For the Rose family, it was going to be a typical February weekend. Griffin Rose, a freshman at Trinity High School, was set to play in a showcase event for his soccer club, the Louisville City FC Academy.

That was until his mom checked her phone.

"I got a message from Paolo (DelPiccolo) that he had an opportunity for Griffin," said Heather Rose, Griffin's mother. DelPiccolo, a former Louisville City FC captain, serves as the Academy's director.

Rose was getting "called up" to the Louisville City FC professional first team to play in a closed-door, preseason friendly against FC Cincinnati 2.

"I was just sick, laying in my bed," Rose said. "She came to my room and told me I was playing with the pro team and I didn't believe her at first."

For Rose, it was the culmination of a sudden rise through the Academy's system and proof of one of the organization's promises to its players: a direct pathway to the professional first team.

'Go out there and play hard'

One of five Academy players to get the call this preseason, Rose was expecting to play the final 10 minutes of the game. As he waited, he watched, studying his position in the midfield, observing the responsibilities he was set to inherit when he came on.

When his opportunity arrived, he checked in for Niall McCabe, the veteran LouCity midfielder in his 11th preseason with the team — a bona fide club legend. It was an symbolic moment: A player representative of the first team's championship history being replaced on the field by a member of the club's youth setup, its future.

McCabe's message to the youngster: "Go out there and play hard — full effort."

If Rose had any nerves, he hid them well. With one of his first touches in the game, he darted forward down the sideline with the ball at his feet and won a corner kick.

His calm on the field was supported by the years he'd spent in the Academy — the tactics were the same, more or less, as his youth team — another example of the connection between the senior pro team and its youth setup.

"It was just way faster, more physical," Rose said. "I was actually pretty gassed after 10 minutes, because I had been running way more than I usually do in one of my games."

And the players all talked more, communicating on the field and holding each other accountable in the locker room.

"Everybody was chipping in (to the pregame conversation), which I thought was pretty cool," Rose said. "When (coaches) talk to our team... there's really only one guy that talks. But, everybody had their own opinions (with the senior team) which I think makes them as good as they are."

An opportunity earned

While Rose's rise to a first team cameo was sudden, it wasn't quick.

After the LouCity Academy launched in 2020, Rose joined up as a U-13 player. At that point, the prospect of suiting up for the first team was unthinkable. He started with his age group's black team — the lowest rung in the Academy's system at the time.

But in the years since, Rose steadily climbed the ranks. He earned a starting spot on the black team, then moved to become a fringe member of the purple team — the preferred group — to eventually a becoming purple team starter and leader.

All the while, Rose's trust for the process and in his coaches — DelPiccolo, Academy Executive Director Guillermo Sanchez, and former Academy coach Michael Roman, particularly — was evident.

"What was so impressive about Griff is, throughout the entire process from being a fringe black team player, I never heard from his parents. I never heard from him," DelPiccolo said. "You know, he would ask for feedback on what he can do. He'd take that feedback, he'd implement it. He then wouldn't come back the next week and ask for more...He trusted that I was watching and when there was something I needed to tell him, I would tell him."

Rose's parents credit the Academy's IDP (Individual Development Plan) program as a way of building that trust through its transparency.

"It's not just about winning, it's about growing long term soccer players," Heather Rose said, noting that the IDP program, "opens the dialogue between the coach and the player." Expectations and areas for improvement are clearly communicated — there's no guesswork.

That trust in his coaches and his path through the Academy ranks instilled confidence in Rose, which was part of the reason his coaches selected him for the opportunity with the senior team.

"We take a ton of pride in putting our players in situations which will best help their development," DelPiccolo said, noting that a player's success in the youth ranks doesn't necessarily make them ready for the first team. "If he's not right physically, if he's not right mentally, that's going to set him back, it'll hurt him.

"You have to trust in what we're doing, and you have to focus on yourself and your development," DelPiccolo added. "That's when good things will come."

The pathway

After his appearance with the senior team, "every single coach" approached Rose with compliments. And on the bus ride home, he and his Academy teammates, Luke Newman and Dominic Del Negro, sat together, laughing and reliving the moments — and also planning on how to implement what they learned.

"I think that me and my friends that got pulled up have been trying to mirror the pros," Rose said. "Because, I mean, obviously everything they do works out well. So if we can try to mirror that, for a team like us, then it'll potentially help us with to win more games."

His coaches see his growth, too.

"I'm just glad to see his personality express itself more," Sanchez said. "From being a little bit quiet to now holding others accountable, that's a huge difference and that's growth, that's maturity."

The opportunity hasn't gone to his head — Rose says he takes his goals, "one by one" — but it did encourage him to continue putting in the work that landed him the chance, and it may have opened his eyes to the possibility playing at the next level, be it professionally or in college.

"When you look at our academy, our track record speaks for itself. You're going to have players that are like the Wynders, that are so physically and technically developed at such an early age that it's pretty clear right away they're going to be professionals before they go to college," DelPiccolo said, of Elijah and Josh Wynder — Academy players who signed professional contracts with LouCity and have since moved on to Major League Soccer and Europe, respectively. "But our pathway does not just stop when you go ECNL, Academy League, or USL first team... We send kids to Division One, we send kids to Division Two, we send kids to Division Three.

"We monitor these players throughout (their college careers)," DelPiccolo continued. "They come back in the summer, they play with us... I would say in the next year or two, you're going to start seeing us sign players (to the professional first team) that are alumni of our academy that did four years, three years at college."

That might be the path for Rose.

"This year we just started talking about having the opportunity to play in college," his mother, Heather, said. "I would love for him to have the opportunity to play if he wants to."

Regardless of Rose's future, he's proof of the Academy's ethos: do your job, maximize your development, trust the coaches, and opportunities will appear — sometimes out of nowhere on a sick day.

"The players see that there is a pathway, and it's not just a selling point — it actually happens," Sanchez, the Academy's executive director, said.