MLS next ruining high school soccer

[Anonymous]

My oldest son played 4 years of varsity soccer while playing MLS next and now he is playing college D1 soccer. Now my younger son is trying to do the same but the coaches are threatening him if he does it again, he did it as a 9th grader. He never missed more than 1 practice a week and never missed a game. He has a 4.2 gpa and really enjoys the atmosphere of high school soccer. I do as well. As a 9th grader the pace of play at the varsity level is much faster than MLS next and being forced to play faster really helped improve his play last season. He is a 2nd best player on his MLS next team and other parents asked me how he got so much better this season and I told them high school really helped him and his confidence. We are not sure what to do but I’m thinking we are just going to play both again and see what happens there is very little college recruiting being done as 10th grade year. He could always switch clubs, we have about 6 of them in the area. Thoughts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest son played 4 years of varsity soccer while playing MLS next and now he is playing college D1 soccer. Now my younger son is trying to do the same but the coaches are threatening him if he does it again, he did it as a 9th grader. He never missed more than 1 practice a week and never missed a game. He has a 4.2 gpa and really enjoys the atmosphere of high school soccer. I do as well. As a 9th grader the pace of play at the varsity level is much faster than MLS next and being forced to play faster really helped improve his play last season. He is a 2nd best player on his MLS next team and other parents asked me how he got so much better this season and I told them high school really helped him and his confidence. We are not sure what to do but I’m thinking we are just going to play both again and see what happens there is very little college recruiting being done as 10th grade year. He could always switch clubs, we have about 6 of them in the area. Thoughts?

The only things HS soccer taught my 9th grade DS this past fall is that 1) he needed to work on strengthening his neck muscles so he could watch the ball fly back and forth over his head in midfield and 2) how to avoid getting his knees and ankles ruined by players who apparently think that HS soccer is in fact rugby.

Now, there can be HS programs out there that play quality soccer but that's maybe 1.5 out of every 10.

[Anonymous]

I would be very concerned about a child playing that many games especially on turf. High injury risk but the play style is a factor too. However, I do wish more 9th graders got to play older competition. Evaluating players during puberty is very difficult and there is not any recruiting done until 10th grade so I do think we start MLS next too early. I think is we would wait until all boys is puberty. TBH there is way to many kids being added and dropped on MLS next teams 10th grade year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest son played 4 years of varsity soccer while playing MLS next and now he is playing college D1 soccer. Now my younger son is trying to do the same but the coaches are threatening him if he does it again, he did it as a 9th grader. He never missed more than 1 practice a week and never missed a game. He has a 4.2 gpa and really enjoys the atmosphere of high school soccer. I do as well. As a 9th grader the pace of play at the varsity level is much faster than MLS next and being forced to play faster really helped improve his play last season. He is a 2nd best player on his MLS next team and other parents asked me how he got so much better this season and I told them high school really helped him and his confidence. We are not sure what to do but I’m thinking we are just going to play both again and see what happens there is very little college recruiting being done as 10th grade year. He could always switch clubs, we have about 6 of them in the area. Thoughts?

The only things HS soccer taught my 9th grade DS this past fall is that 1) he needed to work on strengthening his neck muscles so he could watch the ball fly back and forth over his head in midfield and 2) how to avoid getting his knees and ankles ruined by players who apparently think that HS soccer is in fact rugby.

Now, there can be HS programs out there that play quality soccer but that's maybe 1.5 out of every 10.

This could be true, our school is luckily pretty good and I would say many Fairfax and some Loudoun schools are pretty good as well. If we went to a smaller schools I might not have the same point of view

[Anonymous]

You only get one time in your life to play high school soccer. Do both this season and switch to an ECNL team for next year, they don't play at all in the spring due to HS soccer.

[Anonymous]

So you signed your kid up for an MLS Next team and you knew the rules and now you’re sad about it. Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My oldest son played 4 years of varsity soccer while playing MLS next and now he is playing college D1 soccer. Now my younger son is trying to do the same but the coaches are threatening him if he does it again, he did it as a 9th grader. He never missed more than 1 practice a week and never missed a game. He has a 4.2 gpa and really enjoys the atmosphere of high school soccer. I do as well. As a 9th grader the pace of play at the varsity level is much faster than MLS next and being forced to play faster really helped improve his play last season. He is a 2nd best player on his MLS next team and other parents asked me how he got so much better this season and I told them high school really helped him and his confidence. We are not sure what to do but I’m thinking we are just going to play both again and see what happens there is very little college recruiting being done as 10th grade year. He could always switch clubs, we have about 6 of them in the area. Thoughts?

The only things HS soccer taught my 9th grade DS this past fall is that 1) he needed to work on strengthening his neck muscles so he could watch the ball fly back and forth over his head in midfield and 2) how to avoid getting his knees and ankles ruined by players who apparently think that HS soccer is in fact rugby.

Now, there can be HS programs out there that play quality soccer but that's maybe 1.5 out of every 10.

This could be true, our school is luckily pretty good and I would say many Fairfax and some Loudoun schools are pretty good as well. If we went to a smaller schools I might not have the same point of view

That's fair. Small school HS soccer is almost an entirely different sport than large school HS soccer. My DS's team has less than 10 club players (including 0 ENCL and 4 MLS 2 level players) total out of an almost 40 player roster. And that is high in the league they play in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So you signed your kid up for an MLS Next team and you knew the rules and now you’re sad about it. Thanks for sharing.

to be fair, the rules basically punish public school kids.

[Anonymous]

Feels like a made up story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you signed your kid up for an MLS Next team and you knew the rules and now you’re sad about it. Thanks for sharing.

to be fair, the rules basically punish public school kids.

The rules are unenforceable and if we are paying they cannot mandate what we do.

[Anonymous]

Op, do you want some cheese with your wine?

[Anonymous]

A lot of people that play HS soccer are very happy that MLS Next kids aren’t playing. It allows them an opportunity to play a sport that they may not otherwise have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest son played 4 years of varsity soccer while playing MLS next and now he is playing college D1 soccer. Now my younger son is trying to do the same but the coaches are threatening him if he does it again, he did it as a 9th grader. He never missed more than 1 practice a week and never missed a game. He has a 4.2 gpa and really enjoys the atmosphere of high school soccer. I do as well. As a 9th grader the pace of play at the varsity level is much faster than MLS next and being forced to play faster really helped improve his play last season. He is a 2nd best player on his MLS next team and other parents asked me how he got so much better this season and I told them high school really helped him and his confidence. We are not sure what to do but I’m thinking we are just going to play both again and see what happens there is very little college recruiting being done as 10th grade year. He could always switch clubs, we have about 6 of them in the area. Thoughts?

I expected at the end the disclaimer about any resemblance to anyone alive or dead to be totally coincidental

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You only get one time in your life to play high school soccer. Do both this season and switch to an ECNL team for next year, they don't play at all in the spring due to HS soccer.

With only the parents in the stands

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you signed your kid up for an MLS Next team and you knew the rules and now you’re sad about it. Thanks for sharing.

to be fair, the rules basically punish public school kids.

The rules are unenforceable and if we are paying they cannot mandate what we do.

You signed the MLS Next documents didn't you?
Or the rules doesn't apply to your sense of entitlement