My apologies I use it as a overall reference point for both. I should use another phrase.
Multi Sport
DA
Where are you getting your numbers from? And if you feel your kid will never get a scholarship I hope that you are not paying over 2k a year for your kid to play.
If you are looking for only a D1 scholarship then you could have an argument but there are many scholarships availble, you just have to know where your kid fits in.
Chalklines
GOLD
It's both.
Some parents are delusional about talent especially when it comes to their own kids.
No Jimmy and Susie wont be going pro because they ride the pine on a bronze & silver level team.
No Jimmy and Susie won't be getting full rides to pac 12 schools because they scored 1 goal against the 0-14 club of the league.
No Jimmy and Suzy won't be going pro because their dads 5'3" and their mothers 4'10, over weight and resembles a troll.
Parents need a reality check. Life after club and recreational soccer (or any sport) is rare....very rare but it's a possibility for the alpha dogs on the field. The rare special kids who with out a doubt put on a show week in and week out on a constant bacis and clearly pass the eye ball test for everyone watching.
Don't be a sucker as a parent. You owe it to yourself and kids. If a clubs telling you your child has tallent and your kids constantly MIA game day and stinks it up at practice accept you've been bamboozled by your club for access to your bank account.
It's not the coaches fault, not DOCs fault or the teammates around your kids fault. It's yours for buying into the marketing aspect of youth sports.
Good point about the marketing aspect of youth sports, but I doubt many parents are in it to have their kids become pros. Given where MLS salaries are, a parent would either have to send their kid to Europe to break in (which is difficult given the closed academy system) or accept their kid has no other options but pro soccer (given that the academic choices are more numerous). Sure, I think there may be some parents of girls who fantasize about the USWNT, but soccer is an upper middle class sport in the US, and most of those parents are eyeing college. They've heard the stories (only partially true), that little Billy and Sallie have to be "well-rounded" to get into schools and that they need a sport. They see the other kids jump from AYSO and when the club kids come back to do camps, it's always the club kids that smoke the AYSO All star players. So, they feel they have to keep up with the rat race. Can't have the kids "fall behind". Sure, there are many that buy the marketing aspect of youth sport...sure their are some that buy the scholarship sale (even if with the amount of money invested in training you'd be better off often investing in something else and paying the tuition...absolutely true about that)...but I think it's a mistake to assume all the parents playing for the D or E teams of the mega clubs think their kids have futures in the MLS or the free rides.
coachrefparent
GOLD
I wholeheartedly agree. The whole premise that is being made, that parents with kids of lower teams that don't start think their kids will go pro or get scholarships because they pay lots of $$ for club, is simply faulty. Nothing to argue against, because no one thinks this way, its not the big scam its made out to be.
Agree with what's said but with an exception to the quote above.
It is partly coaches and DOC's fault. Yes we all know its a business and buyer be aware but we are talking about youth sports, and in particular, children of parents who are paying - regardless however delusional they may be.
Coaches and DOC need to tell the truth and not accept some kids or that they need to let them know that reality. Its uncomfortable conversation but it needs to happen. If enough coaches and DOCs do this from all clubs, parents will get the message by the time they are at the 3rd and 4th clubs.
That’s like telling Mc Donald’s they need to be honest about what’s in the “pink slime” used to make McNuggets -or- how bad their food really is for you and your family.
sandshark
SILVER ELITE
To much money to made in youth soccer in the US for the sport to ever put the players development first, it has become nothing more then a money machine, SELL! SELL! SELL! SELL! It is lost forever. The money has changed the path to building world caliber players. It will never change as long as the rat race to have the biggest club, biggest tournaments and the biggest league and so on.. Accept what is and get ready for more because the greed has only just begun!
Don't forget that they should blowup that little sign that states that some of the food they serve can cause cancer...btw the list is online and unfortunately most of the food people buy is on that list.
Multi Sport
DA
Those two have nothing to do with how good the kid will be.
