Aaron Kovar says exposure to pros guided his path through Sounders Academy

Since the Sounders Academy first began play in 2011, Seattle has signed several players to Major League Soccer Homegrown Player contracts. In this series, SoundersFC.com sits down with each of club’s Homegrown Players to speak with them about it what it means to play for their hometown club. In the first Q&A, we caught up with Aaron Kovar, now in his third season as a professional, to discuss his experience as a Homegrown Player for the Sounders.

I joined the Academy in 2011, which was the first year that the Sounders had an academy. I was there for two years with the U18 group. The thing that was pretty cool was the amount of first team involvement. The first time that trained with the first team was when I was 16. That was definitely a good way to get a measuring stick of kind of where I needed to be, regardless of how you were playing with the academy group.

SoundersFC.com: Did the exposure to that level of playing help to force you out of your comfort zone and challenge you?

For sure. It’s not just playing there [with the first team]. It’s coming into a pro locker room and meeting guys that you look up to and watch on TV, as well as training with them. It’s not just about being out of your comfort zone on the field, but it’s also the whole day just being with them. I think the earlier you are exposed to that, the better.

SoundersFC.com: What does it mean to you as a homegrown player?

It’s a unique opportunity to get to play in your hometown. That’s a pretty cool bonus for sure...just being able to play in front of your friends and family and in a city you’re so comfortable in.

SoundersFC.com: When you were in the Academy, did you ever think you’d be suiting up for the First Team and in the starting XI?

It was more of a goal [than an expectation]. I can’t say that I was really that far ahead in my thinking until I was leaving for college, and then I was thinking about that possibility more and more. After they signed DeAndre [Yedlin] as the first [Homegrown Player], that kind of opened the door for the rest of us.

SoundersFC.com: What’s it like playing for your hometown club in front of 40,000 fans who take pride in such passionate support?

Yeah, of course [it’s great]. I think if you asked any of us: Jordan [Morris], DeAndre [Yedlin], Darwin [Jones] or Vic [Mansaray], you’d kind of hear the same thing. There are a lot of people around every day that you’ve known for so long. As much as you do it for yourself, you’re doing it for all of those people that helped you along the way.

SoundersFC.com: As a local player who has progressed through the ranks, do you see yourself as a role model for young kids who grow up playing soccer in Seattle?

For sure. Being from here and being involved in the community in Seattle, you see how much people look up to it [the Sounders]. It’s such a big club. It takes a while to really understand the gravity of how much of an impact you make on people, especially kids, that love soccer in Seattle. I have learned to appreciate that and try to take advantage of that as much as I can.

SoundersFC.com: As a Homegrown Player, what do you think the goal of the Academy system should be?

There are certainly tiers to it. Obviously, you want to develop the best possible players for the first team and [other] pro players, but I think also the way the sports landscape of this country [is set up], you also have to focus on the development of people. Every year, they [Academy programs] are getting kids Division I scholarship and I think that’s a really important thing to get kids to college. It kind of varies on what the goal is for the individual, but the overarching goal is to get as many players through the system [to the first team] as you can.

SoundersFC.com: Do you think the goal of the Homegrown Program and Academy systems should be to produce top-level stars for the national team? Or do you think it should be to produce a lot of quality soccer players that holistically raise the quality of MLS?

I think that [a blend of the two] has to be thing. I think it has to be a system where you instill a way of playing and an identity for the club. That will bring the common denominator of ability across the league up and at the same time produce those star players [for the national team].

SoundersFC.com: How do you see the future of the Academy program in Seattle?

We have a great director in Marc Nicholls. Darren [Sawatzky] was a great director before that. I think they have pretty clear ideas of how they want to start from a younger age, and instill the same kind of tactics throughout the entire club, from whatever age they start with all the way through [to S2 and the first team].