Interesting article on the LAFC website regarding plans for next year DA. Would apply to all age groups but since my son is '06, I post it here. But it looks like LAFC will be playing about half of every age group up one year next season. I have posted the applicable questions below but if you want to read the full article, you can access it here:
https://www.lafc.com/post/2019/04/11/state-academy-qa-lafc-academy-director-todd-saldana
"What's In Store For The Academy Next Season?
Saldaña: [The U15s] will be U17s next year. Technically, we don’t have 2003s. Which is what that true age group would be next year. But our plan is, because we’ve invested so much in that group, we will use predominately that team in U17 next year. So the Tony Leones, the Dylan Prestos, the guys that have been in the national team camps a little bit, and guys that need a challenge will be playing against a year older all the time. It jumps an age group. But we’re going to use the players that we’ve invested in and worked with over the last couple of years that are 2004s. They’ll be playing a year up next year. We’re still looking to find some special 2003s that we can add to the team. Guys that we think have a chance of being first team, that have professional potential.
Is The Jump In Competition The Thing Your Most Excited About For Next Season?
Saldaña: It’s going to be huge. As we got a little way into the Development Academy, we realized that we are going to need to be playing up. In each age group, probably close to 50 percent of the players will be playing up an age group. For it to be the kind of challenge we want every week, our roster is going to have to be young. There have been some people, and even some MLS clubs, saying the competition in DA isn’t enough. But we can use the league anyway that we see fit. It’s good competition and its within range of Southern California. We don’t have to travel as much as we might, especially with these young players. We can use the league the way [we] think is best by playing up. So, this is natural for us. It is jumping an age group and automatically there will be a challenge every week with our players playing up. And it’s that group we’ve had for a few years. It’s nice to step up with a group we feel very confident can compete at that level.
But again, I will still say, we’re getting ready to play Generation adidas Cup against Mexican clubs and we have plans to bring in clubs from outside the area, MLS and international teams, this summer again to play against our players to try to keep challenging them that way. And then, the fact that we will have a lot of our rosters playing up next year, it will change the dynamic of every week’s game. We’ve gone into every week this year feeling it’s pretty likely we are going to score goals and have a lot of success. We’ll start going into games with our players being challenged, having to solve more problems, figuring out how to get out of situations, dealing with a more physical player, and maybe a more mature player at times.
Having that every week is definitely the next step for our players."