Kenny Bundy has been one of the longest tenured coaches at the Houston Dynamo Academy but now he’s taken a different role in hopes of accelerating the production of Major League Soccer caliber players.
The objective? Bring Houston up to par with clubs like FC Dallas, the Philadelphia Union, the New York Red Bulls, Seattle Sounders FC and other MLS clubs regularly developing first division soccer players.
As the head coach of Houston Dynamo 2, he will work with a mix of first team players needing minutes and Academy players needing opportunity.
Bundy says the second team will operate under the same system as the first team. He will collaborate with Dynamo head coach Paulo Nagamura to emulate his style and ideas of play.
The Striker Texas caught up with Bundy ahead of the team’s first official match this Saturday. The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
The Striker Texas: First of all, Coach Bundy, congratulations on your appointment as the head coach of Houston Dynamo 2. What does this mean, personally for you, for your career, to be named the head coach of this club?
Kenny Bundy: I'm really appreciative to the club and obviously, all of the ownership and the upper management to give me the opportunity to lead this project. Personally, I've been here for a while now with the Dynamo. To see how important this is going to be to the club, and to be given the responsibility to not only lead the players, but to build the staff that's going to help lead the players is a huge honor.
For people that aren't as familiar with the Academy, could you give us a brief summary of your time with the Dynamo Academy?
I was the Under-18 coach, when it was called Under-18s, and then it transitioned to the Under-19s. I led the U19s and U17s for my time here, and also I had the opportunity to work with our USL2 affiliate, Brazos Valley Cavalry, for a season.
Also had the experience of working with multiple head coaches here for the first team in preseason, during the season, transitioning players up and down. When we went into the U-23. pilot season, which was the precursor to MLS Next PRO, I got to lead that project as well and work very closely with the first team and the first team staff to really get this up and going.
How were you approached by the club when you were offered the job to lead HD2?
There's been a lot of transition over the last year and I think that the idea from myself and from the staff that we have, it was just to keep our heads down and to really just keep doing what we're doing. I don't think any of us expected to just be handed anything we needed to prove that we could do this.
Pat [Onstad] came in at a time where we were in the middle of our pilot season so he was able to see a little bit of the way that we worked. Obviously Nick Koba, who's a huge part of what we're doing right now, from the front office leading the charge in this whole process. He had seen what we were able to do and we were very fortunate that they thought that we could move this into the future.
Can you explain how the hierarchy works? How does Dynamo 2 fit into the grand picture?
Having Pat, having Asher and having Nick on site as our front office, Paulo, and I work directly under those guys. To say who we report to is a little bit confusing because I work very closely with Paulo as well. And my job is to produce first team players.
What we do is we collaborate with them. The really exciting thing about this project is that all of the decisions made from Dynamo 2, they understand what we're trying to do, we understand what they're trying to do and we work really closely together.
I spent the first two weeks of the first team preseason with him getting acclimated to the way that they do things so that when I present a message, it's something that the players, no matter what level they go to, they will understand. I'm trying to mirror, as much as I can, what Paulo wants in players and the style that he likes, so that when those players get that opportunity, the gap is a little bit closer together.
To elaborate on that, how closely do you want HD2 to emulate the first team?
Paulo and I see the game very similarly. The way that he wants to play and the way that he wants to build up from the back, the way he wants to defend, those are all things that we, very fortunately, see it the same way. Our goal is producing first team players.
For me, it's very important that I have a clear idea of what they're trying to do with the first team, and that I can use our platform to get those players closer. But we're on the player development side where, as opposed to on a game by game basis, the first team making the playoffs, we may be able to focus on the individual more than maybe the game coming up.
How does your job change now from the academy side of it to maybe being more focused on developing first team players? This is essentially the last step before making the jump to MLS.
It changes quite a bit just based on the level of player that we're going to have and the level of player that we're bringing in. You look at some of the players that we'll see on Saturday, and some have come through the academy, some have gone to college and come back from our academy, when some have been brought in from other places, because they have first team potential.
You'll also see players from the first team that are going to come down and play on the second team to get minutes and to develop there that are maybe a little bit younger, from a first team standpoint. The job's changed a little bit. It's more players that have a vast array of experiences, as opposed to in the academy where these guys have come through MLS Next and it's been similar for them over years and years.
The number one thing is player development, it's about getting as many guys from the second team to the first team. So that mission is still there. It's changed a little but we haven't changed the way that we work. Our job every day is to focus on the players, the individual players in a team collective group. It's about going out and performing on the weekend. It has changed, but it hasn't changed dramatically.
