Asunto: US Under 19 Team

I definitely agree about scouting 15 and 16 year olds - as long as you can handle all the 15-18 year olds in and from the United States in 1-2 seasons. I suppose that you probably have a significant head start in addition to your scouting capacity.

That's the nature of the lowest youth team. Everyone largely has to restart every season.

If you have younger players that are close enough in ability to the 19 year olds that would otherwise start (you probably will), the younger players would definitely deserve the spot. If you can find a few, then those players will start the following season with chemistry (probably). If those players already have enough chemistry during the next season, then you can put them on the bench for exhibitions and work on developing the chemistry for other 17-18 year olds. All of this has proved very helpful in hockey.

You could even consider tanking the first season to build the chemistry of the 18 year olds (or at least a larger number of them than you would in the future), allowing you to focus more on youth in the future (if you wanted to and could get everyone to buy into such a plan).

Of course, this is based on my experience in U18 hockey, where there is no seasonal penalty to chemistry. I don't know if there will be a penalty for the youth teams in handball (though the youth teams in basketball might provide a good indication).

Otherwise, the players on the bench still get the training bonus, so it is a good place for the top prospects. I prefer to focus on the best prospect (in terms of potential for the next season) at each position that isn't already a starter. The NT bonus is generally less than the camp bonus and doesn't stack. Tt could be worthwhile to at some point add additional replacement prospects depending on how much space you have. I suppose you could instead focus on the players in terms of potential for the senior team to develop them from age 15 for the senior team. I did this in the case of a generational talent that passed through in hockey.

17 year olds and 18 year olds might have a slightly better chance to be useful in handball since players seem to have been continuing to improve over the last few seasons.

In hockey, I add the best players to fill up the lineup (with preference for any younger players that are sufficiently close). I also add 2 lines of prospects and one line of injury replacements (possibly overlapping with the prospects). But there is an unnecessarily large amount of extra roster space in hockey. There's enough extra space in hockey that I've in the past added the best 16 year old at each position, but most of the players have not gained any experience, chemistry, or training bonuses. It provides insurance in case a future key player's team unexpectedly folds, hopefully encourages managers to pay more attention to the players, and accounts for the future of the team, but the value has ultimately been mostly symbolic.

All my 17-19 yo meet these requirements

Marcel Richey looks like a pivot

Cool. Added him to my scouting list.

Cale Devereaux might be a long-shot but GBG have good facilities and coaches so perhaps you can keep him on your radar.

Training him as a Universal Defensive Wing
Age 16
CL perfect (6/6)
OR 466
AvQ 79%
PrS Universal

Thanks for the heads up. I added him to my scouting queue.

His OR might be a tad low (as a 16 year old) for him to warrant a roster spot, but given the decent quality, Universal hands, and 6/6 CL I'll definitely keep an eye on him.

Thanks for posting!

Hoping I get lucky and he can keep his C/L at 6/6 when he turns 17 - otherwise he might not be worth considering.

Hey... you never know. Three of my best players Lloyd Russ , Ted Keenan , and Rolland Benedict stayed 6/6 CL through age 18.

But... I will say... the training difference between a 5/6 CL guy and a 6/6 CL guy really isn't that significant (it's really only the difference of a few AQ or so). That won't make or break your guy's chances. The MOST important thing for the youth teams (particularly the U19 team), will be the OR he starts at as a 15 year old.

You could have a 15 year old guy with 300 OR and 85 AQ, and even training at good facilities, he might not catch up to that 450 OR guy with 75 AQ by the time they're both 19. The higher AQ player would have to train an average of approximately 0.33 points more / day over the course of 4 seasons just to close the gap.

Okay people... I'm gonna try to go through and post a preliminary depth chart for U19 team players.

The team will largely be composed from 18 and 19 year olds. There may be a few 17 year olds that make the cut, but that will likely be for developmental reasons.

Keep an eye out for it in the closing days of the season, and lemme know if you're aware of any glaring oversights.

Okay... I'm getting ready to post my preliminary analysis for the U19 team in the coming season.

-------------------------------
Criteria:
-------------------------------

The criteria that I used to determine player value is based on the following (in order from most to least important):

- Training Levels / Ratios
(player values closest to generally accepted "optimal" levels received preference)

- Age
(younger players of similar skill received preference)

- Training and Regeneration Facility Levels
(higher levels received preference)

- Country of player's team
(players on teams managed by USA owners received preference)

- Handedness
(all else being equal, players with Universal handedness received preference).

-------------------------------
Roster Composition:
-------------------------------

The active roster is going to be roughly 21 players. The approximate breakdown of this number is detailed in the next post (below).

The remaining slots (approximately 9 slots) will be used on younger players in order to get them some chemistry/experience for coming seasons.*

* I'll be posting a list of possible candidates for these slots after the start of the coming season. The team will start with the 21 players, and then will be fleshed out once I have an idea what the CL of these younger players looks like.

