Like so many soccer players poised for a professional career, Duncan McCormick’s memories are filled with the sport he loves – from a very early age.

“The biggest memory I have throughout my childhood is playing the game,” said the 19-year-old who graduated from Seattle Academy in Seattle. “The fact that I can pursue it beyond just my youth career is just a special thing.”

McCormick, a midfielder is one of 11 soccer players on the roster of Sounders FC 2, the Seattle Sounders developmental team, that trains and plays its home matches at Starfire Sports in Tukwila.

This is the team’s inaugural season and it’s been a successful one, as measured by the standings in the Western Division of the professional United Soccer League. S2 has regularly sat at or near the top of the 12 teams in its division this season and a postseason run is likely.

But winning is only one of the team’s keys to success.

“Sure, it’s nice to see you’re in second or first place,” said Coach Ezra Hendrickson. “But as long as we are developing and the players are getting better and improving, that is more of our concern because of the nature of the team.”

The purpose of S2 is to recruit and prepare top soccer players for a spot on Seattle Sounders FC1 – the first team – or as professional sports go, on another Major League Soccer team.

“We think we have brought in a group of very talented young players,” said Hendrickson. “So we’re happy with how it’s been going so far.”

The proof the system works and that hard work pays off for players was the signing June 26 of S2 forward Andy Craven to a first-team contract. He was S2’s leading scorer.

Sounders 2 players are professional athletes; they’re paid and the job is full-time. As professional athletes, they’re developing relationships with fans who line up for autographs after a match or when walking around the Starfire campus and when they go into schools in South King County to talk and teach soccer.

S2 general manager Andrew Opatkiewicz is working with small businesses in Tukwila and beyond to form partnerships with S2.

Tukwila and the area around it is “tremendously diverse” and there are a “ton of people” who love soccer, he said.

“We can bring professional soccer to that community,” he said, in an environment that’s “special and fun.”

The South King County  community is embracing the team, with loud crowds at home games at the 3,200-seat Starfire Stadium. If you become a member of the Sounders Community Trust, you can own a piece of the team with others in the trust and have a say in league operations.

Besides developing soccer plays, the Sounders are also developing a fan base for S2 and building a community with those fans.

“When they come here, they are going to see an entertaining brand of soccer,” said Hendrickson, and the fans will see “aspiring professionals” working hard.

Hendrickson describes his players, who are mostly 23 or younger, as “sponges.”

“They are soaking up everything that we are trying to teach them,” he said. “And they are going out and executing our game plans on game day.”

But, more so, in practice they are putting in the effort, he said, which makes them better prepared for game day, physically and mentally.

Last year, Major League Soccer told its first teams, such as the Seattle Sounders, that to develop players, they needed to affiliate with a USL team or form their own developmental team.

The Sounders chose to form Sounders 2, the second team. There are now three tiers to the Sounders’ organization FC1, FC2 and the Sounders Academy, which produces homegrown players competitive at all levels of the sport.

Duncan McCormick, a former Sounders Academy player, and team captain Amadou Sanyang were the first two S2 players, signing contracts in February. Other signings quickly followed; just recently  S2 signed goalkeeper Tyler Miller.

S2 gives the players competitive playing minutes, close to home and in front of a large crowd – and where they’re very visible to first-team coaches. And they have a chance to play competitive minutes with the first team.

The choice, said Opatkiewicz, was “obvious.”

Sounder Academy players get playing time, too, with S2 and first-team players are “loaned down.”

Duncan McCormick is a product of the Seattle soccer community and the Sounders’ player development program in the Seattle Sounders FC Academy. He couldn’t play soccer for his high school, Seattle Academy, because of the risk of injury, but in doing so, he said, he missed out on high school sports, a bit part of the community’s culture.

“It’s a sacrifice that I made and a lot of kids make it now,” he said.

After graduation, he committed to play soccer for Wake Forest University but he signed a contract with S2 instead. “I want to stick around here and play and pursue this career and following whatever happens with the Sounders or wherever I may go, for sure, college is definitely in the back of my head and something I want to get in the future,” he said.

McCormick’s father Richard played for the Sounders in the 1980s, was a Sounders coach and today coaches the under-18 team for the Sounders Academy.

Duncan McCormick says he could go on for two hours about his dreams.

“But right now my major goal is to make the first team. Make that step, much like Andy Craven just has. And get that MLS contract. And from there the sky’s really the limit,” he said.