What about the 8 or 10 year old just starting out?
Also, Messi is taller then both his parents so I guess you would have ruled him out?
.... to think of all those Nuggets kids ate on the road trips when they were so young. Fries too.
Next think you'll going say is that greasy cheesy pizza is bad too....
So you're that guy that points to exceptions. Just how common is Messi?
I've had more than one scout tell me that they look at the size of parents when the kids are prepuberty to get a sense of potential size. Depending on where they come from they consider nutrition of US diet versus their emigrated country's.
As for 8 to 10 years old, you can't tell about their size but you can tell about coordination and body control relative to peers, in general. I'm sure one can point to exceptions but not the norm.
I don't think it's lost forever. The current system exists because of some trends out there. One, college has become hypercompetitive and parents have become paranoid about what they need to do to get their kids to succeed (lots of stories about fake charities, kids at kumon from early ages, mandatory music classes for unmusical kids). There has to be a limit, though, to the current rat race as we are seeing in survey after survey that both time and cost are at a break point. Two, our education system is firmly rooted in a belief that no child should be left behind, that every kid has a right to college and that every child (if taught properly) can be Mozart. But despite the many political reforms (from NCLB to Common Core), we are seeing the limits of that strategy as reality always prevails in the end, and the politics will eventually change (don't know if they change right or left, but change is always a certainty). Three, the pendulum swung from the feel-good Millennial generation to the hypercompetitive iGeneration. It will swing again. Four, there's a teaching gap in rec soccer that isn't present in other countries since AYSO and other rec relies about volunteers. But you don't get to choose your coach, everyone gets equal play time, and your coach may not know what they are doing so parents looking to improve their kids (and that don't have the knowledge themselves) need to seek out the so-called professionals. As the crop of kids raised in the late 90s and early 00s begins to have kids, they'll be less of a need for this, particularly as some of the more outlandish aspects of all this become more and more generally known (such as the Eagles contracts, or clubs promising scholarships which in the end don't materialize). I think you are right it might get worse in the immediate future, but I think you are wrong that this lasts forever. The value of club soccer will deteriorate as the US gets more of a soccer culture, and the rules of economics, or supply and demand, are hard and fast.
Multi Sport
DA
Seriously? Scouts are looking at prepubescent kids and their parents? So if a scout looked at my prepubescent kid and then looked at my 5-10 build I'm sure they would have said "yep, that kid of his is going to be 6-3".
My DD was cut from her first club team at U12. Should she have been told to give up? Better yet, I'll ask her college coach.
This is part of the problem. Because a kid is too small, or now their parents don't pass the eye test, the kid is overlooked?
Multi Sport
DA
BTW... Messi is taller then Maradona. Again, part of the problem in the US Soccer world.
SoccerFrenzy
SILVER ELITE
Why does the US look for height is what I am curious about? I have seen far better shorter players that have amazing ball skills that taller players don't have. I had the privilege to watch Mexico U15 National team this weekend and they were all average height and amazingly great players.
Multi Sport
DA
Bleacher report has a great article on the 25 best 5-7 players and shorter in the world. That would make for one heck of a team...
You seem to be hung up on height thing. I simply responded to you citing exception rather than a rule by using Messi not being tall but great (implied). Not trying to argue with you. Just simply reacting to your post.
Is height girls soccer thing? Because its not on the boys side. Most good U16+ teams are not stacked by players over 6 feet. Many players in my son's college team is under 6' tall, including mine 5-11. An average height.
Yes Goalies and CBs are usually taller and bigger/thicker but there are exceptions there too. My 2002 boy on flight 1 team is a starting CB and is 5-8 (still growing).
As for looking at prepuberty kids, I should have said boys because they are much later than girls. Not uncommon to have boys finish growing height in college.
This forum has a gender bias and assumes everyone is talking about DD, unless explicitly stated multiple times.
It would cool to see that article! And kidding partially aside to know who is on your short list from it.
The top 11.