If you haven’t been paying attention to the youth movement taking root across most of MLS, Bleacher Report is about to lead you into the heart of it with a “Hard Knocks”-style documentary.
Wednesday marks the debut of the first episode of “The Academy,” a five-part B/R miniseries focused on four teenage prospects – two of them local kids, two members of the club's homestay program – in Sporting Kansas City’s ambitious academy as they climb the ladder in pursuit of a professional contract.
“It's a very clear setup of going from the academy through the process, and this certainly came through in speaking with both the players and the coaches, that the process of going through the academy is built so that when you get an opportunity with the first team, you're prepared for what's about to come,” Bleacher Report’s Mark Bollons told MLSsoccer.