June 22, 2009 PDL Toronto Lynx e-mail from head coach Duncan Wilde
This e-mail was sent to me by Toronto Lynx head coach Duncan Wilde and answers many of the questions I'd come up with in my game reports this season.
June 22, 2009
Hi Robin, Dino,
Robin, I just wanted to thank you for continuing to cover the Lynx PDL team. Obviously I realize that TFC corners the Pro market now, but to have people like yourself committed to cover our games and report on the up and coming GTA youth players is very encouraging and I think that the interested soccer community should appreciate your efforts.
I have read with interest the various developments for 2010 and yes, there will be some very exciting developments and the Lynx are very much involved on many fronts. I'm sure as soon as the current season draws to a close, announcements will be made regarding 2010 and beyond. It will be very interesting for sure....
I wanted to make some reference to a couple of points you made regarding this season so far in the PDL. First of all, absolutely I wanted to start as late as possible. We have a lot of southern based school boys and they always traditionally finish quite late. Also the loss of Eric De Lorenzo (capt) with ACL injury and the loss of Lloyd Grist (signed in UK), together with Steve Soutar breaking his ankle, all in the week prior to season kick off, all certainly set us back... !! Losing both Daniel Revivo and Branko Garvic for the rest of the season to the world university games together with starting Keeper, Nils Binstock leaving for Israel this week, will see us continue to introduce our U20 and U17 juniors to come in and make an impact at the PDL level.
The refreshing aspect about USL/PDL is that things like this happen on a frequent basis and many clubs often find themselves in this position. The league is all about developing players for future pro opportunities, so I see no concerns as we have an excellent Academy program to support our efforts.
Just to confirm that Konner and Mikael McNamara are brothers... not the same player !! Mikael (Taylor) is Lynx Academy alumni recently graduated from the University of Albany and current club captain. His brother Konner is an Albany freshman in 2008 and stepped up from U17/U20 in 2008. Konner joins Matthew Smith, Brandon Heembrock, Adrian Butters, Chris Mitchell, Macca Wilde, Sherif El Marsi, Lukas Risto and Jordan Webb, as players moved up from our 2008 U17/20 teams... I have also just called up Jonathan Costa and Jordan Taylor form the 2008 U17's to cover for Revivo and Garvic.
Robin, our whole focus is on developing the best GTA players at this level. We are one of the very few PDL teams in North America that does not field international players and I hope that we can continue offering this opportunity for our talented local boys. A continued intersted from people like yourself will greatly assist in helping to promote their futures.... Just look how many former Lynx players have had a recent chance at TFC... I think we have many more coming through at this level....
Please feel free to share this email and comments with your readers...... Best wishes to everyone for the remainder of the 2009 season.
Duncan Wilde,
Head Coach and Academy Director,
Toronto Lynx Soccer Club.
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