The KC Wizards Juniors opened their play in the US Soccer Developmental Academy today outside Houston, as the 16's and 18's both took on Texas Rush AJ Auxerre. Both the 16's and the 18's came away with 1 goal wins over their Texas counterparts. The 16's took took their game against the Rush 1-0. Meanwhile, the 18's twice came from a goal down to win their game 3-2 over the Rush side. Click to continue reading...

For those wanting to keep up with the potential future of the Kansas City Wizards, the Wizards Juniors U18 and U16 teams are getting ready to kick off their first season in the US Soccer Development Academy. The season runs from November to May. Both teams begin their season on the road down in Texas on the 21st of this month. Click to continue reading...

The Wizards Juniors team pulled off a win in their final game in Colorado as part of the MLS Youth Cup. The Juniors defeated the Colorado Rapids Juniors team 5-1 yesterday. For a full recap of the tournament, check out the Rapids official blog, Undercurrent. Click to continue reading...

The Wizards Juniors have struggled at this year's addition of the MLS Youth Cup. According to posters on bigsoccer, the Juniors lost all 3 group games (the only team to lose all 3 games). The Juniors lost their opening game on July 4th to Houston 2-0. In their second game, the Juniors lost to FC Dallas 6-2 (FC Dallas is in the Championship game of the tournament). Click to continue reading...

The MLS Youth Cup starts today out in Colorado. The Wizards Juniors are competing in the tournament again this year. Their first game is today, and like the first team, the game is against the Houston Dynamo at 11:30. The team's second game is tomorrow evening against FC Dallas. The Juniors close out their group play games against DC United on Tuesday. Click to continue reading...

With the SuperLiga and US game yesterday, it slipped my mind about 2 Juniors teams playing in the regional finals. Unfortunately, neither team was able to pull off the win this year. Both the U-13 and U-16 Juniors ended up falling 1-0 in their regional finals against the Michigan Wolves and Campton United Navy respectively. Click to continue reading...

The semifinals are now over in Sioux Falls, SD and of the 3 Juniors teams that made it that far, 2 have advanced on to tomorrow's finals. The U-13 Juniors took care of business, taking care of Ambassadors out of Ohio North 6-2 today. In the finals, the 13's will take on the Michigan Wolves. The U-16's didn't win by as much, but they too advanced to the finals, beating Westside United of Indiana 1-0. Click to continue reading...

While the Wizards team was getting ready to and taking on Atlas in SuperLiga, the 6 Wizards Juniors teams that qualified for regionals (5 state titles, 1 Midwest Regional League birth through the U-16's) were competing in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Over the course of the group play round, the Juniors were a combined 12-5-1, scoring 48 goals while conceding 21. Click to continue reading...

The Wizards Juniors teams recently finished up playing in the Kansas State Cup tournament. Of the 6 Juniors' teams that competed, 5 came away as state champions, with the 6th team finishing as runners up. The U13 Juniors team outscored their opponents 25-4 on route to their state title this year. The U15 Juniors team won their quarterfinal 2-0 then moved onto a big 10-0 win in their semifinal game. Click to continue reading...

The KC Wizards Juniors and the Houston Dynamo have become the 9th and 10th MLS teams to join the US Developmental Academy Program. The Juniors, Dynamo, and 3 other teams bringing the program up to 79 teams. The 5 programs were chosen from a group of 250 applicants based on their potential to generate future national team players based on their geographic location, history of player production, coaching staff and administrative capabilities. Click to continue reading...

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Over the weekend, I posted about how the Wizards Juniors were down in Springfield this past weekend competing in the 2009 Greater Springfield Area Sports Commission "Champions Challenge." Well after the weekend finished up, the Juniors had themselves a pretty productive weekend. Five of the Wizards teams went down, and the 3 that were playing in divisions that standings were kept came home with some type of silverware. Click to continue reading...

Went out to the Wizards open tryouts today to check out the guys that had come to tryout for the Wizards. Overall, it appeared that there were quite a few no shows, as the team had 4 fields set up for the first session for 8 teams to play on, but there were only 3 in use when I got there. For the second session there were only 2 fields in use, so plenty of players appear to have decided that it wasn't worth it for them to show up for the tryouts. Click to continue reading...

The Wizards won their first game of the preseason today, as they beat the US U-17 team 7-0 today down in Florida. Hillcrest Road has write ups on each of the goals and the lineups for each half. In goal for the U-17's was Wizards' Juniors' player, Jon Kempin. Players getting goals today were Kevin Souter and Aaron Hohlbein in the first half, with Nelson Pizarro, Chance Myers, trailist Ferenc Béres (more on him later) getting two, and Michael Kraus. Click to continue reading...

The KC Wizards Juniors youth system is nationally ranked in this year's rankings of the top 30 youth clubs in the US by Soccer America. The Juniors are one of four MLS teams to have their youth team ranked, joining the Chicago Fire (15), Columbus Crew (23), and DC United (29). While the Juniors come in at 30th on the backs of the U-19 Juniors team making the National Finals. Click to continue reading...

Wizards Juniors goalkeeper, Jonathan Kempin, has been named to the new US U-17 national team residency class for this fall. The team, coached by Wilmer Cabrera, is made up of 40 players. The majority of the team for the 2009 U-17 World Cup will come from this residency. Congratulations to Kempin on this great achievement. Click to continue reading...

