Tag Archives: Peter Vermes

Sporting KC Holding Open Tryouts March 12-13

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vermes_by_backpost.net

Peter Vermes, photo by Backpost.net

Sporting Kansas City will hold open tryouts for players 18 years of age and older March 12-13, 2011. Age must be proved by a valid passport or birth certificate. Cuts will be held after the first day. No one is guaranteed a spot at the second day of tryouts. The tryouts cost $200 per participant, will be held at Sporting Kansas City’s Swope Park Training Center and are open to the first 300 registrants. Finalists will be given the chance to train with the Sporting first team.

What: Sporting Kansas City Open Tryouts
When: March 12-13, 2011
Where: Sporting Kansas City Swope Park Training Center
6310 Lewis Road, Kansas City MO 64132
Contact: tryouts@SportingKC.com

Tryout participants will pay for ALL airfare, hotel, food and transportation. Sporting Kansas City will not help with visas into the United States.

For additional information, participants can e-mail Sporting at tryouts@SportingKC.com.

Participants will take part in matches Saturday, with the top players called back for Sunday’s session. Finalists will then get the opportunity to tryout with the Sporting first team with the chance of securing a contract.

Here’s a video from one of the earliest Open Tryouts for some background on expectations

Sporting KC Add Via Draft

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Peter Vermes with C.J. Sapong on draft day

Peter Vermes with C.J. Sapong on draft day (Getty Images)

From the Sporting KC website:

Kansas City, Mo. – Most figured Peter Vermes would look to the defensive side of the ball with his picks in Thursday’s MLS SuperDraft. In the end, Vermes added depth in every area of the field.

Sporting Kansas City drafted three college seniors and shored up some of their remaining weak spots in Baltimore after agreeing to a deal in principal with out-of-contract Michael Harrington and announcing the signing of Luke Sassano earlier in the day.

Kansas City selected forward C.J. Sapong with the 10th pick of the first round and added defender J.T. Murray and midfielder Konrad Warzycha in subsequent rounds. The club’s first round pick came down to a choice between two players before the Chicago Fire made the decision simple by snatching the top-rated defender off the board.

Soccer America has an introduction to draft pick C.J. Sapong

Sapong, a Virginia product whom Sporting Kansas City grabbed with the 10th overall pick, won three state championships with his youth club PWSI Magnum. In high school (Forest Park) and at JMU, he started on the bench before quickly turning into a key contributer.

Sporting also added three additional players in the Supplemental draft, including one from MVC foe SIU-Edwardsville/Ft Zumwalt South.

Sporting Kansas City selected midfielder Sam Scales with the 10th overall pick in the 1st round of the 2011 MLS Supplemental Draft on Tuesday. Scales was a four-year contributor at Ohio State University, where he started all but one game from his sophomore through senior seasons. In the second round, Sporting Kansas City selected Missouri native Mike Jones from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville with the 28th overall pick. Jones, who attended Fort Zumwalt South High School in St. Peters, Missouri prior to committing to SIUE, appeared in 60 games for the Cougars, recording six goals and two assists from the backline. In the third and final round, midfielder Michal Mravec was taken with the 46th overall selection out of the University of Alabama – Birmingham. Mravec, a native of Slovakia who also played youth soccer in Atlanta, Georgia.

KC Wizards to hold third annual open tryouts in March

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KC Wizards logoThe Kansas City Wizards will hold its 3rd annual open tryouts from March 13-14, 2010.

The tryout costs $200, and players can sign up and get all the information on the tryouts by going to www.kcwizards.com/opentryout. Any additional questions can be sent to tryouts@kcwizards.com.

“The last two years we have been pleased with the number of talented players who have taken part in our open tryouts,” Wizards Manager Peter Vermes said. “We are always looking to improve our roster, and these tryouts give us a chance to get a look at players who might be trying to take a less conventional route to MLS.”

Participants will take part in matches Saturday, with the top players called back for Sunday’s session. Finalists will then get the opportunity to tryout with the Wizards first team in March with the chance of securing a contract. Final tryout location and times will be provided to each participant closer to the event.

