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

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

Now, there can be HS programs out there that play quality soccer but that's maybe 1.5 out of every 10.[/quote]
HS soccer may look rough and tumble to a 9th grader, but ask a 12th grade MLS Next/ECNL player if it’s rough, and they will probably laugh at you.[/quote]

I've seen more serious injuries in HS games than I've ever seen in an MLS or ECNL game.

How about a tibia broken by a leg sweep so vicious you could hear the crack in the stands?  Or player with getting kicked in the solar plexus, breaking ribs and having an entire sole plate of cleats marked on his chest (not even a foul there)?  Or the player who had to get taken off the field in a ambulance and on a backboard after he got launched headfirst into the opposing bench with a two handed shove from behind?  Or nose broken in three places after getting sucker punched on a corner?

And that's just in one season.

But the biggest difference between HS games and MLS/ECNL games is that HS refs tend to let far more physical play happen without consequences than you see in MLS/ECNL games.  They're afraid to card players (yellow or red) in HS because they don't want to be responsible for a player getting suspended (a direct quote I've heard from multiple officials at the scoring table at halftimes).  Heck, I've even seen a HS official holding his personal cell phone during the coin toss because he was on a zoom call at work.[/quote]

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