I imagine for you, it's also one exciting to stay with the club but also the ability to continue to work with some of the players that you worked with in the past.
Look, we care about all these guys, especially when you have them as young players. Not only that, but when we had the USL2 team, we have a number of guys that we brought back in from that that are still early on in their careers. To me, it's about player relationships. It's about the relationship that I have with the guys the staff has with the guys and and I think that the stronger our relationships are with the players the more we can get out of them.
From your viewpoint, why hasn't the Houston Dynamo academy produced more MLS players?
I think talent needs opportunity, to really grow a club. This team is that opportunity piece. The gap between academy and first team. I think that people see that a lot in other clubs where they have a homegrown player and then that homegrown player gets sold to Europe. What they don't see is that sometimes that span of time is four years, and sometimes that player goes through multiple teams in those four years.
We had the RGV project for a while. That had logistical issues where it just is very hard to get down to the valley on a weekly basis. I think this being in house, us training next to each other, daily communication between the two staffs, the front office being able to see players from the first team and the second team train, as well as the integration of players into training. That's where we're really going to find out what the Houston talent can do because now that opportunity piece, it's not missing. So that's why this is such an important piece for the Houston Dynamo. Now the talent can meet the opportunity, and then we can set expectations based on that.
As a product of the U.S. Soccer system, you’ve experienced a playing career in the lower leagues firsthand, what can you say about the importance of this new league?
We won't go back to how far I played but I think, you look at it, when I was coming through the college system was the biggest system. It's still massively important for the sport in this country but now, being able to have a platform where a player can come in, they can maybe be a potential first team player, but just not ready, and being able to focus on the needs of that player at a young age, as opposed to sending them out, hoping that they get what they need, tracking game by game but not seeing them day to day. I think that's huge for everybody. And you're seeing that with how many clubs really jumped on board with this project, and then how many clubs are going to be in next year as well.
I think what the USL had done before was great. This being in house, this being something that is MLS driven, we’re going to see a lot of younger players get experiences and we're going to have a lot of names that come out of this that people didn't know existed. And I think that's what's exciting about it.
What are the objectives in this first year of Houston Dynamo 2?
I'll give you the club's expectations first. It's about producing players that are in the conversation to be first team players. I don't want that to be too vague, because there's a lot of circumstances that go into a player being signed. And I think that's something that everybody needs to understand is that there's a lot of things and a lot of layers that go into a player being signed to the club, a lot of roster situations and things like that.
For us, it's about taking the players that we have, and creating a handful of players that are in that conversation on being first team players. Of the guys coming down from the first team, we want those guys to develop so that they're contributing players on the weekend to win games for the first team. That's the club's objectives.
My objectives are exactly the same but I want to create a winning environment. I want to create a style of play. I want to create an environment in the stadium where this is a very difficult place to play. And I want the players to learn what it means to be a winner. I want them to understand what it means to compete at a professional level, because that is a big piece of development and it's a big piece that I know Paulo really would appreciate when he gets a player that's capable from a technical side, a tactical side of physical side to play for him that they have a mentality of winning coming in, and they can win for the club.
I appreciate that the club's philosophy on this project, especially year one, is to produce players because this platform is perfect for it. It's a big job for our staff, because I think you could say winning and losing games is what people really critique. But at the end of the day, from a club standpoint, what we want is we want to win an MLS Cup. We want to win the MLS Cup with our first team. So how are we going to do that? Well it's our job to produce players that will help Paulo win those games.
What can you say about the talent pool in the city of Houston from your years of coaching here?
There's a massive talent pool here. I think the one thing that people sometimes misunderstand is how big the city is, and how, logistically, trying to find all these players takes time. A lot of people have done a lot of great things in this community and there's been a lot of clubs that have produced a lot of professionals over the history of Houston soccer. I think those people are due a lot of credit because you can go back 20 years, 30 years, 40 years and even look at the players that have come out of the Houston area. These guys played in the biggest games, in the biggest leagues.
The pool of players is there. The art side of it is making sure that we have the right relationships with people in the community, making sure that we are identifying the right players, which I think we are starting to really get a handle on, and you almost have to treat Houston like its own country. You can't just look at it as if it's a city. It's got the numbers of small countries and so we have to be very smart about making sure that we don't ever think we have it figured out but there are some special players coming out of this place and there will be over the next two or three years. There are names that will come up that I think people maybe don't realize are in this environment.