On the latest edition of the 'Scouse's House 2.0' podcast, youth academy director Mario Sanchez, junior academy director Kincaid Schmidt and assistant boys director and college recruitment coordinator Luke Spencer discussed a fruitful first year for both the Louisville City FC and Racing Louisville FC academy programs.

Topics discussed in the hour-long podcast included:

• How Sanchez has seen the program as a whole -- including both first teams -- grow since joining the LouCity technical staff in 2019. "I think ultimately what's changed is that now we're a proper club," he said. "We have the first team, we have the women's first team, and we have the youth on both the boys and the girls. We're a proper club now. There's a philosophy that goes from the first team down to the 6-year-olds... If anything it's pretty amazing in a short period of time how we go from playing in a baseball stadium to having now two multimillion-dollar facilities."
   
• Spencer on his transition from player to coach after hanging up his boots following the 2020 season: "It's everything I expected it to be -- everything I wanted to be," he said. "I'm in a position where I'm learning a lot every day, where I'm coaching every day. I work for Mario and with Kincaid and Simon (Bird). So I'm around good people everyday and experienced people everyday... As a coach, I'm growing, I'm being challenged, it's been a positive experience for me so far."
   
• The opportunity for the academy athletes to train next to the pros at the new training facility: "We wanted to make sure, if you see the design of it, that the kids understand the feel that they're training right next to the pros," Sanchez said. "So that was a big desire of ours. We didn't want the pros to be behind a glass wall or hidden. That's something that's a part of the culture that started with James, and now with Hack and Danny."
  
  Listen to the full pod below: