Now, Doody has graduated, and a new freshman has stepped in to replace Doody at left back: Andrew Gutman.
What all three have in common beside being left-footed defenders: they all played in the Chicago Fire Academy before attending IU.
“I went to IU and that kind of spiraled off into a couple other guys attending IU,” Doody said.
The Fire academy, partners with the MLS’ Chicago Fire, has quickly become one of the top youth academies in the country.
The U-18 team won the U.S. Soccer Development Academy national championship this summer, with Gutman starting on the backline.
Part of the reason the academy team is so strong, and why its graduates are finding success after leaving the academy is because the Fire doesn’t treat the academy team like an academy team. The Fire treats its academy as an extension of its senior team, giving its youth players opportunities to train with the first team.
“Obviously that’s something you can’t get anywhere else,” Lillard said. “It’s always a good opportunity to practice with those guys, and it’s a good experience. That helps, especially physically because the jump from academy to college, that’s one of the biggest things.”
Another one of the big things, Gutman said, was that he could no longer take plays off. While training with the academy, Gutman said he could get away with taking a play off every once in a while.
Once he arrived at IU, however, he was quickly told this was no longer the case. The person to tell him this: his backline partner and former academy teammate, Lillard.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations on what to do with the left side of the backline,” Gutman said. “I think that we just understand each other so well and our tendencies that we know what each other are going to do.”
IU Coach Todd Yeagley said he sees a lot of similarities between Gutman and Lillard, similarities he attributes to their background with the Fire.
He said the physical challenges they faced have prepared them for the rigors of college soccer. The training has prepared them mentally for tough situations and for the quick decisions they need to make in games.
At the end of last season, Lillard was named the top freshman in the Big Ten. This season, Yeagley said he thinks Gutman is more than capable of following Lillard.
“I think right now Andrew has an opportunity to be Freshman of the Year in the conference,” Yeagley said. “I think he’s that dynamic and good at what he does. It was pretty clear quickly that Grant was in a special category, and I think Andrew is in that same category, which is great.”
The connection between the Fire and the Hoosiers is not one that will be disappearing anytime soon, Yeagley said.
“I think the dominoes are getting even stronger and that pipeline will continue to grow,” he said.
One of the factors is that the Chicago area is one of the top areas the University draws its students from.
Yeagley said most everyone from Chicago knows somebody who attended IU and loved their time as a Hoosier. And with the Fire continuing to be one of the top teams in the country, there’s no reason Yeagley would want to turn them away, he said.
“They’re producing players, Andrew won’t be the last one that we recruit,” Yeagley said. “It’s not going away.”
