This last year I saw friends leaving for NJ, CO, FL, VA and I keep thinking to myself, "why." This is stupid and frankly expensive. SoCal can pitch a tent and all the teams will come here. What two clubs in SoCal have benefited the most $$$$$ wise with this seismic shift? $1 to the first person to name them....
ECNL vs. DA turf war has created a 'toxic environment'
- Thread starter VegasParent
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Interesting article. Soccer should be promoted K-12 folks. It would be free to all
The Urban Soccer Leadership Academy in San Antonio illustrates the potential for growth. It has expanded to more than 500 players — predominantly Latino, low income and considered at high risk of dropping out of school — by working closely with the city’s schools.
Although the federation has installed an academy system to standardize coaching and culture, many believe it chokes off a pathway for young players. Academy members are forbidden to play on their high school or college teams.
“Soccer is the fastest-growing sport in urban schools,” said Ed Garza, the former mayor of San Antonio and president of the academy. “It’s part of the cultural dynamic.
“Why would you want to shut down that potential pipeline?”
Why don't you just go ahead.
Our family is doing ok $$ wise but soccer is 100% helping my dd get good grades and stay in school. If I didn't play sports in HS, I would have dropped out by 9th or 10th grade.Interesting article. Soccer should be promoted K-12 folks. It would be free to all
The Urban Soccer Leadership Academy in San Antonio illustrates the potential for growth. It has expanded to more than 500 players — predominantly Latino, low income and considered at high risk of dropping out of school — by working closely with the city’s schools.
Although the federation has installed an academy system to standardize coaching and culture, many believe it chokes off a pathway for young players. Academy members are forbidden to play on their high school or college teams.
“Soccer is the fastest-growing sport in urban schools,” said Ed Garza, the former mayor of San Antonio and president of the academy. “It’s part of the cultural dynamic.
“Why would you want to shut down that potential pipeline?”
When I would go to see my son play in college, I often told him that since he was playing I knew that he was still academically eligible.
End of the Line
SILVER ELITE
The better solution is for US Soccer to get out of the youth soccer business and just let different regions do what works best for them. There is one thing that makes for a great WNT, and one thing only, which is that more of a country's kids play it, and play it more often over more years. That's it. And that happens when a sport is fun and accessible. US Soccer, however, is driving people out of the sport in droves because they take the fun out of it and make it too expensive for most to play it at a remotely high level. If US Soccer succeeds, every really good youth soccer player with any potential will need to start buying plane tickets to fly all over the country 10 months a year if they already aren't. If Cordeiro were sincere about making soccer more affordable as he claims in the NYT article, he would start by paying for everyone's hotel and plane ticket to Vegas to beat the s**t out of an Albion squad that will be far worse than any of a number of SoCal HS teams. I am sorry Las Vegas, but if you don't have enough good youth players to play elite soccer locally, that is your problem and you need to be the ones doing the traveling.
And, as others have alluded to, US Soccer completely misses the point with respect to the actual benefits of soccer at the youth level. There are, what, 20 players on a WC roster? That's fewer than 2 persons per birth year on average between the ages of the youngest and oldest players on the team. US Soccer is creating a youth system that is intended to benefit fewer than 2 of the almost 2 million women born in the U.S. every year - plus Macario. Yet two people in just one family (Ellejustus') benefited from the system that US Soccer seeks to destroy. Especially on the girls' side, youth soccer is a pathway to educational opportunities for thousands of kids every year that would otherwise be out of reach, whether that's just getting a kid through HS, staying grade eligible in HS, or getting into Stanford or UCLA (and maybe scholarship money) instead of going to a JC or passing up college completely because people need to eat to live. Why is all this crazy nonsense happening? Because US Soccer finds it inconvenient scouting kids at lots of tournaments like in the old days. GDA makes it much easier to find all the best U14 girls, who will either fizzle out as they get older or will prove themselves in college and would have been found anyway at an age that actually matters.
I don't think that you should correlate the strength of an overall league with the strength of only a few top teams or weakness of a few bottom teams. Those are relevant, but don't really speak to the overall depth of a league.
MakeAPlay
DA
Again great message and 100% on point. Now this is a message that needs to be read. See your posts can have an impact and not be a woe is us post.
I read your comments on this issue, but I don't get it. Isn't the question: How good would Morgan have been if she concentrated on soccer at a younger age and improving her technique? Same question for Mace. If you can honestly say that they would not have been materially better soccer players, I get the criticism. But I don't think you have ever offered opinion, which would be difficult to support.
How is youth soccer a pathway to educational opportunities for thousands of kids every year that would otherwise be out of reach? That sounds nice, but is it true? It seems like youth soccer is a bunch of middle class to upper middle class families whose kids are going to college no matter what. Let's be honest, no one with real financial struggles signs up for ECNL or DA.
dk_b
GOLD
I take it that you are saying they would be materially better if they had specialized earlier. Just like discussing the opposite, it is speculation. If they had played earlier, perhaps they would have burned out, they would have been injured, they would have struggled so much or put so much pressure on themselves to be good that they would have moved on to another sport (since both are talented athletes).