The Wizards held an open tryout in 2008 for the first time since their inaugural 1996 season, with the event drawing over 200 players from 15 different countries. Two players eventually signed for Kansas City; midfielders Kevin Souter and Nelson Pizarro. Both went on to play in MLS matches for the Wizards in 2008, and Souter started the final four games of the regular season and both MLS Cup Playoff matches for Kansas City. Another 200 participants took part in the tryouts in 2009. Numerous talented participants stood out, and five of the open tryout players were invited back during the season to train with the Wizards.

Kansas City Wizards Open Tryouts
March 13-14, 2010
Kansas City Wizards Swope Park Training Center
6310 Lewis Road
Kansas City, MO 64132

Peter Vermes, KC Wizards Technical Director Interviewed

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Peter Vermes, 1990 US World Cup

Peter Vermes, 1990 US World Cup

Soccer By Ives recently did a two-part interview with Peter Vermes of the KC Wizards. It’s timely with the visit of the KC Wizard Juniors teams that are playing in the Challenge Cup at Lake Country Soccer this weekend. Vermes, who represented the US in the 1990 World Cup, is the Technical Director for the KC Wizards and therefor responsible for every team that represents the Wizards including the Juniors. He hired Head Coach Curt Onalfo and they work together to recruit, draft and determine team strategies.

The SBI Questions: Peter Vermes Answers (Part 1)

STEVE T- Peter, what was your most memorable moment from the 1990 World Cup, both on and off the field?

VERMES- Everybody always asks me about the shot that I had against Italy, and obviously that was very memorable, but what I would say it’s the opening game, standing in the tunnel before the game. That was pretty incredible, knowing we were in the World Cup and we were getting ready to play our first game.

Off the field I would say our preparation in Switzerland was pretty amazing. We were very focused, in our own hotel. Guys were all so young and naïve. Really, at the time, we didn’t really understand the magnitude of what we were doing. As I look back on it now we really forged a lot of great relationships with a lot of the guys who were from that group of players.

The SBI Questions: Peter Vermes Answers (Part 2)

CHUCK- Wow, this is so random. I was litteraly just thinking yesterday about my time at Peter Vermes soccer camp from like 15 years ago. Anyway, I was hoping Peter could touch on the strides US Soccer has made since is MNT playing days and how he thinks we should improve our current youth setup to develop a truly world class player.

VERMES- What has happened in U.S. Soccer is absolutely incredible. It’s so hard to talk about the strides that we have made. In the 1990 World Cup, out of the 23-man roster we had, I was the only player at that time playing overseas. Every other player was playing in the United States and signed with U.S. Soccer. I was playing in Holland for FC Volendam. Everybody else was playing in the United States.

Finally, as this headline from last Summer notes, KCW Juniors U-16, U-17, U-19 Teams Capture Kansas State Cup Crowns

Three age groups in the KCW Juniors Youth Development Program were crowned Kansas State Champions over the weekend, as the U-16, U-17 and U-19 teams rolled through the competition to capture state titles in their first year of competition.

The U16 and U17 teams are now a year older and playing this weekend in Springfield. Come see the best at Lake Country Soccer! Meanwhile, here’s the KC Wizards schedule for 2009. You can find it on Google Calendar by doing a Public search or you can download it here, see the button on the bottom right. Or the Wizards have an Outlook version on their website.

KC Wizards Juniors Announce Tryouts

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PRESS RELEASE

The Kansas City Wizards announced the tryout times for the five KCW Juniors teams. The KCW Juniors will have teams in the U-13, U-15, U-16, U-17 and U-18 age groups for the 2008-2009 season and designate six Technical Staff members to those teams. The Wizards will also form a U-19 squad for players returning from college to have a place to train and a way to stay connected to the organization. The U-19 team will begin training this week.

Tryouts will be held June 14-15 for the U-13 team and June 16-18 for the U-15 through U-18 age groups. All tryouts will be held at the Wizards Swope Park Training Center. To register for tryouts, visit kcwizards.com.

