DC United Academy - aa strong academy or not

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jesus H Christ. This thread is just so freaking tiresome.

It's the same for and against, over and over and over and over and over and over and over again....

Is the DC United Academy operating as a top academy should? IMO, definitely not. Does it make sense for some players to attend? Absolutely.

I have posted several times before and have an ok decent knowledge of DCU. At this point, I don't care anymore if I'm sharing too much, but my nephew is on the DCU U18 team. He was recruited to play this year at the academy after playing for a local MLSN squad. He thought it was a great option for him to get exposed to a different environment. To be transparent, he is committed to play college soccer at a B10 school.

In talking to his Mom, is it the greatest? No. He avoided the school charges by completing his senior year with his home district via their online option. He's commuting back home but has a place to stay with friends in the Loudoun area. Overall, in speaking with him, it's been a plus in his development.

My DD plays with the sister of a current DCU player. Speaking with their parents was transparent and useful as my nephew was making a decision to play at DCU. We also know through acquaintances a current MLS player who played at both at DCU and their academy in what seems like forever ago. Listening to his experiences was valuable as well for making decisions.

Our local club has placed quite a few players into MLS Academies - it is telling though that many have not gone to DCU but others clubs. A top ACC freshmen in men's soccer has his younger brothers at Philly Union and those guys were developed here locally and did not go to DCU. There two other young men, IIRC at Philly that are doing quite well.

I don't think that this post will shut the debate down, but I hope folks realize that everything and everyone have their place.

I suspect Union actively scouts here since they know many of the top players avoid DCU.

It is it improbable or impossible that all the so-called top players in the dmv have parents that are sending them away at 12, 13, 14 years old to live elsewhere to pursue soccer in large numbers? Just using a little logic and critical, rational thinking

Also impressive that so many top quality players at u-littles exist in the dmv that we're exporting them in droves and there's room for them all at other academies

Sounds fantastic and fictional to me

Look, I hate naming names, but I'm not in the DMV, but in the Richmond area. Richmond United has been successful in sending multiple kids to Philly Union and they are doing really well. Additionally, they have placed young men at other clubs as well. Why haven't they gone to DCU? Wyatt Holt is a top player at Charlotte that came through Richmond. Mateo Gallegos and Samuel Diaz Gallego both at are Philly along with twins Kai and Grant Simmonds. Why aren't they at DCU?

Probably because the academy isn't up to snuff.

By your attempted reasoning, kids from Pennsylvania and Delaware who went to Red Bulls instead of Philly is a scientific conclusion that Philadelphia Union isn't a good enough academy

Wrong. Kids who live in PA and DE first off would never, EVER, consider DCU as an option because it is not a credible academy. Let's start there. DCU isn't on the same level to compare.

Second, Red bulls and Philly just happen to be two of the best academy structures in the COUNTRY that are pulling kids from all over the country. Much harder to get into those academies and stay. When someone from the PA area doesn't go to Union it could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe they didn't get an offer and they got one from red bulls, maybe unions style of play doesn't fit the player, maybe red bulls has less competition at his spot on the roster. You never know.

But what you know for sure is that not going to Philly Union or Red Bulls from their local markets has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their acsdemies. Because it is KNOWN that those two academies are quality. With DCU it is KNOWN that the academy is not quality and local players who are savvy look elsewhere first before commiting to DCU if they have the option.

It's like saying many people chose not to stay at the Four Seasons because it is 10 miles farther away from the airport but many do chose to stay at the airport Motel 6 so that makes the airport Motel 6 a better hotel. Four Seasons is a proven quality hotel brand. Motel 6 is proven to be lesser quality. Just like red bulls and Union are quality and DCU is lesser quality. Again, your logic fails. Not mine.

[Anonymous]

By your attempted reasoning, kids from Pennsylvania and Delaware who went to Red Bulls instead of Philly is a scientific conclusion that Philadelphia Union isn't a good enough academy

Wrong. Kids who live in PA and DE first off would never, EVER, consider DCU as an option because it is not a credible academy. Let's start there. DCU isn't on the same level to compare.