A 90th minute free kick goal by Solar gave the North Texas team the U-19 National title, beating the Wizards Juniors 1-0. It sucks to lose on such a later goal, but congratulations to the team on a great run to the national title. Click to continue reading...

In a game that meant absolutely nothing, the U-19 Wizards Juniors played to a 1-1 draw with their finals opponent, Solar out of North Texas today. Both teams played with more of a laid back attitude to the game, getting players further down the bench some time. The game ended with 10 minutes of the teams just standing around passing the ball around with each other, as neither team wanted to exude too much energy with the final on Sunday. Click to continue reading...

Due to internet issues this is getting out a little later then I would have liked. The U-19 Juniros won again today, 3-1 over Colorado Rush Nike down in Little Rock. That win, coupled with the win by Solar in the other game, means that both teams are 2-0 and will advance to the National finals on Sunday, no matter what their result is tomorrow against each other. Click to continue reading...

The U-19 Wizards Juniors started their Nationals campaign with a big come from behind win against Freestate United from Maryland. The Juniors came from 2-0 down, scoring 3 goals in about a 15 minute span in the second half to win their opener 3-2.
Another update is that Sereno 89 White out of Arizona is not competing in the tournament. Click to continue reading...

I had been planning on getting my brother to help blog about the Wizards Juniors trip to nationals this week, and he still might. But the Wizards look to have someone stepping up to blog on the team down in Arkansas this week. The team has set up a KC Wizards Juniors blog, which as the little blurb about the blog says, "This is the online home of news and information for the KCW Juniors, the official youth development arm of the Kansas City Wizards. Click to continue reading...

Was talking with my parents tonight and found out that the Wizards U-19 team has arrived down in Little Rock for Nationals, which technically begin tomorrow. The Juniors first game isn't until Wednesday when they take on Freestate United from Maryland. Thursday they take on Sereno 89 White of Arizona, and finish group play on Friday against Solar 89 of North Texas. Click to continue reading...

The schedule is out for the U19 Wizards Juniors at Nationals on July22nd through the 27th. The Juniors will open on the 23rd against Freestate United of Maryland. The team's second game on the 24th is against Sereno 89 White out of Arizona. The team's final game on the 25th is against Solar 89 out of North Texas. Click to continue reading...

Was just told that the Wizards Juniors U19 team won regionals today in Rockford, IL. They defeated Scott Gallagher of MO 1-0 this morning in the final. The Juniors now advance to Nationals which will begin July 22nd through the 27th in Little Rock, AR. Congratulations to the Juniors.
Here is the team's roster:

Pos Player Hometown College

GK Scott Angevine Overland Park, KS Coastal Carolina

GK Alex Burton Lansing, KS Baker University

M Ian Christiansen Lee's Summit, MO Graceland University

D Austin Eanes Scituate, MA Evansville University

F Giovanni Edward Toronto, Canada Graceland College

D Matt Griffin Olathe, KS Baker University

D Brett Heinz Leawood, KS Graceland University

M Colton Henning Shawnee, KS Furman University

M Willie Koss Overland Park, KS Graceland University

M Matt Kuhn Raytown, Mo Drake University

F Chase McCoy Blue Springs, MO Hastings College

F Curt McDonald Leawood, KS Furman University

M Michael McDonald Leawood, KS Rockhurst University

D Kyle Miller Overland Park, KS Rockhurst University

M/F Spencer Nash Shawnee, KS Baker University

D Tyler Nichol Blue Springs, MO Rockhurst University

D/M Michael Perry Overland Park, KS Denver University

F Kelly Porter Wichita, KS Coastal Carolina

M Tyler Schwab Leawood, KS Marquette University

M/F Josh Westberg Overland Park, KS Loyola-Chicago

Click to continue reading...

I was just informed that the Wizards Juniors U19 team just won their regional semifinal match against the Chicago Fire Jrs, 3-1. The win puts the Juniors into the regional finals that will take place tomorrow. Their opponent will either be Scott Gallagher (MO) or Arsenal Bluejays (NE). Their game is in overtime at the time of this posting. Click to continue reading...

The Wizards Juniors U19 team was the only one of the three Juniors teams at regionals to advance out of the group stage today at Region II regionals in Rockford. The U16 team started out the day with a draw against Team Ohio FC 1-1. So while they finished undefeated at 1-0-2, they were second in the group behind Vardar (who they beat 4-2), who went 2-1. Click to continue reading...

Three of the Wizards Juniors teams are at Region II regionals this weekend in Rockford, IL. The U-19, U-17, and U-16 teams all won their State Cup age group and moved on to regionals, which begin tomorrow for all three teams. The tournament concludes on the 25th. In the U-19 division, the team is in Group A, where they'll play Arsenal Bluejays (NE), United 96 SC Int'l (KY), and FC Milwaukee Blue (WI). Click to continue reading...

While the first team played in Salt Lake this past weekend, the Wizards Junior teams competed in the Kansas State Cup competition. Three of the Wizards four teams won the state cup title. The Wizards U-19 team had the easiest path, with only a three team group, the Juniors only had to win one match, which they did easily winning 9-0 over KC Comets Select. Click to continue reading...

The Wizards Juniors U-17 team lost in the finals of the SUM U-17 Cup to DC United today, 3-0. The Juniors had made the final by beating Dallas and New York and drawing Chivas in their group play. The team then moved on to the semifinals and defeated the Columbus Crew 3-2 to make the finals. The team is coached by former Wizards player, and former KCFC coach, Paul Rideout. Click to continue reading...