“We are very pleased to add two age groups to our program this year and build upon the success experienced in year one of the KCW Juniors program,” Technical Director Peter Vermes said. “We have assembled a great staff of coaches and have a beautiful facility for these young soccer players to utilize. With these resources, we look forward to developing the next generation of Kansas City Wizards players.”

The 2008-2009 season will be important for the KCW Juniors program as members of the U-15, U-16 and U-17 teams will be eligible to compete in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy beginning in 2009-2010. Next season, the KCW Juniors U-16 and U-18 teams will compete against the best youth clubs from around the country under U.S. Soccer’s umbrella. Beginning in 2009, both the U-16 and U-18 KCW Juniors teams will be fully funded.

“The members of our U-15, U-16 and U-17 teams will train this season with an eye toward joining the Development Academy next year,” KCW Juniors DOC Jon Parry said. “U.S. Soccer has put together a great program that will help develop the elite player in this country, and we look forward to joining in 2009. Our goal is to have one of the strongest clubs in the country beginning with our first season in the Development Academy.”

Six members of Kansas City’s world-class Technical Staff will focus on the KCW Juniors, including Vermes, KCW Juniors Director of Coaching Jon Parry and Paul Rideout, who served as the head coach for all three KCW Juniors teams during the 2007-2008 season. Rideout is a former English Premier League player who scored a game-winning goal for Everton in the 1995 FA Cup final.

In addition, former MLS player Daouda Kante (U-13), Kansas City native Randall Porter (U-15, U-16) and Trinidad and Tobago native Romothy Quashie (goalkeepers) will be added to the staff in 2008-2009. As an added benefit due to his vision for the future of the Kansas City Wizards First Team, Vermes will use a hands-on approach in conjunction with Jon Parry for the KCW Juniors program in talent identification and training/development strategies. This will allow the Wizards training philosophies to remain consistent throughout the organization from the First Team’s starting 11 to the members of the KCW Juniors U-13 team.

“We have put together an excellent group of soccer minds that have vast playing and coaching experience,” Parry said. “Our coaches have been through the rigors of playing highly competitive soccer and will be able to help our KCW Juniors players prepare themselves for the highest levels of competition.”

Each KCW Juniors team will practice a minimum of three times per week at the Wizards Swope Park Training Center. Speed, strength, agility and conditioning will be major focuses of KCW Juniors training. Kansas City Wizards Fitness Coach Dave Tenney and Scott Moody, founder and CEO of Center for Athletic Performance (CAP), will oversee training regiments for all Juniors teams. Juniors goalkeepers will also receive goalkeeper-specific training twice per week from Quashie.

“We are proud that the technology and know-how from which our Major League Soccer players benefit will be available to our youth players as well,” Vermes said. “We strive to make every aspect of our organization world class from top to bottom. This is another example of that commitment.”

    2008-2009 KCW Juniors Teams and Coaches

KCW Juniors DOC – Jon Parry
U-13 Boys – Daouda Kante / Paul Rideout / Randall Porter
U-15 Boys – Jon Parry / Randall Porter
U-16 Boys – Paul Rideout / Jon Parry / Randall Porter
U-17 Boys – Paul Rideout / Jon Parry
U-18 Boys – Paul Rideout / Jon Parry
U-19 Boys – Jon Parry / Peter Vermes
Goalkeepers – Romothy Quashie

    Date / Time – KCW Juniors Team

Saturday, June 14
11:00am-1:00pm U-13
Sunday, June 15
5:00pm-7:00pm U-13
Monday, June 16
1:00pm-2:45pm U-18
3:00pm-5:00pm U-17
5:15pm-7:15pm U-15
7:30pm-9:30pm U-16
Tuesday, June 17
1:00pm-2:45pm U-18
3:00pm-5:00pm U-17
5:15pm-7:15pm U-15
7:30pm-9:30pm U-16
Wednesday, June 18
1:00pm-2:45pm U-18
3:00pm-5:00pm U-17
5:15pm-7:15pm U-15
7:30pm-9:30pm U-16

Kansas City Wizards Swope Park Training Center
6310 Lewis Road
Kansas City, MO 64132