Second, Red bulls and Philly just happen to be two of the best academy structures in the COUNTRY that are pulling kids from all over the country. Much harder to get into those academies and stay. When someone from the PA area doesn't go to Union it could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe they didn't get an offer and they got one from red bulls, maybe unions style of play doesn't fit the player, maybe red bulls has less competition at his spot on the roster. You never know.

But what you know for sure is that not going to Philly Union or Red Bulls from their local markets has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their acsdemies. Because it is KNOWN that those two academies are quality. With DCU it is KNOWN that the academy is not quality and local players who are savvy look elsewhere first before commiting to DCU if they have the option.

It's like saying many people chose not to stay at the Four Seasons because it is 10 miles farther away from the airport but many do chose to stay at the airport Motel 6 so that makes the airport Motel 6 a better hotel. Four Seasons is a proven quality hotel brand. Motel 6 is proven to be lesser quality. Just like red bulls and Union are quality and DCU is lesser quality. Again, your logic fails. Not mine.

🤣🤣 You’re all over the place! Suggest that you go study logic before you even try to use it in a sentence! What are you even responding to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

Stiven Jimenez, Chris Applewhite are just two examples (there are more) who are both pros now and deliberately left this area to play for better academies because they knew DCU was not going to be the best environment for their development. Both grew up here and played for local DMV clubs.

Thank you for these. If possible, can you share more? It looks like they both played for Arlington. I am not trying to argue about DCU merits. I am simply looking for successful kids who came out of the DMV to see what they were doing at my son's age and network with the people who helped develop these kids. I was only aware of Parades and Yow who play my son's position. Akinmboni is a defender and completely different with his physical profile.

Here are a few names that I know of personally. And this is just off the top of my head. If I really did research I could find more.

These players are all from the DMV and either never stepped foot in DCU or were in DCU for a short period of time (even when they had younger ages and a longer pathway): All reached professional soccer either in the MLs or overseas. All could have chosen DCU for extended periods of time.but didn't.

Aaron Heard (Leverkusen)
Jack Sullivan (Colorado Rapids)
Gabe Segal (Houston Dynamo)
Jeremy Ebobisse (LAFC)
Gideon Zelalem (Arsenal and NYCFC)
Nicholas Gioacchini (Asteras Tripolis)
Byang Kayo (OH Leuven)
Joe Gyau (Dortmund, Hoffenheim, FC Cincy and several other clubs)

There are also several younger kids (u14-u17) in top European academies from the DMV that will make waves very soon as well.

If you're genuinely interested like your post says, here you are. Many of these players had coaches that are still around the DMV. If you're the PP masquerading as someone else thinking there are no other players to list, you feel about as dumb as your post right about now. 👍

An overwhelming amount of these players played for Bethesda. Are there any other coaches still there that developed any of these players? Other than Philip Gyau, are there any other coaches with the history of developing players left over there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

Stiven Jimenez, Chris Applewhite are just two examples (there are more) who are both pros now and deliberately left this area to play for better academies because they knew DCU was not going to be the best environment for their development. Both grew up here and played for local DMV clubs.

Thank you for these. If possible, can you share more? It looks like they both played for Arlington. I am not trying to argue about DCU merits. I am simply looking for successful kids who came out of the DMV to see what they were doing at my son's age and network with the people who helped develop these kids. I was only aware of Parades and Yow who play my son's position. Akinmboni is a defender and completely different with his physical profile.

Here are a few names that I know of personally. And this is just off the top of my head. If I really did research I could find more.

These players are all from the DMV and either never stepped foot in DCU or were in DCU for a short period of time (even when they had younger ages and a longer pathway): All reached professional soccer either in the MLs or overseas. All could have chosen DCU for extended periods of time.but didn't.

Aaron Heard (Leverkusen)
Jack Sullivan (Colorado Rapids)
Gabe Segal (Houston Dynamo)
Jeremy Ebobisse (LAFC)
Gideon Zelalem (Arsenal and NYCFC)
Nicholas Gioacchini (Asteras Tripolis)
Byang Kayo (OH Leuven)
Joe Gyau (Dortmund, Hoffenheim, FC Cincy and several other clubs)

There are also several younger kids (u14-u17) in top European academies from the DMV that will make waves very soon as well.

