Young Parents: Why youth soccer should be your last resort

MacDre said:
It seems to me that ECNL recruits size and the vast majority lack skill, finesse, and basic fundamentals. Can you reconcile your skill/finesse assertion with the fact that most college teams play kickball because most of their players don’t have the requisite skillset to play possession soccer?
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True but at least with soccer skill has a chance over size. Also a posession team with smaller players will usually beat a kickball team. The problem with posession is that it takes a lot of time to develop. Where as with kickball you can be competitive quickly with big and fast players.

Colleges often do kickball because they dont have the time to do posession.
 
oh canada said:
And, what youth sport is the only one with a national federation and clubs on the same page requiring or strongly discouraging players to play for their high school teams and coaches?

Yes, that might prevent some injuries. But do you really think that's the primary purpose for the clubs? More important it eliminates the high school coach and season from having any influence on player development and their future. Guess who becomes the only kingmaker, and since kids are specialized in only one sport now, where does all the parent money and influence become focused?

Think about it...high school football coaches still provide a huge role for students and recruits. The top basketball prospects still play high school--boys and girls. High school baseball games draw just as many scouts as club. Even high school volleyball is still a big deal. And, high school lacrosse, track and field, tennis, golf. What makes soccer so special that its kids shouldn't play high school? And, where did that school of thought start? It wasn't a player trend that the clubs and federation just followed along with...it started in the boardrooms. And, when you have clubs with 40 affiliates across the country and a national federation pushing an agenda that is anti-player, we should be asking why...and, not surprised that it causes crazy parents (and coaches) to behave badly.
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No federation that I know bands the players from playing HS Sport. I will say after 4 years of watching HS Soccer, it needs a big overhaul. It's dangerous.
Carlsbad7 said:
True but at least with soccer skill has a chance over size. Also a posession team with smaller players will usually beat a kickball team. The problem with posession is that it takes a lot of time to develop. Where as with kickball you can be competitive quickly with big and fast players.

Colleges often do kickball because they dont have the time to do posession.
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I watched a Neatherlands Div 1 team play some really good possession soccer. Tired the opponant out. 1-0 at the half and then 3 goals early second half and then lighys out. Quick collection, quick to pass and go and just quick and fast and move the ball from side to side, back to GK and look for the holes in the middle and then go look for shots on goal. Its beautiful to watch. No injuries either. Kickball/Direct Soccer is easier to teach and if refs let play on and allow rugby stylw hits, folks will get injured and not the best skilled team wins. Great stuff brother :)
 
oh canada said:
Another month, another soccer scandal. All sports have the occasional drama, but why does this sport, especially soccer in the USA, seemingly have 10x the amount of issues as other sports?

Well, it all starts at U6, in the pay-for-play USA club scene. In a sport that has no objective criteria for determining who's better than whom, parents with big egos, white-collar jobs, and the ability to spend countless hours at the fields and up the coaches' arses. The clubs are hyper-focused on $$, branding, and growth, and the good ol' boy network is deeply entrenched with testosterone, favors, winks, and quid pro quos. Nepotism, bribes, blackmale, discrimination, abuse...from FIFA to US Soccer to MLS/NWSL to college campuses to CalSouth to Surf (and other clubs) to AYSO, and all the media/ranking companies that perpetuate the charade. It all drips with filth. It may be the one sector where you find more ugliness than Capitol Hill, with car dealerships running a distant third. And, other youth sports farther down the chain.

Friends know I've had three kids go through the soccer system and achieve their personal goals--college etc--so, no regrets here. But, I'm often asked for advice about getting their little tykes started in soccer. Ten-Fifteen years ago, my answer was different. Now, I tell them, "try every other team and individual sport first, and if your kid hates every other one, then consider soccer. Because the corruption, the cost, the time commitment, the injury risks, the crazy parents, the subjectivity of the sport, and the potential upsides, are worse than any other athletic endeavor." Soccer makes my beloved hockey look like, well, child's play. The beautiful game? Wisdom has me thinking otherwise.
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Pfft, you have no idea of cost, subjectivity, time commitment and drama until you have a child in dance.
 
crush said:
www.espn.com

Berhalter-Reyna explained: Drama's roots in U.S.'s overbearing parents

U.S. Soccer's familial fiasco between the Berhalters and Reynas traces its lineage back to the growing trend of "snowplow" parents in youth sports.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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"But there are some cultural aspects to life in the U.S. that make it fertile ground for such behavior. Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede accumulated data for more than 40 years as a means of discerning cultural differences among countries. Among the areas he researched are how countries stack up in terms of individualism vs. collectivism and long-term orientation.

