U.S. Soccer Names High Performance Director

According to an article in Soccer America Daily, The U.S. Soccer Federation has hired as High Performance Director James Bunce, who previously served as the Head of Performance for the English Premier League and Head of Athletic Development of EPL club Southampton.

The 31-year-old Bunce worked at Southampton for eight years before spending three years at the EPL, where he started out as Head of Sports Science.

"I am honored and humbled to join U.S. Soccer," Bunce said in a press release. "The Federation is an organization that continues to dedicate the right resources to high performance and development growth. I am looking forward to getting started and confident that we will be able to accelerate U.S. Soccer's ability to develop world-class players, coaches and referees."

U.S. Soccer announced that Bunce “will lead the supporting personnel and initiatives dedicated to enhancing elite athletic performance and improving the development of younger players” ... covering “all areas across physical development, nutrition, recovery, strength and conditioning, mental conditioning, performance data and performance research and innovation.”

While Bunce worked at EPL, it created an Injury Surveillance-Based project that tracked injuries for all players from under-9 to first team.

At U.S. Soccer he will work with all national teams and the U.S. Soccer Development Academy.

"We are adding a world-class level sports performance expert to our staff," U.S. Soccer Director of Sport Development Ryan Mooney said. "James possesses the right balance of theoretical and practical experience that we are confident will lead to an acceleration across all of our player development initiatives."