If you're genuinely interested like your post says, here you are. Many of these players had coaches that are still around the DMV. If you're the PP masquerading as someone else thinking there are no other players to list, you feel about as dumb as your post right about now. 👍

An overwhelming amount of these players played for Bethesda. Are there any other coaches still there that developed any of these players? Other than Philip Gyau, are there any other coaches with the history of developing players left over there?

Nope. All of them gone. Only a few decent coaches left on the boys side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
By your attempted reasoning, kids from Pennsylvania and Delaware who went to Red Bulls instead of Philly is a scientific conclusion that Philadelphia Union isn't a good enough academy

Wrong. Kids who live in PA and DE first off would never, EVER, consider DCU as an option because it is not a credible academy. Let's start there. DCU isn't on the same level to compare.

Second, Red bulls and Philly just happen to be two of the best academy structures in the COUNTRY that are pulling kids from all over the country. Much harder to get into those academies and stay. When someone from the PA area doesn't go to Union it could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe they didn't get an offer and they got one from red bulls, maybe unions style of play doesn't fit the player, maybe red bulls has less competition at his spot on the roster. You never know.

But what you know for sure is that not going to Philly Union or Red Bulls from their local markets has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their acsdemies. Because it is KNOWN that those two academies are quality. With DCU it is KNOWN that the academy is not quality and local players who are savvy look elsewhere first before commiting to DCU if they have the option.

It's like saying many people chose not to stay at the Four Seasons because it is 10 miles farther away from the airport but many do chose to stay at the airport Motel 6 so that makes the airport Motel 6 a better hotel. Four Seasons is a proven quality hotel brand. Motel 6 is proven to be lesser quality. Just like red bulls and Union are quality and DCU is lesser quality. Again, your logic fails. Not mine.

🤣🤣 You’re all over the place! Suggest that you go study logic before you even try to use it in a sentence! What are you even responding to?

Right...you can't follow the logic. DCU deserves you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
By your attempted reasoning, kids from Pennsylvania and Delaware who went to Red Bulls instead of Philly is a scientific conclusion that Philadelphia Union isn't a good enough academy

Wrong. Kids who live in PA and DE first off would never, EVER, consider DCU as an option because it is not a credible academy. Let's start there. DCU isn't on the same level to compare.

Second, Red bulls and Philly just happen to be two of the best academy structures in the COUNTRY that are pulling kids from all over the country. Much harder to get into those academies and stay. When someone from the PA area doesn't go to Union it could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe they didn't get an offer and they got one from red bulls, maybe unions style of play doesn't fit the player, maybe red bulls has less competition at his spot on the roster. You never know.

But what you know for sure is that not going to Philly Union or Red Bulls from their local markets has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their acsdemies. Because it is KNOWN that those two academies are quality. With DCU it is KNOWN that the academy is not quality and local players who are savvy look elsewhere first before commiting to DCU if they have the option.

It's like saying many people chose not to stay at the Four Seasons because it is 10 miles farther away from the airport but many do chose to stay at the airport Motel 6 so that makes the airport Motel 6 a better hotel. Four Seasons is a proven quality hotel brand. Motel 6 is proven to be lesser quality. Just like red bulls and Union are quality and DCU is lesser quality. Again, your logic fails. Not mine.

🤣🤣 You’re all over the place! Suggest that you go study logic before you even try to use it in a sentence! What are you even responding to?

Right...you can't follow the logic. DCU deserves you.

The old man usually responds at 3am EST and the logica, "I am ALWAYS right: attorney responds after he arrives in the office before he starts his billable hours. I am not really sure of these latest incoherent posts but let's just dead the conversation until DCUA adds a MLS Pro team, a 2nd full-time scout, a 4th lunch for the week, a 2nd practice in the evening for academy players, academy teams below U15 or at least 10 scholarship spots to RDS at each location. Otherwise, we are circuling the same drain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
By your attempted reasoning, kids from Pennsylvania and Delaware who went to Red Bulls instead of Philly is a scientific conclusion that Philadelphia Union isn't a good enough academy

Wrong. Kids who live in PA and DE first off would never, EVER, consider DCU as an option because it is not a credible academy. Let's start there. DCU isn't on the same level to compare.