Hofstede's research found that the U.S. is highly individualistic, scoring 91 out of 100, while also scoring just 26 in terms of long-term orientation. By contrast, China scored 20 and 87, respectively, while Germany scored 67 and 83."

Soooo, basically we Americans are selfish and short sighted??

I was going to be offended by it... but I don't think that's untrue... :p
 
MacDre said:
What about nepotism?
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Nepotism is universal. Just recently more prominent in soccer with the "hiring" of Berhalter.

If I had to say anything that is more pervasive in club soccer it would be the lack of quality coaching. However, I think its more of a function of the numbers playing club soccer than anything else. Some clubs have 6 or 7 teams at an individual age group, that's just crazy. Let's be honest 80% of club soccer is really rec soccer.
 
watfly said:
Nepotism is universal. Just recently more prominent in soccer with the "hiring" of Berhalter.

If I had to say anything that is more pervasive in club soccer it would be the lack of quality coaching. However, I think its more of a function of the numbers playing club soccer than anything else. Some clubs have 6 or 7 teams at an individual age group, that's just crazy. Let's be honest 80% of club soccer is really rec soccer.
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I used to work with a guy that owned a soccer club somewhere in the chicago area. Wish I paid more attention to him about the club name but he ended up leaving after a couple of weeks. He said that finding players was never an issue, however what was difficult was finding and maintaining coaches. I'm sure they were paying peanuts + expecting the world. I'm also fairly certain if this guy as a good manager / owner of the business he'd still own the club. But I found his (as an owner) take on the issues with soccer clubs interesting. I would have assumed it would be crazy parents.
 
Carlsbad7 said:
I used to work with a guy that owned a soccer club somewhere in the chicago area. Wish I paid more attention to him about the club name but he ended up leaving after a couple of weeks. He said that finding players was never an issue, however what was difficult was finding and maintaining coaches. I'm sure they were paying peanuts + expecting the world. I'm also fairly certain if this guy as a good manager / owner of the business he'd still own the club. But I found his (as an owner) take on the issues with soccer clubs interesting. I would have assumed it would be crazy parents.
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Retaining great coaches can be extremely difficult for not only the organizations but for player relationships.

Always seems to be movement,. Successful ones sooner or later move up for $, management, directors, trainers or to professional positions on pro staff, college, etc.

Great getting that young inspired coach who's all in but just fleeting sometimes as next season's going to be different. Coach looking for more.. teams, prestige,$$, or whatever.

From the Player(s) perspective getting the right coaching fit is always great, inspiring, and motivation for the players. Once you have that you want to continue on but change always seems to get in the way....mid season coach was promoted to in assistant on a PRO league, players happy for them but replacement normally not same level so takes some time to sort things out so players come and go.
 
Kicker4Life said:
Versus?
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All Olympic sports and gridiron football. I don’t want to be accused of being a hater, so I’ll give an example from the men’s side to illustrate my point. On the USMNT, 3 of our top players are beneficiaries of nepotism: Tim Weah, Christian Pulisic, and Gio. None of them have distinguished themselves in Europe, are injury prone, and primarily come off of the pine!

I can’t think of any Olympic sports where the majority of our stars are beneficiaries of nepotism. If we are talking gridiron football maybe Steve Young (Brigham Young’s grandson) was the beneficiary of nepotism but he was a BOSS capable of distinguishing himself amongst the “big boys.”
 
