Hope Solo - Youth Soccer is for Rich White Kids

[Anonymous]

Arlington and Braddock road both have superior talent in their areas but are price out of the club. theses clubs in particular are more of a safe haven for more well off white kids . The parents their would get he reality check of a life time if the clubs were free . they would form a new club and price the better kids out of it too just so Jonny and Kim could play travel with three friends and not be shown up by Carlos or Maria on a daily basis. Only other thing I would add is in this area its not just white kids. Its the well off Asian and middle eastern kids too. it just so happens the DMV is such a well off area we are blinded by fact that there is a whole lot better quality of talent in the lower income latin communities that don't get the the exposure for multiple reasons and thats fine with the well off families who can afford to create this protected false dream for their kids to believe they are elite when they simply are not. and this my friends is why the USA isn't dominating the world in soccer yet.

[Anonymous]

Where are the latino/hispanic kids? The close knit community cant band together to send a couple kids and show what stuff is missing? something else is missing.

BTW, It’s very curious how the well known non-caucasion did in this WC. A bunch of europeans based ethnicities seem to have dominated. go figure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our rec league heavily subsidizes kids on FARMs. They can play for $50/season or less depending on income.

What? Aren’t MSI and Stoddert close to this for everyone?

Anyway - rich white kid doccer doesn’t get you anywhere anyway. It just churns our cookie cutter kids - whoever keeps playing wins. Poorer kids can just play pickup game together and they will be far better players.

My kids play SYA rec soccer and the fees are $150-175 per season. In DC the rec leagues are that cheap for everyone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our rec league heavily subsidizes kids on FARMs. They can play for $50/season or less depending on income.

What? Aren’t MSI and Stoddert close to this for everyone?

Anyway - rich white kid doccer doesn’t get you anywhere anyway. It just churns our cookie cutter kids - whoever keeps playing wins. Poorer kids can just play pickup game together and they will be far better players.

My kids play SYA rec soccer and the fees are $150-175 per season. In DC the rec leagues are that cheap for everyone?

DC Stoddert is $90 if you register before July and you get a shirt, shirts and socks. 9 games.

MSI isvirtually ghe dame $91.

[Anonymous]

Have any of you visited overseas? Rich families in Latin America don't give as much attention to their kids playing soccer. Rugby, tennis, field hockey and volleyball are the sports of the elite. A friend of mine told me about her boyfriend, who was a good soccer player, went to a professional tryout and was beat up by the poorer kids because he was rich. The issue was that as a rich kid, he had opportunities as poor kids they did not. He was expected to leave soccer opportunities to the poor kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have any of you visited overseas? Rich families in Latin America don't give as much attention to their kids playing soccer. Rugby, tennis, field hockey and volleyball are the sports of the elite. A friend of mine told me about her boyfriend, who was a good soccer player, went to a professional tryout and was beat up by the poorer kids because he was rich. The issue was that as a rich kid, he had opportunities as poor kids they did not. He was expected to leave soccer opportunities to the poor kids.

But rich kids do succeed in countries like Germany. It’s not a “poor” mans sport in many countries, but many ooor kids succeed due to the drive to get out of their circumstances and the escape it provides. They also often don’t have the same educational opportunities either.

It’s about not having bias and giving each child equal opportunity to the options available in the sport

The amount I just paid for training kit, uniform, required warm up and bags for my two kids was absolutely ludicrous. We have the $, but there is no way in hell my parents could have afforded it and there were 3 of us. We were lucky my soccer team had a sponsor that gave us everything (uniforms, bags, warm ups, even cleats) and my brother was trained for free his entire youth/career and full-ride to a great school. That is very rare in this sport in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington and Braddock road both have superior talent in their areas but are price out of the club. theses clubs in particular are more of a safe haven for more well off white kids . The parents their would get he reality check of a life time if the clubs were free . they would form a new club and price the better kids out of it too just so Jonny and Kim could play travel with three friends and not be shown up by Carlos or Maria on a daily basis. Only other thing I would add is in this area its not just white kids. Its the well off Asian and middle eastern kids too. it just so happens the DMV is such a well off area we are blinded by fact that there is a whole lot better quality of talent in the lower income latin communities that don't get the the exposure for multiple reasons and thats fine with the well off families who can afford to create this protected false dream for their kids to believe they are elite when they simply are not. and this my friends is why the USA isn't dominating the world in soccer yet.

The richest kid on our team is Hispanic. The second one’s parents are Argentine. I have a Bolivian friend that goes nuts because people assume if he’s dressed down he’s a poor day contractor. He is very wealthy. It’s good to check the bias all the way around.

The playing field should be neutral except where talent is concerned. But, politics abound in the sport in this Country at every level and things like you describe definitely happen...and not just to the Hispanic kids, btw. I’ve seen white kids frozen out in the same manner by a group of parents.

[Anonymous]

Clubs outside of the us are paid to develop players, not wins. Their youth clubs don't make money off of winning some meaningless team, they make it when they can sell the rights to top players to big clubs. Incentives are very different than the local coach that is just trying to position his/her next coaching job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are the latino/hispanic kids? The close knit community cant band together to send a couple kids and show what stuff is missing? something else is missing.