Second, Red bulls and Philly just happen to be two of the best academy structures in the COUNTRY that are pulling kids from all over the country. Much harder to get into those academies and stay. When someone from the PA area doesn't go to Union it could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe they didn't get an offer and they got one from red bulls, maybe unions style of play doesn't fit the player, maybe red bulls has less competition at his spot on the roster. You never know.

But what you know for sure is that not going to Philly Union or Red Bulls from their local markets has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their acsdemies. Because it is KNOWN that those two academies are quality. With DCU it is KNOWN that the academy is not quality and local players who are savvy look elsewhere first before commiting to DCU if they have the option.

It's like saying many people chose not to stay at the Four Seasons because it is 10 miles farther away from the airport but many do chose to stay at the airport Motel 6 so that makes the airport Motel 6 a better hotel. Four Seasons is a proven quality hotel brand. Motel 6 is proven to be lesser quality. Just like red bulls and Union are quality and DCU is lesser quality. Again, your logic fails. Not mine.

🤣🤣 You’re all over the place! Suggest that you go study logic before you even try to use it in a sentence! What are you even responding to?

Right...you can't follow the logic. DCU deserves you.

The old man usually responds at 3am EST and the logica, "I am ALWAYS right: attorney responds after he arrives in the office before he starts his billable hours. I am not really sure of these latest incoherent posts but let's just dead the conversation until DCUA adds a MLS Pro team, a 2nd full-time scout, a 4th lunch for the week, a 2nd practice in the evening for academy players, academy teams below U15 or at least 10 scholarship spots to RDS at each location. Otherwise, we are circuling the same drain.

I noticed it looks like the attorney abandoned the fight some time ago

thank heavens

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
By your attempted reasoning, kids from Pennsylvania and Delaware who went to Red Bulls instead of Philly is a scientific conclusion that Philadelphia Union isn't a good enough academy

Wrong. Kids who live in PA and DE first off would never, EVER, consider DCU as an option because it is not a credible academy. Let's start there. DCU isn't on the same level to compare.

Second, Red bulls and Philly just happen to be two of the best academy structures in the COUNTRY that are pulling kids from all over the country. Much harder to get into those academies and stay. When someone from the PA area doesn't go to Union it could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe they didn't get an offer and they got one from red bulls, maybe unions style of play doesn't fit the player, maybe red bulls has less competition at his spot on the roster. You never know.

But what you know for sure is that not going to Philly Union or Red Bulls from their local markets has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their acsdemies. Because it is KNOWN that those two academies are quality. With DCU it is KNOWN that the academy is not quality and local players who are savvy look elsewhere first before commiting to DCU if they have the option.

It's like saying many people chose not to stay at the Four Seasons because it is 10 miles farther away from the airport but many do chose to stay at the airport Motel 6 so that makes the airport Motel 6 a better hotel. Four Seasons is a proven quality hotel brand. Motel 6 is proven to be lesser quality. Just like red bulls and Union are quality and DCU is lesser quality. Again, your logic fails. Not mine.

🤣🤣 You’re all over the place! Suggest that you go study logic before you even try to use it in a sentence! What are you even responding to?

Right...you can't follow the logic. DCU deserves you.

The old man usually responds at 3am EST and the logica, "I am ALWAYS right: attorney responds after he arrives in the office before he starts his billable hours. I am not really sure of these latest incoherent posts but let's just dead the conversation until DCUA adds a MLS Pro team, a 2nd full-time scout, a 4th lunch for the week, a 2nd practice in the evening for academy players, academy teams below U15 or at least 10 scholarship spots to RDS at each location. Otherwise, we are circuling the same drain.

I noticed it looks like the attorney abandoned the fight some time ago

thank heavens

There is no fight to abandon. Everyone is on the same side by this point.

I think the DCUA defender has done the most to damage DCUA. Not a single poster has posted anything positive about DCUA. The DCUA defender doesn’t even do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

Stiven Jimenez, Chris Applewhite are just two examples (there are more) who are both pros now and deliberately left this area to play for better academies because they knew DCU was not going to be the best environment for their development. Both grew up here and played for local DMV clubs.