MacDre said:
All Olympic sports and gridiron football. I don’t want to be accused of being a hater, so I’ll give an example from the men’s side to illustrate my point. On the USMNT, 3 of our top players are beneficiaries of nepotism: Tim Weah, Christian Pulisic, and Gio. None of them have distinguished themselves in Europe, are injury prone, and primarily come off of the pine!

I can’t think of any Olympic sports where the majority of our stars are beneficiaries of nepotism. If we are talking gridiron football maybe Steve Young (Brigham Young’s grandson) was the beneficiary of nepotism but he was a BOSS capable of distinguishing himself amongst the “big boys.”
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MacDre said:
All Olympic sports and gridiron football. I don’t want to be accused of being a hater, so I’ll give an example from the men’s side to illustrate my point. On the USMNT, 3 of our top players are beneficiaries of nepotism: Tim Weah, Christian Pulisic, and Gio. None of them have distinguished themselves in Europe, are injury prone, and primarily come off of the pine!

I can’t think of any Olympic sports where the majority of our stars are beneficiaries of nepotism. If we are talking gridiron football maybe Steve Young (Brigham Young’s grandson) was the beneficiary of nepotism but he was a BOSS capable of distinguishing himself amongst the “big boys.”
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I see a lot of nepotism in the NFL, especially amongst coaching staff Reid’s son, Belacheck’s son and so on.

Not sure that there are better players than those 3 (at their position) available to the USMNT.

I just don’t think Soccer is special in this case. It’s just in the press right now.
 
Kicker4Life said:
I see a lot of nepotism in the NFL, especially amongst coaching staff Reid’s son, Belacheck’s son and so on.

Not sure that there are better players than those 3 (at their position) available to the USMNT.

I just don’t think Soccer is special in this case. It’s just in the press right now.
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I agree that there’s nepotism in coaching and the business world. But, I have never seen it in sports to the extent that it exist amongst soccer players especially at the highest levels.

At this juncture Weah, Pulisic, and Gio are probably the best, IDK. But one definitely has to question how they became the best available to the USMNT. Is it because they had more opportunities to develop because of mommy and daddy? Did they receive better coaching because of mommy and daddy? Were they encouraged to continue training, working hard and making the big bucks while their competition was shown the door because of mommy and daddy?
 
MacDre said:
All Olympic sports and gridiron football. I don’t want to be accused of being a hater, so I’ll give an example from the men’s side to illustrate my point. On the USMNT, 3 of our top players are beneficiaries of nepotism: Tim Weah, Christian Pulisic, and Gio. None of them have distinguished themselves in Europe, are injury prone, and primarily come off of the pine!

I can’t think of any Olympic sports where the majority of our stars are beneficiaries of nepotism. If we are talking gridiron football maybe Steve Young (Brigham Young’s grandson) was the beneficiary of nepotism but he was a BOSS capable of distinguishing himself amongst the “big boys.”
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What about Peyton & Eli (and now another generation)?
 
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espola said:
What about Peyton & Peyton (and now another generation)?
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You got me, but Archie, Peyton, and Eli were all great in their own way-championship caliber quarterbacks. The jury is still out on the new generation. Our USMNT stars are struggling in Europe for playing time and are injury prone. The fact the none of our stars have distinguished themselves in Europe makes me question if anyone would even know their names if it weren’t for their family connections. If they’d gone to Europe and established themselves as top players in Europe, I’d be okay with it…but they haven’t
 
If the goal is to get money for college, here are two charts for total number of scholarships all levels. Number of scholarships offered. If you have a boy go Football, Basketball, Baseball. Girls go Basketball, Soccer, Track.

Girls
NCAA & NAIA schoolsAthletic
scholarships Girls
Basketball10,165
Soccer9,266
Track & Field8,536
Volleyball8,101
Softball7,402
Tennis4,480
Cross country3,817
Swimming & diving3,550
Golf3,056
Rowing2,080

Number of Scholarships offered guys
Football25,918
Basketball9,504
Baseball8,062
Soccer6,152
Track & field5,930
Golf2,998
Cross country2,722
Tennis2,417
Swimming & diving1,994
Wrestling1,530
 
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