Good info above. Thanks to all for sharing. My question to y’all, is if the above information is still valid in the “new era” of GDA and European investment in the women’s game? For example, now there are teenagers going pro (domestically and abroad) and being encouraged to skip college all together. FIFA also announced recently plans to invest more in the women’s game and it seems to me that opportunities for “elite players” will increase with more investment.
I understand that in the past that High School and college soccer were important. But isn’t this model becoming obsolete considering how our U20’s and U17’s got the brakes beat off of them in recent International tournaments? Is what is happening at the U20 and U17 level indicative of our future if High School and college continue to be advocated because of it’s past success in an era where other nations were too sexist to invest in the women’s game?
Can someone please help me out with a more nuanced examples of community/social benefits of the High School soccer issue, because I just don’t get it. Isn’t club soccer socially beneficial and can’t friends, family, and community support a player at their club games too? What makes High School soccer so special, community oriented, and socially beneficial?
Wouldn’t a 2 semester college soccer season resolve most of the above issues?
Our USWNT's are currently successful because the lure of playing in college, thanks to Title 9, makes the youth game so driven and competitive. We simply have more girls playing and playing at higher levels than our European counterparts had previously.
BUUUUT that lead is coming to an end as European pro clubs are investing in the women's game and they are using the same training models and academy systems that have worked for the men for years. The benefits of college and high school soccer have not revealed themselves on the international stage on the men's side and the women's game may follow suit within a generation.
What does that have to the Girls High School Soccer? Not much other than the notion that HS soccer is developmental is going to look quaint in due time. Yes there are benefits to high school but they all seem to sound the same as the benefits of rec soccer. It is fun, social status in school. I played High School sports
Anson Dorrance definitely thinks that what we have here is better than what they have in Europe and many foreign players still play soccer in US colleges. The Dutch coach even played at North Carolina.
I think that the World Cup showed that our college system produces more than enough talent for a decent coach to win. Every US starter in the final played at a D1 college. Many players on multiple teams played college in the US. Until someone can overcome our numerical advantage in terms of player pool size (320+ well funded teams training 25-30 players each), I just don’t see our team being outside the top 2-3.
What country in Europe has that large of a pool of players between the ages of 18 and 23 being trained at top notch facilities most better than the facilities that our top division (the NWSL) trains at.
Regarding high school, girls sports are a social activity and there is no better benefit than being a freshman star on varsity. Most schools only have a couple of players that play at the highest levels so high level club players tend to be stars and being a star at anything in high school has many benefits, but I’m sure that you already know that.
Good luck to you and your player.
The issue with High school soccer really is about volume and over-training. A kid is not going to suddenly forget how to play soccer because they spend a couple months playing HS but they are significantly increasing their risk of injury due to over training. A ECNL schedule plus HS can lead to 40 games in a 6 month span. That along with the number of practices is frankly diminishing returns.
As far as our "system" with college compared to Europe in time it will look about the same as the men's side compared to Europe.
Title 9 and the financial college benefits make soccer a prime youth sport target for girls. This means we do have leagues like ECNL and GDA where the most driven parents/kids can get pretty high level training at younger ages. It is a lead on Europe that we have capitalized on. The desire to play in college for some financial benefit is the real driver of our youth system on the girls side. High School is just kinda in the way of some of that and really contributes nothing to the player pool. The college hook through club is what has made the difference.
That said, our lead will not last as the European academies are seriously investing in the women's game. The Dutch will even play co-ed until 19 if necessary. They also didn't play in their first major tournament until 2009 and ten years later they reached the finals in the World Cup. Title 9 will always give us a deep player pool but where we will fall behind Europe is the quality and the PROFESSIONAL training during those college years. As women's professional leagues grow in Europe and the major big clubs keep investing their women will be playing and training as professionals while we will have student athletes.
Other examples of where our college approach has failed on the international stage, Basketball (We sent the Dream Team to restore order after our men's team lost in the previous Olympics), Hockey (Miracle On Ice not withstanding). We need a strong professional league that can pay our top women's players and allow them go directly pro and bypass the college game altogether.
And as far as the European players coming here to play in college they are not sending their best. This has been the case on the men's side for some time. These European players essentially washed out of the pro academies and are cashing their soccer in for an education here. They are not coming here to become soccer players. This will also be more of a phenomena on the women's side as the pro game grows in Europe.
We have a huge player pool thanks to Title 9 but without a strong and economically viable pro league our development will stagnate during the college years in comparison to Europe.