Thank you for these. If possible, can you share more? It looks like they both played for Arlington. I am not trying to argue about DCU merits. I am simply looking for successful kids who came out of the DMV to see what they were doing at my son's age and network with the people who helped develop these kids. I was only aware of Parades and Yow who play my son's position. Akinmboni is a defender and completely different with his physical profile.

Here are a few names that I know of personally. And this is just off the top of my head. If I really did research I could find more.

These players are all from the DMV and either never stepped foot in DCU or were in DCU for a short period of time (even when they had younger ages and a longer pathway): All reached professional soccer either in the MLs or overseas. All could have chosen DCU for extended periods of time.but didn't.

Aaron Heard (Leverkusen)
Jack Sullivan (Colorado Rapids)
Gabe Segal (Houston Dynamo)
Jeremy Ebobisse (LAFC)
Gideon Zelalem (Arsenal and NYCFC)
Nicholas Gioacchini (Asteras Tripolis)
Byang Kayo (OH Leuven)
Joe Gyau (Dortmund, Hoffenheim, FC Cincy and several other clubs)

There are also several younger kids (u14-u17) in top European academies from the DMV that will make waves very soon as well.

If you're genuinely interested like your post says, here you are. Many of these players had coaches that are still around the DMV. If you're the PP masquerading as someone else thinking there are no other players to list, you feel about as dumb as your post right about now. 👍

An overwhelming amount of these players played for Bethesda. Are there any other coaches still there that developed any of these players? Other than Philip Gyau, are there any other coaches with the history of developing players left over there?

Nope. All of them gone. Only a few decent coaches left on the boys side.

Philip Gyau and Paul Torres coach at Next Star. Ask them which club and coaches are good at development. It’s useless to have a coach that knows how to develop but not have a club willing to support that development.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
By your attempted reasoning, kids from Pennsylvania and Delaware who went to Red Bulls instead of Philly is a scientific conclusion that Philadelphia Union isn't a good enough academy

Wrong. Kids who live in PA and DE first off would never, EVER, consider DCU as an option because it is not a credible academy. Let's start there. DCU isn't on the same level to compare.

Second, Red bulls and Philly just happen to be two of the best academy structures in the COUNTRY that are pulling kids from all over the country. Much harder to get into those academies and stay. When someone from the PA area doesn't go to Union it could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe they didn't get an offer and they got one from red bulls, maybe unions style of play doesn't fit the player, maybe red bulls has less competition at his spot on the roster. You never know.

But what you know for sure is that not going to Philly Union or Red Bulls from their local markets has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their acsdemies. Because it is KNOWN that those two academies are quality. With DCU it is KNOWN that the academy is not quality and local players who are savvy look elsewhere first before commiting to DCU if they have the option.

It's like saying many people chose not to stay at the Four Seasons because it is 10 miles farther away from the airport but many do chose to stay at the airport Motel 6 so that makes the airport Motel 6 a better hotel. Four Seasons is a proven quality hotel brand. Motel 6 is proven to be lesser quality. Just like red bulls and Union are quality and DCU is lesser quality. Again, your logic fails. Not mine.

🤣🤣 You’re all over the place! Suggest that you go study logic before you even try to use it in a sentence! What are you even responding to?

Right...you can't follow the logic. DCU deserves you.

The old man usually responds at 3am EST and the logica, "I am ALWAYS right: attorney responds after he arrives in the office before he starts his billable hours. I am not really sure of these latest incoherent posts but let's just dead the conversation until DCUA adds a MLS Pro team, a 2nd full-time scout, a 4th lunch for the week, a 2nd practice in the evening for academy players, academy teams below U15 or at least 10 scholarship spots to RDS at each location. Otherwise, we are circuling the same drain.

I noticed it looks like the attorney abandoned the fight some time ago

thank heavens

There is no fight to abandon. Everyone is on the same side by this point.

I think the DCUA defender has done the most to damage DCUA. Not a single poster has posted anything positive about DCUA. The DCUA defender doesn’t even do that.

Can the issue be closed then or should we all be treated to 376 more pages of you repeating dcu sux?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

Stiven Jimenez, Chris Applewhite are just two examples (there are more) who are both pros now and deliberately left this area to play for better academies because they knew DCU was not going to be the best environment for their development. Both grew up here and played for local DMV clubs.