BTW, It’s very curious how the well known non-caucasion did in this WC. A bunch of europeans based ethnicities seem to have dominated. go figure.

actually the team that won the World Cup France was made up of almost entirely African immigrants most of whom if you follow their back stories parents came from African nations to escape poverty . ie. not wealthy people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are the latino/hispanic kids? The close knit community cant band together to send a couple kids and show what stuff is missing? something else is missing.

BTW, It’s very curious how the well known non-caucasion did in this WC. A bunch of europeans based ethnicities seem to have dominated. go figure.

actually the team that won the World Cup France was made up of almost entirely African immigrants most of whom if you follow their back stories parents came from African nations to escape poverty . ie. not wealthy people

that's not what I said or dispute. (But somehow we've managed to go from latin communities in America to African legacies in france) I said dominated, and I meant on average, not the exception. If I am not mistake, (I could be) none of the Latin/Hispanic( i'm including these even if not all PC or correct: Spanish, Mexican, Uruguyuan, Peruvian, Bolivian, Salvadorian, etc) based teams made it to the semis. That's what I was describing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clubs outside of the us are paid to develop players, not wins. Their youth clubs don't make money off of winning some meaningless team, they make it when they can sell the rights to top players to big clubs. Incentives are very different than the local coach that is just trying to position his/her next coaching job.

Yes. The Atlantic (god I sound like a yuppy) just had an article last month all about the scouting and exploitation of African players. There is a big business in scouting and Africa and bringing them to Europe---and then abandoning them when they don't come to fruition. Africa is a market of players they are definitely tapping into. The article also debated the academy system ruining these players. They state that part of the reason they were so talented was that unscripted pick-up play and game intelligence developed in such environments. They also went on to describe how intangible discovering talent is in youth because it is so very hard to tell which of the few players will have that something in late teens/early adulthood. Players can look good in younger years and fizzle out later or not keep developing at the same pace, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are the latino/hispanic kids? The close knit community cant band together to send a couple kids and show what stuff is missing? something else is missing.

BTW, It’s very curious how the well known non-caucasion did in this WC. A bunch of europeans based ethnicities seem to have dominated. go figure.

actually the team that won the World Cup France was made up of almost entirely African immigrants most of whom if you follow their back stories parents came from African nations to escape poverty . ie. not wealthy people

that's not what I said or dispute. (But somehow we've managed to go from latin communities in America to African legacies in france) I said dominated, and I meant on average, not the exception. If I am not mistake, (I could be) none of the Latin/Hispanic( i'm including these even if not all PC or correct: Spanish, Mexican, Uruguyuan, Peruvian, Bolivian, Salvadorian, etc) based teams made it to the semis. That's what I was describing.

Uruguay made it to the quarter finals, but no other Latin American teams made it that far. Europe/Eastern Europe (minus Brazil in semis) made up all of the quarter Final and Final teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clubs outside of the us are paid to develop players, not wins. Their youth clubs don't make money off of winning some meaningless team, they make it when they can sell the rights to top players to big clubs. Incentives are very different than the local coach that is just trying to position his/her next coaching job.

Yes. The Atlantic (god I sound like a yuppy) just had an article last month all about the scouting and exploitation of African players. There is a big business in scouting and Africa and bringing them to Europe---and then abandoning them when they don't come to fruition. Africa is a market of players they are definitely tapping into. The article also debated the academy system ruining these players. They state that part of the reason they were so talented was that unscripted pick-up play and game intelligence developed in such environments. They also went on to describe how intangible discovering talent is in youth because it is so very hard to tell which of the few players will have that something in late teens/early adulthood. Players can look good in younger years and fizzle out later or not keep developing at the same pace, etc.

Interesting. Reminds me of the scouting and exploitation of Dominican players for US baseball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe because all the talented white rich kids chose to play soccer instead?

both Langley and Mclean boys soccer SUCKED last year. Both had horrible losing records.

That's the difference between soccer and other sports. DA doesn't allow their players to play school ball.

Travel baseball and high school baseball look exactly the same (except maybe the calibre of player). High school soccer isn't coached the same, officiated the same, or played the same. High school soccer has a higher injury rate than travel soccer, and it causes players to pick up bad habits as well.

High school soccer ticks me off and it is painful to watch. I always support my players that are on the school team and try to attend their games but the quality is just awful and players either plateau or regress, and like the other poster said pick up bad habits. Not to mention the fact that they simply are unable to attend practice, which means collectively team chemistry takes a hit on the field, and players seem to be less fit, despite practicing 5 times a week. It’s just a mess, and something we should all take a hard look at towards fixing, as there is already a great infrastructure in place to aid with development and scouting.

I agree that level is very poor both in public and private schools. I would not say that they are less fit, I think they are more fatigued. They go to school all day and some practice twice per day as they go from HS to club and then there is still homework and getting up early the next day to do it all again. Representing your school is cool but is it really worth it. Especially if it's not a high level program (are there many around?). I saw a HS that had 22 players on each Varsity and JV team. Is it still worth it if you are not on starting 11 or getting significant playing time. The bottom 6 on Varsity would probably benefit from playing JV but do to large rosters of both they just sit on the bench and practice.

[Anonymous]

In case you have not noticed, there is a lot of Asians and Indians population in Fairfax and Ashburn areas. These are UMC/upper class Asians & Indians families and you don't see many of kids play soccer, because they know better.