McGinty lands top '14 recruit from Jesuit (Sacramento)

[bauman]

Yeah, so this is a new rule, right? Certain clubs were designated "US Development Academy teams" and playing for them disallows you from playing for your HS team?

Pretty weird system. Seems like soccer is trying to replicate a Euro model to thicken the development pipeline. Just my understanding of it, which is admittedly limited. But what I don't get - which side is this rule coming from? Do the HS associations look at these as jeopardizing amateur status, or do the development academy programs see HS soccer as getting in the way of their schedule?

If so, how is it different than the AAU system in other sports?

Like I said, this was something that barely hit my radar when it happened and I'm not sure if I get it.

First with regard to your question about how it is different from AAU in other sports, the main difference (and it's a big one) is that players in AAU basketball, for example, still play for their high schools. The AAU season is not in conflict with the HS season.

Who started this problem? I don't know about other cities, but as I understand it, in STL, S-G issued the ultimatum that if you wanted into their Academy program then that meant all year including their scheduling throughout the HS season.

If anyone in the STL area wanted to do an expose, the S-G soccer program would be fertile grounds. What they charge parents coupled with what they PAY THEIR COACHES is a sin. Peer pressure forces weak parents to pay the fee to make sure their child gets into the club, when many (most) of the players have no business being on a "select" team. The main advantage of paying the outrageous fees is the ability to say your kid plays on a "select" team. Since the Busch soccer club merged with the S-G club things have gone straight downhill. If you are interested in knowing more, just inquire as to the number of "select" teams S-G has. They have given the term new meaning-now it just means you pay a lot to have your kid be able to say they play for a S-G select team.

I can think of very few, if any, reasons for a HS kid to give up playing for their school. Even many world class swimmers swim for their HS and almost all of these S-G Academy players, while very good, are NOT world class. I see it as a decision they will regret as they look back in a few years.

[slufanskip]

The problem isn't how the top high school programs in St Louis were developing players. The coaches in St Louis do a good job for the most part. The problem is with a lot of other areas around the country that don't have the same level of coaching in place and the same level of competition in place. St Louis high school soccer is getting the shaft addressing a problem that doesn't exist in St Louis and the kids get screwed out of the chance to represent their school.

So the Development Acadamy says this rule stands for all cities but St. Louis? As a whole the HS system isn't good enough if the US is ever going to consistently develop world class soccer players. And ... I see St. Louis kids at SLU all the time who have progressed through the school systems and NOPE they aren't good enough at that age skill wise. I don't see St. Louis kids dominating the highest levels so I'd say it isn't working

Bauman ... it's not S-G it's the Development Acadamy.

Also it's the way you describe in most sports today. We had a girl come to me in the summer and tell me she was playing for a club team. She's a border line A team player on our feeder team (which btw is one of the top few in the area) This club team has A, B, C, D ... level teams and parents pay upwards of a grand a quarter even if you make the D level team ... which means you are probably a player who will never play HS basketball but I guess the parents can say my kid plays for XXX team.

We have girls in the club volleyball system and I know for a fact a parent pays 1500.00 at least twice a year and they told me the coach makes 3-4 k per season and this was when she was in 6th grade.

I have a 6th grade girl I give private shooting lessons to who travels all around the country in the summer to play on an AAU team. Now she's good, but she should be home learning skills not traveling around the country. The reason she works with me is her "club" team doesn't work much on fundamentals, but they run 2-3 different offenses and defenses.

[slufanskip]

First with regard to your question about how it is different from AAU in other sports, the main difference (and it's a big one) is that players in AAU basketball, for example, still play for their high schools. The AAU season is not in conflict with the HS season.

Who started this problem? I don't know about other cities, but as I understand it, in STL, S-G issued the ultimatum that if you wanted into their Academy program then that meant all year including their scheduling throughout the HS season.

If anyone in the STL area wanted to do an expose, the S-G soccer program would be fertile grounds. What they charge parents coupled with what they PAY THEIR COACHES is a sin. Peer pressure forces weak parents to pay the fee to make sure their child gets into the club, when many (most) of the players have no business being on a "select" team. The main advantage of paying the outrageous fees is the ability to say your kid plays on a "select" team. Since the Busch soccer club merged with the S-G club things have gone straight downhill. If you are interested in knowing more, just inquire as to the number of "select" teams S-G has. They have given the term new meaning-now it just means you pay a lot to have your kid be able to say they play for a S-G select team.

I can think of very few, if any, reasons for a HS kid to give up playing for their school. Even many world class swimmers swim for their HS and almost all of these S-G Academy players, while very good, are NOT world class. I see it as a decision they will regret as they look back in a few years.

Maybe not world class players but I can't imagine they won't be better prepared soccer wise to play at their next level whichever level that may be by training with S-G rather than their HS. I'm not 100% sure but I believe one of the reasons for the change was to reduce the amount of games played. US teens were playing double the amount of games as kids in European countries. While are kids were playing games ... they were working on developing skills with the ball.

[SLUBALLS]

Just fyi: Appears you can watch SLUMen v Memphis this weekend via Memphis's site:

http://www.gotigersgo.com/allaccess/?media=396757

Tim Ream may make an appearance versus Bosnia and Vedad this week during the friendly. Glad to see him pulled back into the nat'l team fold. Curious to see if he will be used as a left back or center back.

[slu06]

It might be a bigger deal in STL, but I don't have a huge issue with elite clubs disallowing their players from playing on their high school team.