Thank you for these. If possible, can you share more? It looks like they both played for Arlington. I am not trying to argue about DCU merits. I am simply looking for successful kids who came out of the DMV to see what they were doing at my son's age and network with the people who helped develop these kids. I was only aware of Parades and Yow who play my son's position. Akinmboni is a defender and completely different with his physical profile.

Here are a few names that I know of personally. And this is just off the top of my head. If I really did research I could find more.

These players are all from the DMV and either never stepped foot in DCU or were in DCU for a short period of time (even when they had younger ages and a longer pathway): All reached professional soccer either in the MLs or overseas. All could have chosen DCU for extended periods of time.but didn't.

Aaron Heard (Leverkusen)
Jack Sullivan (Colorado Rapids)
Gabe Segal (Houston Dynamo)
Jeremy Ebobisse (LAFC)
Gideon Zelalem (Arsenal and NYCFC)
Nicholas Gioacchini (Asteras Tripolis)
Byang Kayo (OH Leuven)
Joe Gyau (Dortmund, Hoffenheim, FC Cincy and several other clubs)

There are also several younger kids (u14-u17) in top European academies from the DMV that will make waves very soon as well.

If you're genuinely interested like your post says, here you are. Many of these players had coaches that are still around the DMV. If you're the PP masquerading as someone else thinking there are no other players to list, you feel about as dumb as your post right about now. 👍

An overwhelming amount of these players played for Bethesda. Are there any other coaches still there that developed any of these players? Other than Philip Gyau, are there any other coaches with the history of developing players left over there?

Nope. All of them gone. Only a few decent coaches left on the boys side.

Philip Gyau and Paul Torres coach at Next Star. Ask them which club and coaches are good at development. It’s useless to have a coach that knows how to develop but not have a club willing to support that development.

Next Star has created an environment where several good players go to their training to hangout together

They don't take bad news bears or average players and make them elite

[Anonymous]

Glad there is widespread recognition that DCU is not a good academy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
By your attempted reasoning, kids from Pennsylvania and Delaware who went to Red Bulls instead of Philly is a scientific conclusion that Philadelphia Union isn't a good enough academy

Wrong. Kids who live in PA and DE first off would never, EVER, consider DCU as an option because it is not a credible academy. Let's start there. DCU isn't on the same level to compare.

Second, Red bulls and Philly just happen to be two of the best academy structures in the COUNTRY that are pulling kids from all over the country. Much harder to get into those academies and stay. When someone from the PA area doesn't go to Union it could be for a variety of reasons. Maybe they didn't get an offer and they got one from red bulls, maybe unions style of play doesn't fit the player, maybe red bulls has less competition at his spot on the roster. You never know.

But what you know for sure is that not going to Philly Union or Red Bulls from their local markets has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of their acsdemies. Because it is KNOWN that those two academies are quality. With DCU it is KNOWN that the academy is not quality and local players who are savvy look elsewhere first before commiting to DCU if they have the option.

It's like saying many people chose not to stay at the Four Seasons because it is 10 miles farther away from the airport but many do chose to stay at the airport Motel 6 so that makes the airport Motel 6 a better hotel. Four Seasons is a proven quality hotel brand. Motel 6 is proven to be lesser quality. Just like red bulls and Union are quality and DCU is lesser quality. Again, your logic fails. Not mine.

🤣🤣 You’re all over the place! Suggest that you go study logic before you even try to use it in a sentence! What are you even responding to?

Right...you can't follow the logic. DCU deserves you.

The old man usually responds at 3am EST and the logica, "I am ALWAYS right: attorney responds after he arrives in the office before he starts his billable hours. I am not really sure of these latest incoherent posts but let's just dead the conversation until DCUA adds a MLS Pro team, a 2nd full-time scout, a 4th lunch for the week, a 2nd practice in the evening for academy players, academy teams below U15 or at least 10 scholarship spots to RDS at each location. Otherwise, we are circuling the same drain.

I noticed it looks like the attorney abandoned the fight some time ago

thank heavens

There is no fight to abandon. Everyone is on the same side by this point.

I think the DCUA defender has done the most to damage DCUA. Not a single poster has posted anything positive about DCUA. The DCUA defender doesn’t even do that.

