No fan of the Seattle Sounders was particularly surprised to learn that several teenage products of the Sounders Academy had joined the first team’s preseason training camp. That’s, of course, how Danny Leyva earned his MLS contract last year, and Azriel Gonzalez has been spending his Januaries and Februaries with the team for years now.
Part of Garth Lagerwey’s mission when joining the Sounders was to turn the academy into a legitimate, high-quality talent pipeline; to construct a development system that would connect the academy, Tacoma Defiance (Sounders 2 at the time), and the Sounders first team.