At any event - GDA, ECNL, ODP, PDP (up here in NorCal) - we see talented players who play a very narrow (often it is very direct, taking advantage of speed or physical size). So many coaches want to coach that talented player and believe that they (the coaches) can be the ones to teach them tactics, discipline, the finer skills. And some of those kids NEVER learn. You will see them at 14 and 16 and they are the same kids they were at 10 or 12. Of course, we'd rarely see a kid like that on the national team unless that one characteristic - say BLAZING speed or incredible strength - will be limiting as the player gets older if she does not develop a more well-rounded game. Maybe moving to competitive at the advanced age of 14 actually allowed Morgan to develop other athletic - perhaps non-soccer - skills that have allowed her to succeed as a goal-scorer. Sure we can pick apart her game but that strikes me as silly - she's on the best goal-scorers ever (no debate on that). If someone said that your child would be one of the game's greats, beloved by fans, dozens or hundreds of caps, multiple goals in a world cup but she would not be a well-rounded player . . . would you take it? Put another way: aren't we sort of quibbling when we think about how much "better" Morgan or Mace MIGHT have been since we are really talking about marginal possibilities that these supremely talented players would be better than they are now?
End of the Line
SILVER ELITE
It's a real shame that so many people have blocked me....
In response to your last sentence. Are you saying that the children whose families have the means to afford a college education have no desire to perpetuate their game?
soccerobserver
GOLD
MM, may I submit that amazing college scholarship opportunities come from many more places than just ECNL and GDA in Socal soccer. As EOL correctly states, soccer is a fantastic way for girls/women to get into college.
I personally have seen one kid with a drug addicted mother and no Dad who got a full ride to a great college and who generated more interest from colleges than any other player on our team (mainly because she was good but she also wrote to more colleges than anyone else because she had to). She was the first in her family to ever attend college. Another got a full ride and she was also the first in her family to attend college. Family was also poor financially. Our team was not ECNL and was only in CSL Premier in the last season. We had a mix of wealthy families at one end and very poor families on the other end. Players on both ends of the financial spectrum got to play soccer in college without ECNL or GDA.
How about this: I have a picture of my dd when she was 11 with face paint of the USA all over her and her mother in 2015 watching the world cup in Vancouver in person. We saved our $$ so they could go. She dreamed as a little girl to play for our great country. I remember when I was young and I wanted to play professional baseball. I went to Angles games dreaming of playing out there. Then in 9th grade, US Baseball said the world is catching up so we need you to play 10 months out of the year now. You can't play pony league anymore. We have a new league that is focusing more on the development side, like the fine art of bunting, hitting and throwing. All participates get to start 25% of the time because that's not fair to have someone not start. We won't keep score anymore either. Oh and by the way, you can't play HS Baseball either. WTF!!!!!
End of the Line
SILVER ELITE
Although MAP and I are clearly on our way to making up with each other, I gotta say we're not there yet. Your post is just so stupid I don't even know where to start. I gave you two examples from just one family in my earlier post. More importantly, you answered your own question. Like you said, the rich kids who already play ECNL and DA are already going to college no matter what, and that holds true even if they don't play soccer. Rich kids do not need soccer to go to a good college. But kids who can't afford to fly to CO to see it snow for the first time while their soccer games get cancelled have far fewer options available to them.
Question and a point of view. If Albion is the new club in DA, how do you know they will not be competitive. I have read they have strong 05 and 06 teams in other posts. Who knows about the others?
Point.. college does not start and end at UCLA or USC or DI. What about the kids who dream of playing and are less well off who attend an NAIA school. My daughter is not on a top team an she knows it. She is good not great but plays hard. She wants to play in college and gets good grades. Are you saying the emails she is sending DIII and NAIA schools should stop as she has not shot?
Point.. college does not start and end at UCLA or USC or DI. What about the kids who dream of playing and are less well off who attend an NAIA school. My daughter is not on a top team an she knows it. She is good not great but plays hard. She wants to play in college and gets good grades. Are you saying the emails she is sending DIII and NAIA schools should stop as she has not shot?
I agree that travel is dumb. That wasn't my question. Can you point me to your examples? The only thing I saw was a reference to Ellejustus, who admits to having the resources. I missed how those are relevant to my question.
We need to throw money at the US Professional league. My dd would skip playing in college if the average player made at least $50K and got a 5 year deal plus pay for her tuition at the local JC and then a local 4 year. Get her degree while she plays professionally. I already asked her and it was a loud yes. Or, she could get a full ride and play in college if she's not good enough. All nice options. The money is going to the wrong people.
MakeAPlay
DA
When you are right you are right.... You were never offensive and I would never block someone simply because I don't agree with everything that they say. Otherwise @Sheriff Joe would have been blocked a long time ago. I welcome differing opinions when they are well reasoned and backed up by a well thought out argument. You are nothing if not eloquent.