Can the issue be closed then or should we all be treated to 376 more pages of you repeating dcu sux?

You are welcome to ask Jeff to lock this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

Stiven Jimenez, Chris Applewhite are just two examples (there are more) who are both pros now and deliberately left this area to play for better academies because they knew DCU was not going to be the best environment for their development. Both grew up here and played for local DMV clubs.

Thank you for these. If possible, can you share more? It looks like they both played for Arlington. I am not trying to argue about DCU merits. I am simply looking for successful kids who came out of the DMV to see what they were doing at my son's age and network with the people who helped develop these kids. I was only aware of Parades and Yow who play my son's position. Akinmboni is a defender and completely different with his physical profile.

Here are a few names that I know of personally. And this is just off the top of my head. If I really did research I could find more.

These players are all from the DMV and either never stepped foot in DCU or were in DCU for a short period of time (even when they had younger ages and a longer pathway): All reached professional soccer either in the MLs or overseas. All could have chosen DCU for extended periods of time.but didn't.

Aaron Heard (Leverkusen)
Jack Sullivan (Colorado Rapids)
Gabe Segal (Houston Dynamo)
Jeremy Ebobisse (LAFC)
Gideon Zelalem (Arsenal and NYCFC)
Nicholas Gioacchini (Asteras Tripolis)
Byang Kayo (OH Leuven)
Joe Gyau (Dortmund, Hoffenheim, FC Cincy and several other clubs)

There are also several younger kids (u14-u17) in top European academies from the DMV that will make waves very soon as well.

If you're genuinely interested like your post says, here you are. Many of these players had coaches that are still around the DMV. If you're the PP masquerading as someone else thinking there are no other players to list, you feel about as dumb as your post right about now. 👍

An overwhelming amount of these players played for Bethesda. Are there any other coaches still there that developed any of these players? Other than Philip Gyau, are there any other coaches with the history of developing players left over there?

Nope. All of them gone. Only a few decent coaches left on the boys side.

Philip Gyau and Paul Torres coach at Next Star. Ask them which club and coaches are good at development. It’s useless to have a coach that knows how to develop but not have a club willing to support that development.

Next Star has created an environment where several good players go to their training to hangout together

They don't take bad news bears or average players and make them elite

The only one that can make a player elite is themselves. A coach and club can facilitate that. But its on the player to want it.

Only parents of players who don’t want it (or don’t have the mentality) or have parents who want it more says stuff like PP.

Move on, find a coach that’s a better fit for ur player

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The truth is DCU isn't a credible academy in the MLS academy landscape. It is FAR behind the best academies and not even really on par with the worst considering it doesn't have its own facilities and makes many of their players and families pay money to participate. No teaching methodology, no consistent results and leadership that gives no craps about the academy. Recipe for failure and DCUs academy is in fact failing. Overall, just not a good place to be.

Every academy doesn't have players in final USYNT camps. DCU has representation.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

DCU has players in the Premier League.
All other academies don't.
So how are they far behind all other academies?

All other academies aren't selling players regularly and consistently to top leagues.
So how is DC far behind them?

This is like saying Messi and Benteke are the same because they are both past their prime players playing in the MLS. Or that Tottenham is the same quality club as Wrexham because neither club has won the premier league. Or that the MLS is just as good as the Belgian league because neither has produced Ballon d'or winners. Or that Ajax and La Masia academies are the same as Philly Union because they all have boarding houses and full campuses for their academies. It has already been proven, over and over, that your line of logic fails miserably in this regard.

DCU is behind almost every other MLS academy in the country because of some very simple facts:

It doesn't own a facility for the academy and isnt investing in one. Every other MLS academy has its own facility and most are planning to build bigger ones

It doesn't have enough personnel to run a credible academy. DCU has 9 people dedicated to football in the academy. NINE. And most of them aren't full time employees Many of the MLS academies in this country just have more people focused on development. And they pay them more than DCU does which attracts better developers

It has poor scouting and recruiting. With one scout to cover a vast amount of territory, many talents are overlooked. Couple this with the fact that the primary scouting methodology is word of mouth not proactive scouting and you see why the DCU rosters don't always have the top kids.