I'm from Chicago and know that the Chicago Magic and Chicago Fire PDL have similar requirements. If these kids think they can get a 4 year college scholarship or turn pro and are willing to sacrifice their free time and the opportunity to play for their high school, why stop them? Or, why force them to play against inferior competition to do so? These teams don't take all of the talent from the entire state. And this system arguably open up spots / playing time for others to improve. Lastly, on a national level, people complain about not developing "world class" talent. Doesn't this model - albeit disruptive to traditional high school soccer - offer more promise of creating this talent? Or should we just be hypocritical and let elite kids enroll in European academies?

Side note: can out-of-towners purchase SLU soccer jerseys anywhere?

[slufanskip]

It might be a bigger deal in STL, but I don't have a huge issue with elite clubs disallowing their players from playing on their high school team.

I'm from Chicago and know that the Chicago Magic and Chicago Fire PDL have similar requirements. If these kids think they can get a 4 year college scholarship or turn pro and are willing to sacrifice their free time and the opportunity to play for their high school, why stop them? Or, why force them to play against inferior competition to do so? These teams don't take all of the talent from the entire state. And this system arguably open up spots / playing time for others to improve. Lastly, on a national level, people complain about not developing "world class" talent. Doesn't this model - albeit disruptive to traditional high school soccer - offer more promise of creating this talent? Or should we just be hypocritical and let elite kids enroll in European academies?

Side note: can out-of-towners purchase SLU soccer jerseys anywhere?

Again, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't believe it's the clubs. It's the US Develoopment Acadamy setting the terms. If a club wants to be a part of the US Development Acadamy program than these are the rules. Of course a club could opt not to participate but then you are not going to be playing with and against the top level players and teams.

There are plenty of programs and teams for kids who either aren't good enough or choose not to be a part of the US Development System and those kids can still play for their HS

[slufan13]

I guess this is the annual soccer thread. Or someone can start a new one or rename this one.

Expectations for this season?

I think they will be better than last season. 10 starters come back and although Robson is a big loss, I think they have enough talented players that someone will be able to fill that spot. Like every year, I think it'll take a while to get a set rotation, but there are probably 15 or 16 guys who can really contribute this season.

I think the loss of Maglasang off the bench is understated. He could come in and play multiple positions and he knew what he was doing. Very smart player who really understood the game.

Kristo obviously has 1st team All American talent. It'll be interesting to see how McGinty uses him as the year goes on as he sees more defensive attention this year.

I don't know anything about the freshmen or newcomers? Anyone have anything to say about them?

Any guesses on the starting 11? I don't remember exactly but I actually think I remember Kingsley playing the CDM at a spring game this past year. I don't know if I love that move but he is listed as a midfielder on the roster so we'll see. I hope Graydon stays in the CAM although I think he could do decently at CDM. Do we want Adnan and Kristo starting up top? I really like Adnan coming off the bench.

[SLUBALLS]

Watching Memphis SLU tonight. Appears we are playing three in back with Tyler David pushed up to a defensive mid position. Not entirely unusual as more teams are moving away from the flat four back system. Can't really tell who is all in the field well but Graydon is AM, Bryce is up top, and appears Adnan is up top as well. We are up 1-0 on Tyler goal.

[slufan13]

3-1 Final. Everyone logged playing time. Any reason why Anthony Manning wasn't even listed on the roster in the box score? https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf9/2517585.pdf?ATCLID=209191061&SPSID=632571&SPID=93202&DB_LANG=C&CONTENT_ID=%23temp_CONTENT_ID&DB_OEM_ID=27200

[Bobby Metzinger]

3-1 Final. Everyone logged playing time. Any reason why Anthony Manning wasn't even listed on the roster in the box score? https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf9/2517585.pdf?ATCLID=209191061&SPSID=632571&SPID=93202&DB_LANG=C&CONTENT_ID=%23temp_CONTENT_ID&DB_OEM_ID=27200

Hmm...that's interesting. Also interesting that Memphis played a bunch of guys for the full 90.

[SLUBALLS]

Pretty sure Manning is coming back from surgery in the offseason which could explain is lack of an appearance in the Memphis game. Looking froward to Akron this weekend.

[BIG BILL FAN]

First with regard to your question about how it is different from AAU in other sports, the main difference (and it's a big one) is that players in AAU basketball, for example, still play for their high schools. The AAU season is not in conflict with the HS season.

Who started this problem? I don't know about other cities, but as I understand it, in STL, S-G issued the ultimatum that if you wanted into their Academy program then that meant all year including their scheduling throughout the HS season.

If anyone in the STL area wanted to do an expose, the S-G soccer program would be fertile grounds. What they charge parents coupled with what they PAY THEIR COACHES is a sin. Peer pressure forces weak parents to pay the fee to make sure their child gets into the club, when many (most) of the players have no business being on a "select" team. The main advantage of paying the outrageous fees is the ability to say your kid plays on a "select" team. Since the Busch soccer club merged with the S-G club things have gone straight downhill. If you are interested in knowing more, just inquire as to the number of "select" teams S-G has. They have given the term new meaning-now it just means you pay a lot to have your kid be able to say they play for a S-G select team.

I can think of very few, if any, reasons for a HS kid to give up playing for their school. Even many world class swimmers swim for their HS and almost all of these S-G Academy players, while very good, are NOT world class. I see it as a decision they will regret as they look back in a few years.

You are correct, it's all about the money. The SG coaches don't want to give up 3 months of revenue while the player participates in HS soccer. Taking off 3 months is not the detriment to development that they try to tell their players. In fact many players prosper from playing HS soccer, as they are asked to take on a different role than they do with their club team. It's a shame how many grown men are making a living off coaching HS kids, most who will never advance past the HS level. SG used to be for the upper tier players, now they have multiple teams at every age level, so that the lower level players can pay for the ridiculous salaries of the administrators and coaches.