Butler University defensive midfielder Ricky Ybarra credits MLS Next academies for his growth as a player and person
INDIANAPOLIS (BVM) — The MLS Next youth system wasn’t started until the 2019-2020 season, but for Ricky Ybarra, his relationship with the sport began when he was a child.
“My dad played when he was in college [at NJIT] so I grew up watching soccer and watching him play,” Ybarra said. “He would always take me to the field when I was a kid. I want to say the first time I went out there I was 3 or 4.”
Ybarra grew up in Washington D.C. where travel soccer wasn’t that big of an option for him. Until Ybarra was 14, and his family moved to Tennessee, his soccer career was limited to playing with local club teams.
It wasn’t until Ybarra and his family moved to Tennessee that he was able to put everything into soccer.
“I grew up in DC and I moved to Tennessee when I was 12,” Ybarra noted. “In DC, we didn’t play much travel soccer at that age. It was just kind of rec; you get out there and play and of course my dad was the coach.”
From here Ybarra started to devote all his time and effort to his soccer career. He would practice twice a day, and Ybarra quickly started to see the results of his hard work.
“At the age of 14, I made my way up to my local club’s first team and I started doing ODP (Olympic Development Program) and then I started getting looks, which was new to me,” Ybarra said.
For Ybarra’s freshman and sophomore year of high school, he had the opportunity to play for Shattuck St. Mary’s, a boarding school in Minnesota that would become an MLS Next academy just a few years later.
This experience helped Ybarra get noticed by other MLS Next clubs all across North America as he later joined FC Cincinnati’s academy team for his senior year. This experience of playing at a semi-pro level away from home was huge for Ybarra.
“First semester of my senior year I was in Cincinnati and training there was insane,” Ybarra said. “It was one of the best experiences of my life. Great teammates, great coaches, everything was at a very pro level.”
Ricky credits the FC Cincinnati academy with preparing him for the intensity of collegiate athletics.
“Playing at a higher-level, higher pace, bigger stronger players,” Ybarra said. “Obviously it’ll be a challenge and a step up playing Division I soccer, but I feel like being in those high–level environments has prepared me as best as any player can at this level in the U.S. that I’ll be confident coming into my freshman year.”
Not only did Ybarra’s game grow exponentially at FC Cincinnati, but he learned how to live on his own, something most players have never experienced until they get to college.
“Living on your own is just so different,” Ybarra said. “I learned that whenever I was away the biggest thing for me was just managing your time. There are no parents that are there telling you to get up, telling you to eat breakfast, telling you to go to class, you’re kind of on your own.”
After a successful fall with FC Cincinnati, Ybarra was offered a spot to train with Nashville SC’s first team this past spring. Ybarra began training for his move to his local MLS side until he pulled his hamstring, keeping him out of Nashville’s training and keeping him away from the game for two months.
However, Ybarra said this experience taught him a valuable lesson.
“It taught me that recovery is one of the most important parts about soccer,” Ybarra said.
Not only was Ybarra getting looks from other MLS clubs and academies but various Division I programs also reached out to him. However, after Ybarra and his father visited Butler, he could see it was the right fit.
“I went on five visits trying to decide where I was going to go to college and when I came to Butler, it was a unique experience,” Ybarra said. “I thought it was really cool that Coach J.P., Coach Snape and Coach Brew all sat down with me and my dad and had lunch. At other places they didn’t really do that and I got the sense that at Butler they really cared for me and it was a family environment which was really important to me.”
He also added that even the players on the pitch impressed him, not just because of their skill, but because of their motivation.
“The players weren’t there to just play college soccer, they want to play at the next level,” Ybarra said.
Ybarra has similar aspirations as he hopes to play with USL and MLS teams in the offseason so he can prepare for the leap to professional soccer he wants to make after his collegiate career is over.
