On top teams but doesn’t want to play in college

watfly said:
In the case of non-scholarship schools, that can happen, but according to my son's professional counselor that is extremely rare for scholarship sports. Regardless, its not relevant on a go forward basis because for most sports the new reduced roster rules will have scholarships for all rostered players. (I.e. football is going from 85 scholarships and 120+ rosters to 105 scholarships and 105 roster spots) The era of the preferred walk on spots looks to be over.
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Rudy Rudy Rudy!
 
pitchplease said:
my dd played da/ecnl. plays power 4 now. and that was a lot of practice, a lot of travel and a lot of money. it definitely helps prepare you for a glimpse of what that life is truly like at the next level. it's a grind. everyday. if she didn't have the aspirations to play college soccer during her youth, past the 10th grade, i wouldn't have kept her at ecnl. there are other avenues to keep playing.
my son plays mls next, he is 15 turning 16 yrs old. practice is 5 days a week. and the residency is tailored to soccer, not school. you more or less fit school in with soccer. online, and fridays off because they are travel days and walk through days. you have to love it or it will consume everything in you. once again, i wouldnt support playing at that level if he didnt have goals and aspirations to play at the next level, whatever that may be. once again, there are other avenues to keep playing.
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Thank you very helpful.

What other avenues?
 
focomoso said:
Some of this depends on the demographics of the team. Only about half the kids on my son's MLS Next team planned to go to college at all. The others will try out at academies or lower division teams in MX, but if they don't make those, that's it. It's a day job and Sunday league...

Also, a significant portion of kids on mls and ecnl aren't strong enough to make good college teams anyway. They will have to choose between playing for a not great school or getting in academically.
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wow only half planned to go to college?? Is that true of all MLS next teams? I am shocked by this.
 
Grace T. said:
If you are an mls futures or reserve player you may be required at some clubs to also double up your practices with the second team. If you are an mls keeper it’s likely 4-5 days with keeper training.


Sports scholarships do care how well you do in hs. My nephew is a d1 prospect in football that just had his offer withdrawn by what’s probably the top school on the west coast because of his grades. The other thing is sometimes they funnel academic scholarship money as a way to make up for the lack of athletic scholarships. The issue is if you are recruited on the sports route you go into a different admission pool which is on the lower end of academic admissibility. The sports recruitment route however is different than the academic route. The academic route does not give you credit for playing higher level club, only for playing a sport. There’s also a performing arts route into certain colleges as well as a donor/celebrity route (separate from legacies)

The thing you are missing is the non academy mls next clubs exist to basically serve as scrimmaging partners for the mls academies including the bench players and those in the u16 (u17 now?) dead zone. So everything revolves around the needs of the academies. Reason this is necessary is the us is large and clubs didn’t want to have to fly teams every weekend.
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So for example the Strikers MLS next and SoCal reds MLS next are non academy. They serve as scrimmaging partners for the academies?
 
Lou789 said:
So for example the Strikers MLS next and SoCal reds MLS next are non academy. They serve as scrimmaging partners for the academies?
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I like to say they are “cannon fodder”. Not really scrimmages…they are games…but they don’t count towards the academies league standings at the older ages…the academies play each other for placement in league.

Striker btw is kind of the exception along with img in Florida and barsca residential in Arizona. Even though they aren’t academies per se they get more practice time than the other non academy mls teams and are the first places the mls academy teams look to recruit players from. They occupy a middle tier between a true mls academy experience and a regular non academy mls team.
 
the college landscape is vastly changing. grades and academics have always compensated for what athletics couldn't always offer (100% athletic $$$) . now that the non revs are looking at going from equivalency to head count, is about to be all the difference in the world. yes, grades will still matter if you are trying to play at top academic schools, but for the rest.....
Lou789 said:
Thank you very helpful.

What other avenues?
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if my kid(s) truly didn't want to play college or beyond, i wouldn't invest top $$$$ in leagues that are set up to help catapult that. your local state league, usys, still gives you entry level competition without the price tag. i am not a parent that is willing to spend for the experience. it was and has always been our philosophy that we will commit and spend whatever resources we can to help our kids achieve their goals and dreams. But, it is on them to have the same commitment in return to what they are asking for ie- ecnl, mls next, etc . if they don't want to do it and play in a lesser league, that's fine too. they are the driving force, not us. we can do other things with our time, etc and they can still gain valuable life lessons playing usys and so forth. just my pov.
 
Grace T. said:
I like to say they are “cannon fodder”. Not really scrimmages…they are games…but they don’t count towards the academies league standings at the older ages…the academies play each other for placement in league.
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I would say... most of the kids on the MLS academy are also cannon fodder... for those one or two kids in the entire academy that has a potential future to make the senior team...
So never mind if you aren't even on the MLS academies... cannon fodder to the cannon fodder...
They're there to provide games and bodies for a handful of kids...

Granted - with the right perspective - consolation prizes aren't bad... possible college scholarships, lifelong friendships, playing the game you love at the highest level you can individually, staying out of trouble, learning to dedicate yourself to something, learning from ups and downs... all good life skills...
 
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