---------------------------------------------
Goalies:
---------------------------------------------
Approx. Slots: 3

Players Under Consideration:
Vince Burns
Murray Polanco
Nathaniel Cunningham
Marty Geese
Tahj Hatton

Commentary:
- Nathaniel Cunningham will almost assuredly make the team and will play as much as possible. He's the only 17 year old of the bunch, so we can build his chemistry for season 10 without losing really any efficacy.
- The other two slots will probably be filled by Vince Burns and Murray Polanco .
- Marty Geese and Tahj Hatton are the lowest in my ranking due to their poor TEC and SPE attributes/training.

---------------------------------------------
Offensive Backs:
---------------------------------------------
Approx. Slots: 4

Players Under Consideration:
Wilfred Crabtree
Andrea George
Rolland Benedict
Caleb Pressley
Leroy Booker
Stu Jones
Shane Browne
Robby Butcher
Gabriel Childs
Carl Schmidt

Commentary:
- Wilfred Crabtree is on the team. He's the got the highest OR of any U19 USA-born player.
- Rolland Benedict and Caleb Pressley will likely round out the "starting 3"
- Stu Jones and Gabriel Childs will flesh out the depth chart and will likely see some action (to build chemistry and exp for season 10).

---------------------------------------------
Defensive Backs:
---------------------------------------------
Approx. Slots: 4

Players Under Consideration:
Ted Keenan
Jorge Gross
Emerson Pickering
Max Bleau
Cary Ward
Daryl Hamby

Commentary:
- Like Wilfred Crabtree above, Ted Keenan is on the team. His OR also rivals that of many of the players on the Senior national team. He will anchor the very veteran U19 defense this season.
- Emerson Pickering and Cary Ward will probably round out the "starting 3" on defense.
- Outside of Ted Keenan , there aren't many Right-Handed Def. Backs out there. Daryl Hamby will likely get a nod as the 4th Def. Back for injury support.
- Not much here honestly. All of the top players for consideration are going to be 19 next season, so in season 10, we'll be literally starved for defensive backs.*

* Teams with younger backs take note, if you train them as blocking backs, they'll be MUCH more likely to make the national teams in the coming seasons.

---------------------------------------------
Offensive / Defensive Wings:
---------------------------------------------
Approx. Slots: 6 total (3 / 3)

Players Under Consideration:
Isaak Hiatt - Offensive Only
Morris Donaldson - Offensive Only
Rod Taylor
Myron Garcia
Clint Wicker
Patrice Marquez
Stan Sikes

Commentary:
- Many of the U19 USA-born wings have been trained in SHO and BLK, so we have a lot of flexibility here.
- Isaak Hiatt and Morris Donaldson are pretty comparable offensive LWs, but Morris Donaldson is a year younger, and doesn't have whacked out training ratios, so he'll get the nod as starting LW.
- Myron Garcia is the best option we have for RW. He'll be the starter on that side.
- Clint Wicker and Stan Sikes will start on the Left and Right side on defense (respectively).
- Rod Taylor and Patrice Marquez will be on the team for depth, but because of the flexibility we have here, there will likely be lots of shifting around (from defense to offense or vice versa).

---------------------------------------------
Offensive / Defensive Pivots:
---------------------------------------------
Approx. Slots: 4 total (2 / 2)

Players Under Consideration:
Leon Ware - Offensive Only
Franklyn Clark
Kenneth Crocker - Offensive Only
Ramón Doud
Wayne Wilcox
Gene Peil

Commentary:
- God ... we are super shallow at pivot this season and probably next season too. Luckily our starting pivots this year will be around for season 10 though..
- Leon Ware will start at Offensive Pivot, while Wayne Wilcox starts on Defense.
- Franklyn Clark will be the substitute Pivot on offense and defense. Interestingly enough, Stan Sikes is actually a "top 5 pivot candidate," so he can always rotate into pivot if we need him to since we have some depth/flexibility at Wing.
- Because of the lack of depth at this position, I'm more inclined to spend the "4th spot" that I allocated here on a 16 or 17 year old with good OR for their age. We'll see.

about Marty geese. I did left Tec/Spe in purpose as I wanted to test the ratios, if needed they can be boosted.

I wil be making the ratio analysis soon

just one hint from previous experience. If ratio can be fixed before the championships, dont discount a player. just work with manager.

Many people neglect perfect ratio specially for youngsters. if it is not too bad, it can be worked out.

if a player is a starting player in their teams and earning experience it is more important than things that can be fixed.

Other thing, if you have a player that can be called and play in the "following" season, just advice the manager so he can pay more attention to ratios.

other than that, good luck

in short, if a player is around 100 points off the ratio you want, it is very possible to be fixed before championship.

if it is not possible, you should still advice the manager that you could not call his player cause of bad ratio but would like to count in the following season. so he has time to fix it.

you will see that one of the biggest part of NT is working with managers., you will want to work with the ones that want to work with you because you will depend on them to train players according to your wish ...

again, good luck. it is fun

Thanks for the work lanky