High School Soccer is the new teen recreational soccer.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The more I look at how high schools handle their programs, the more I feel like I’m seeing recreational soccer for teens.

What are you looking at?

I saw last night a game between Whitman and Churchill where every single player out there was playing high club soccer. MLS Next, ECNL, E64, EDP regular.

They all moved the ball around, they all had technical skills.

The entire rosters in both teams were almost all seniors and juniors.

The JVs are stacked too. If you see a varsity team with only one or no freshmen and maybe one or two sophomores - and all of those are MLS Next or ECNL (not ECNL-RL!), then you know you are facing a great team.

If varsity has like 5+ underclassman playing regular travel (Bethesda C or Potomac B or lower), they are just trying to build for next year or the year after that (or just don’t know what they are doing)

No team is winning a state championship with underclassmen. You need size, strength, and speed of seniors to win. Seen too many freshmen and sophomores getting career ending injuries playing on varsity. It’s just rough sometimes and they don’t have the size or stength.

It's way more than size.

You are clueless

Nope. Too many torn ACLs and concussions and broken bones among underclassman. They are not ready, like it or not. Strength matters in varsity. Very rough. (Unless you are watching different games then me.)

Its not about being able to "take it" this isnt rugby.

High level soccer requires skills that HS players don't have. Because they don't have the skills games turn into thunderdomes where players without skill try to injure the other teams.

And this is why club coaches don't want their players playing HS soccer.

Happens all the time, sadly, mostly to underclassman because they just get flung around. It seems like more actual broken bones for freshman or sophomores on the boys side, while the younger girls get the ACL tears or concussions, just because some kid on the other team is playing too rough or outweighs them by like 40-50 pounds. Scary.

It's not just that.

In HS soccer parents can hold their kid back in school which allows them to play with kids their grade in school who might be 1-2 years younger.

Private schools actually encourage parents to hold their kids back on school for wins.

HS soccer is like SY with no Aug 1st age cutoff.

Very true, especially on boys side but have seen this on the girls side too. I think MCPS says you can’t play senior year if you are 19 or something like that, so more limited going forward.

DS played with a kid who was 20 as a senior and ended up playing in college (so I guess it all worked out for him). Weird socially though.

20yr old senior in high school.

Cheating to the extreme.

Started kindergarten a year late, went to private school and it didn’t work out, so did 9th grade again at the public. I don’t think you can do that anymore in MCPS but happens literally all the time in private school. Don’t know about Virginia.

So in theory a 20yr old HS Senior could be playing on the same Varsity team as a 14 year old Freshman?

Or more likely a Private School 20yr old HS Varsity player will be playing against 14yr old Varsity HS players on a different teams.

Such ridiculous and outright cheating.

This is like .001% stuff. It's not happening regularly (if at all) or should be used for for any real argument.

Not at the private schools, particularly for boys. Perhaps parents should rethink pushing to get their kid on varsity when they are younger and JV is an option.

[Anonymous]

The difference between 14 and 18 is also huge physically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought MLS next couldn't play in high school soccer

Shhh don’t tell anyone!

[Anonymous]

Private schools have dominate 8 graders making an impact (especially on the girls side). There are virtually 0 20 year olds playing soccer and if so, they're probably not even that great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private schools have dominate 8 graders making an impact (especially on the girls side). There are virtually 0 20 year olds playing soccer and if so, they're probably not even that great.

Hmmm check some of those CBs.

[Anonymous]

Totally.

There is zero competition for our HS private. They win everything by large margins.

Most kids that are serious only do MLSNext and drop HS by Jr and Sr year. It is incredibly frustrating--the low level of kickball play.

[Anonymous]

As someone who played varsity as a 13 year old 8th grader, looking back the worst part was the seniors making us do inappropriate things on the school bus. Perhaps the physical differences aren't as big on the girls side as opposed to boys. They would make us put condoms on bananas. Pretty much anything they knew would make us uncomfortable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most high level club players like playing on a HS soccer team because it's fun. But the play is rec level even at private schools who actually take it seriously. A club team if they were being serious would destroy a high school team simply by using tactics. Which would embarrass the high school team and they'd retaliate trying to hurt/injure the club team.

NOBODY takes high school soccer that seriously.

College recruiters dont show up high school soccer games looking for talent.

Nah--my kid tried it for a year and it was so frustrating as he got older because it was such bad, bad soccer.

For kids that are really serious (play D1-semi-pro/pro)--hs and rec soccer is just not fun.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The more I look at how high schools handle their programs, the more I feel like I’m seeing recreational soccer for teens.

What are you looking at?

I saw last night a game between Whitman and Churchill where every single player out there was playing high club soccer. MLS Next, ECNL, E64, EDP regular.

They all moved the ball around, they all had technical skills.

The entire rosters in both teams were almost all seniors and juniors.

The JVs are stacked too. If you see a varsity team with only one or no freshmen and maybe one or two sophomores - and all of those are MLS Next or ECNL (not ECNL-RL!), then you know you are facing a great team.

If varsity has like 5+ underclassman playing regular travel (Bethesda C or Potomac B or lower), they are just trying to build for next year or the year after that (or just don’t know what they are doing)

No team is winning a state championship with underclassmen. You need size, strength, and speed of seniors to win. Seen too many freshmen and sophomores getting career ending injuries playing on varsity. It’s just rough sometimes and they don’t have the size or stength.

It's way more than size.

