This is COMMON at our age group. Also they all have instagrams and work with trainers who then film and try to promote their centers etc. is all extremely common now!!!
Alright. Here is where it gets good. I am as old as the people with kids in college, but started with kids later. I'm old school, but realize that the club scene is rapidly changing from what we blindly leaped into 6-7 years ago.
The saying is the more things change, the more they stay the same. That is where we have to navigate this journey with our kids by using the advise of the vets while keeping up with the ever changing parameters our younger kids are facing that weren't there even 2, 3, 4 years ago.
This reminds me of what we saw in basketball a few years back when kids were jumping straight to the NBA from high school and even with the age limit they have now. The player who stayed in college for 3-4 years quickly went from the highest valued commodity to a near after thought. They became "kids not good enough to go pro early" and not young adults "getting a great education, maturing and enjoying life before entering the real world". Look at the upcoming NBA draft and everyone in the top 15 is one and done, two and done or foreign players.
Now I'm not saying that our girls are to that point or even close. The boys are starting to get there with the MLS Homegrown movement and Mexican teams snatching up our kids for their leagues second teams. Please don't think I'm smoking crack this early in the morning. What I'm saying is it seems to me that we are hitting a major shift in the landscape like that and there are a few factors speeding up the process.
1. High school is a mess just like it was for us, but 24 hour social media has really expanded the mess. Charter schools and independent study is becoming a real option for kids who don't have great public schools or private schools available or desired and even for those who do. Add in those looking to achieve in sports and can add physical training to the regiment and the appeal is there. This has been the case for football and basketball for over a decade and soccer is just joining the frey. With the addition of the DA and no high school soccer, there is even less incentive to stay in the crazy high school environment with less concentrated learning curriculums.
Gaining social skills for future jobs is quickly becoming the best reason to keep a kid in a traditional high school.
2. Club soccer isn't really local anymore. Kids don't play with the same kids they go to school with nearly as much as they previously did. For many of us to find the right teams for our kids, we travel far outside of the neighborhood for the everyday team. The kids intermingle their school circle with the team circle through social media and people who have never met are starting to know who each other and hang out on friend trips to the theme parks. Just having high school friends isn't as important as it was.
My son's team is off the 710/60/10. We all are coming from San Fernando Valley, San Diego, Inland Empire and even one kid from above Bakersfield. The reach of this club is amazing because we ALL pass two or three other high level clubs/DAs to get there. If you asked me 3 years ago I would have bet any amount of money that our family wouldn't do this.
My girls' team is fielding kids from the IE, OC, and San Fernando Valley and it's in the north LA area. Now the reach isn't as large here because the $ investment from the club isn't the same (no billionaire owner with multimillionaire investors), but the curriculum and dedication from the club is the same making it ultra attractive. Having a current D1 coach come run a practice and see your DD up close is the exposure we all are looking for.
With the DA here I think we may be building new roads to get to the same ole destination. The WPSL and overseas pro leagues are options after college for more players. Hopefully they continue to grow and expand so more girls can actually play longer and financially reap the benefits too.
I think the last old school part to change will be the national teams. Like you guys said, they identify young and don't expand that search to later developing players often. Plus it's hard to force change when your team is always top 3 in the world. The only country I have ever seen revamp and reinvent its youth system while still an international power was Germany on the men's side 10-12 years ago.
