prove himself and an inspiration to make the most of the club’s faith in him.
“It was obviously great,” said Bajraktarević, who left his childhood home in Appleton, Wisonsin, in August 2021 at the age of just 16. “I knew I had an opportunity here. For me, I was moving far away from home, so it was a big sacrifice, and I feel like, if I was moving this far for something, I had to make the most out of it. So, that motivated me, as well.”
And for Esmir, as for Peyton, it all came back to the people who helped him along the way.
“I was living with BJ and Shannon Noble, they’re both very great people,” Bajraktarević said. “I can’t speak highly enough of them, and they always made me feel at home and welcome. They’re very loving people and I’m just super grateful for both of them.”
The Residency Program has come a long way in five years, and its impact on and off the field has been monumental. Time will only tell exactly what more will come in the next five years and beyond – but Noble has a few ideas of his own.
“Ultimately, in the long run, we would hope that we can find a way to have a school on campus and maybe dorms and so forth to where we can grow it to where we can have more players,” he said. “Rob and Curt and [Technical Director] Remi [Roy] and the organization have done a fantastic job of going from the one house to two houses to three. And we’ve definitely seen the benefits. So now how can we continue to grow that and get more players to strengthen the club and strengthen the organization?”
One thing is for certain: However the program grows, and whoever comes through its ranks, every player involved will continue to feel the impact of the dedicated Academy staff members like Noble, and he in turn will continue to be built up by them.