It doesn't properly invest in the academy. Other academies are investing tens of millions of dollars in their academies. DCU doesnt invest in the academy and only tries to keep it running so the MLS doesnt take action against them.

Every other MLS academy in the US has a second team to further develop their players. DCU does not have this. This alone puts them way behind other Academies and has caused other MLS academies to petition the league to take DCUs homegrown territory rights away because it doesn't provide a real pro pathway to its players so why should they get to protect those players from systems that actually have a legit pro pathway.

DCUs academy doesn't consistently produce players for the first team. It has been years since an academy product has played real minutes for the first team.

DCU has no grassroots program to cultivate young players No real rationale needed. This fact stands on its own.

DCU has an inferior methodology and system. You can see this every week when the teams play real academies. DCU always looks behind and unorganized

The academy itself is unorganized and unprofessional. This is clear from how they communicate with the external world, their own players and families and their own staff.

Local clubs have more infrastructure and more to offer local players. With good academies, the delta between what they are offering and what a local club is offering is massive.

DCUs reputation on a national level is far behind the best academies. This is just known and uncontroverted. On an international level DCUs academy is no where.

Some of the best players from this region in the last years have actually left DCU or decided not to go to DCU for better environments after they either saw first hand what the program is about or because they already knew DCU was poor and didn't want to involve themselves with the operation.

Could write a lot more and much more is offered on this thread in the pages before. You just have to read it.

💯

Stiven Jimenez, Chris Applewhite are just two examples (there are more) who are both pros now and deliberately left this area to play for better academies because they knew DCU was not going to be the best environment for their development. Both grew up here and played for local DMV clubs.

Thank you for these. If possible, can you share more? It looks like they both played for Arlington. I am not trying to argue about DCU merits. I am simply looking for successful kids who came out of the DMV to see what they were doing at my son's age and network with the people who helped develop these kids. I was only aware of Parades and Yow who play my son's position. Akinmboni is a defender and completely different with his physical profile.

Here are a few names that I know of personally. And this is just off the top of my head. If I really did research I could find more.

These players are all from the DMV and either never stepped foot in DCU or were in DCU for a short period of time (even when they had younger ages and a longer pathway): All reached professional soccer either in the MLs or overseas. All could have chosen DCU for extended periods of time.but didn't.

Aaron Heard (Leverkusen)
Jack Sullivan (Colorado Rapids)
Gabe Segal (Houston Dynamo)
Jeremy Ebobisse (LAFC)
Gideon Zelalem (Arsenal and NYCFC)
Nicholas Gioacchini (Asteras Tripolis)
Byang Kayo (OH Leuven)
Joe Gyau (Dortmund, Hoffenheim, FC Cincy and several other clubs)

There are also several younger kids (u14-u17) in top European academies from the DMV that will make waves very soon as well.

If you're genuinely interested like your post says, here you are. Many of these players had coaches that are still around the DMV. If you're the PP masquerading as someone else thinking there are no other players to list, you feel about as dumb as your post right about now. 👍

An overwhelming amount of these players played for Bethesda. Are there any other coaches still there that developed any of these players? Other than Philip Gyau, are there any other coaches with the history of developing players left over there?

Nope. All of them gone. Only a few decent coaches left on the boys side.

Philip Gyau and Paul Torres coach at Next Star. Ask them which club and coaches are good at development. It’s useless to have a coach that knows how to develop but not have a club willing to support that development.

Next Star has created an environment where several good players go to their training to hangout together

They don't take bad news bears or average players and make them elite

NextStar has created an environment where parents are getting absolutely robbed for ridiculously overpriced group sessions and training. They prey on rich parents from the Bethesda area and create fomo amongst them to keep fueling the fees. If you pay money, ANY money, to watch your kid run around the track or up hills you are getting played.

NeztStar has value in that other good players come back from college or pros in the off season to train together under their umbrella because it's easy to gather this way. And they have decent levels at most group sessions. You're paying for the group, not necessarily the instruction because you can do the things they do without a group on your own. Other than that, NextStar doesn't have much additional value and for the price, the ROI is just not there given other options in the area.

But fair play to them for creating a market during COVID and milking it for all its worth. There are some attorneys that don't charge the hourly rate NextStar does. For soccer training that requires almost no preparation, I just can't respect that.