You are clueless

Nope. Too many torn ACLs and concussions and broken bones among underclassman. They are not ready, like it or not. Strength matters in varsity. Very rough. (Unless you are watching different games then me.)

Its not about being able to "take it" this isnt rugby.

High level soccer requires skills that HS players don't have. Because they don't have the skills games turn into thunderdomes where players without skill try to injure the other teams.

And this is why club coaches don't want their players playing HS soccer.

Let’s not forget the parents role in this. They will lawnmower/helicopter their way onto varsity as a freshman or sophomore no matter what it takes, or what anyone tells them about potential injuries.

HS soccer is a mess.

+1

Our HS team was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy more political than anything we ever experienced with 3 kids in club for over 10 years (at top clubs).

It was ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The more I look at how high schools handle their programs, the more I feel like I’m seeing recreational soccer for teens.

What are you looking at?

I saw last night a game between Whitman and Churchill where every single player out there was playing high club soccer. MLS Next, ECNL, E64, EDP regular.

They all moved the ball around, they all had technical skills.

The entire rosters in both teams were almost all seniors and juniors.

The JVs are stacked too. If you see a varsity team with only one or no freshmen and maybe one or two sophomores - and all of those are MLS Next or ECNL (not ECNL-RL!), then you know you are facing a great team.

If varsity has like 5+ underclassman playing regular travel (Bethesda C or Potomac B or lower), they are just trying to build for next year or the year after that (or just don’t know what they are doing)

No team is winning a state championship with underclassmen. You need size, strength, and speed of seniors to win. Seen too many freshmen and sophomores getting career ending injuries playing on varsity. It’s just rough sometimes and they don’t have the size or stength.

It's way more than size.

You are clueless

Nope. Too many torn ACLs and concussions and broken bones among underclassman. They are not ready, like it or not. Strength matters in varsity. Very rough. (Unless you are watching different games then me.)

Its not about being able to "take it" this isnt rugby.

High level soccer requires skills that HS players don't have. Because they don't have the skills games turn into thunderdomes where players without skill try to injure the other teams.

And this is why club coaches don't want their players playing HS soccer.

Happens all the time, sadly, mostly to underclassman because they just get flung around. It seems like more actual broken bones for freshman or sophomores on the boys side, while the younger girls get the ACL tears or concussions, just because some kid on the other team is playing too rough or outweighs them by like 40-50 pounds. Scary.

It's not just that.

In HS soccer parents can hold their kid back in school which allows them to play with kids their grade in school who might be 1-2 years younger.

Private schools actually encourage parents to hold their kids back on school for wins.

HS soccer is like SY with no Aug 1st age cutoff.

Very true, especially on boys side but have seen this on the girls side too. I think MCPS says you can’t play senior year if you are 19 or something like that, so more limited going forward.

DS played with a kid who was 20 as a senior and ended up playing in college (so I guess it all worked out for him). Weird socially though.

20yr old senior in high school.

Cheating to the extreme.

Coach's son.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The more I look at how high schools handle their programs, the more I feel like I’m seeing recreational soccer for teens.

What are you looking at?

I saw last night a game between Whitman and Churchill where every single player out there was playing high club soccer. MLS Next, ECNL, E64, EDP regular.

They all moved the ball around, they all had technical skills.

The entire rosters in both teams were almost all seniors and juniors.

The JVs are stacked too. If you see a varsity team with only one or no freshmen and maybe one or two sophomores - and all of those are MLS Next or ECNL (not ECNL-RL!), then you know you are facing a great team.

If varsity has like 5+ underclassman playing regular travel (Bethesda C or Potomac B or lower), they are just trying to build for next year or the year after that (or just don’t know what they are doing)

No team is winning a state championship with underclassmen. You need size, strength, and speed of seniors to win. Seen too many freshmen and sophomores getting career ending injuries playing on varsity. It’s just rough sometimes and they don’t have the size or stength.

It's way more than size.

You are clueless

Nope. Too many torn ACLs and concussions and broken bones among underclassman. They are not ready, like it or not. Strength matters in varsity. Very rough. (Unless you are watching different games then me.)

We had a sophomore that tore his ACL his first game. Felt really bad for him. High school soccer is painful to watch, coming from MLS Next.

+1

It cost my son his entire junior recruiting year and part of Sr year. HS soccer injury. He couldn't play college soccer until his sophomore year because rosters were full by the time he could be seen and had tape. He was playing UPSL Freshmen year in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lesson here is don't take it seriously and weigh if the risk, for your kid, is worth the reward.

+1 we let our sons decide. Oldest tried it and it was an awful experience---so political and bad soccer.

Second born saw all of that firsthand, but still wanted to do it (he didn't even last the year ). He stopped going by the end in lieu of MLS Next. He is committed now hs (jr).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private schools have dominate 8 graders making an impact (especially on the girls side). There are virtually 0 20 year olds playing soccer and if so, they're probably not even that great.

Exactly the point. They are out there knocking people around.

[Anonymous]

It’s not cheating btw. It’s allowed, even encouraged, in the private schools.

[Anonymous]

HS soccer is a bigger deal amongst the girls. ECNL works the league around HS play. Granted it is not great soccer but there are club coaches that are HS coaches and recruit into the private schools. The boys side is worse off as the DA’s old rules seem to linger into MLS. For the girls it’s a huge leadership opportunity coming into HS. My daughter had a great experience. My son played DA so no HS sports for him back then. You need to balance the workload if your kids are doing double duty….club and HS at the same time. It can be extremely rewarding when done right.