RantingSoccerDad wrote:
And what high schools in this area have "multiple Division I commits"?

South Lakes

High School soccer has the infrastructure with small stadia and facilities/concessions as well as the passion behind rallying around the team that is lacking in our developmental chain towards the pros. Sadly the hyper focus on results leads to coaches/teams playing regressive styles despite having a lot of very talented players who are missed or choose not to join DAs or even play college, which is an even bigger developmental wasteland. We need to embrace the talent at our high schools and demand progressive coaching methods and open playing styles to get the most juice out of the players. The teams that play the best would win the majority of the time anyways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Football and Basketball are big college revenue sports. The coaching staffs have the time, money, and motivation to go find good players. If you are not one of the top programs, you are on the lookout for the under the radar prospects.

College Soccer is nothing like that. The only guys college programs may go after are Youth NT Team players and DA stars. Then there are international youth academy players who are older and more experienced and better trained than HS players.

Good US Club and HS Players are expected to spend the time and money to get exposure to colleges (college camps, videos, contacts etc). Basically it is a reversed process, the player recruits the college. My guess is a bunch of these guys decided screw this, it isn't worth it.

Exactly. Not to mention. If you have the money to play club soccer, and be at the level where you could be a D1 recruit, you also have the money to consider all your options. One of those options, is to take advantage of academic and internship opportunities rather than focus on playing college soccer.

Certain D1 programs come internships, tutors and preferred scheduling.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watched a high school game recently. Although some of those kids seems to have great skill, both teams kept on kicking high ball all the time, very disappointing.

Were you me?! Just kidding, but couple of kids with skills and coaches who are clueless what to do even with these kids. Parents at the games I watched, sitting around like bunch of grandmas knitting or like it is a funeral. And then you got to HS football games, and realize that people are perfectly capable of cheering on their team and going nuts. Not only that, one dad was cheering passionately(yes, looked Hispanic) and he got loudly mocked by other parents from the same team! Like so he can hear it, and then his wife was all embarrassed and telling him to keep it down!

There is a lot of cheering from parents and kids at the boys' and girls' HS soccer games I've been to, mostly at Whitman, WJ and Churchill. Those teams tend to have a pretty high percentage of kids playing in college as well, at both D1 and D3 schools. The level of play is good for high school most years, though still a lot more physical than is ideal.

Anonymous wrote:I watched a high school game recently. Although some of those kids seems to have great skill, both teams kept on kicking high ball all the time, very disappointing.

Were you me?! Just kidding, but couple of kids with skills and coaches who are clueless what to do even with these kids. Parents at the games I watched, sitting around like bunch of grandmas knitting or like it is a funeral. And then you got to HS football games, and realize that people are perfectly capable of cheering on their team and going nuts. Not only that, one dad was cheering passionately(yes, looked Hispanic) and he got loudly mocked by other parents from the same team! Like so he can hear it, and then his wife was all embarrassed and telling him to keep it down!

Are we talking about boys? I thought best club travel players aren't supposed to/ allowed to play HS soccer? Or is it that they don't want to waste time on it? I do not understand US obsession with Youth soccer. I am from Europe, tiny country that is going to the World Cup. And our team absolutely sucks compared to other teams. I watched one HS team that made MCPS semis or even finals...can't remember. Honestly, it is so, so bad, un-watchable almost. I mean there was one offensive player making it deep into other's team and then nobody else, and not because they were slow runners, they made no effort to even get there. The other team did similar and stayed in their half for the most part. Parents told me that is the tactic coach wants them to play. I think US kids and parents should pursue sports they know and have made great success with. You don't see Europe, South America trying to make in it American football in little league, do you? I know not everyone wants to be the best, it is just for fun, but given how competitive this area is, let's don't pretend parents don't want their kids to be in the best team, best HS, best everything. If we were somewhere else, I would say, great, it is truly just for fun, but not here, anyone saying different is lying. So, go with lacrosse, basketball, football, softball, mens' soccer is US is a joke at any level. If you have a daughter that is truly a rare talent, now that is something else for college and pro sport.

Anonymous wrote:Football and Basketball are big college revenue sports. The coaching staffs have the time, money, and motivation to go find good players. If you are not one of the top programs, you are on the lookout for the under the radar prospects.

College Soccer is nothing like that. The only guys college programs may go after are Youth NT Team players and DA stars. Then there are international youth academy players who are older and more experienced and better trained than HS players.

Good US Club and HS Players are expected to spend the time and money to get exposure to colleges (college camps, videos, contacts etc). Basically it is a reversed process, the player recruits the college. My guess is a bunch of these guys decided screw this, it isn't worth it.

Um... I guess. In the sense that my kid (who is not a standout on a non-standout basketball club) is getting invited to D2 and D3 prospect camps. But, boy the world is different if you play for a top team. DS recently went to a recruiting event where he was the leading scorer for his team in one game. A hoops recruiting site put up a highlight video of another kid on his team scoring less (and defending less) in the same game. Once you make a name or play for a nname club, it’s self perpetuating.

I watched a high school game recently. Although some of those kids seems to have great skill, both teams kept on kicking high ball all the time, very disappointing.

The idea that kids don't play for their high schools is really a loss for those kids.

Anonymous wrote:Football and Basketball are big college revenue sports. The coaching staffs have the time, money, and motivation to go find good players. If you are not one of the top programs, you are on the lookout for the under the radar prospects.

College Soccer is nothing like that. The only guys college programs may go after are Youth NT Team players and DA stars. Then there are international youth academy players who are older and more experienced and better trained than HS players.

Good US Club and HS Players are expected to spend the time and money to get exposure to colleges (college camps, videos, contacts etc). Basically it is a reversed process, the player recruits the college. My guess is a bunch of these guys decided screw this, it isn't worth it.

Exactly. Not to mention. If you have the money to play club soccer, and be at the level where you could be a D1 recruit, you also have the money to consider all your options. One of those options, is to take advantage of academic and internship opportunities rather than focus on playing college soccer.

Totally consistent with my DCs experience. He loved HS soccer and played at a HS with a very competitive soccer team. He liked his travel team too but played travel to be good enough to be a varsity starter. Some kids on DCs HS team went on to play in college, mostly at good D3 schools. Quite a few on his travel team went D1 schools but to pretty mid tier schools academically. DCs academic quals were better than his soccer quals so he decided early on not to pursue college soccer - he got into much better colleges on his academic record than he would have on his soccer skills. Money for us was not a factor and the amount of money going to soccer players at most schools is pretty marginal anyway.

Football and Basketball are big college revenue sports. The coaching staffs have the time, money, and motivation to go find good players. If you are not one of the top programs, you are on the lookout for the under the radar prospects.

College Soccer is nothing like that. The only guys college programs may go after are Youth NT Team players and DA stars. Then there are international youth academy players who are older and more experienced and better trained than HS players.

Good US Club and HS Players are expected to spend the time and money to get exposure to colleges (college camps, videos, contacts etc). Basically it is a reversed process, the player recruits the college. My guess is a bunch of these guys decided screw this, it isn't worth it.

Ha at my son's HS the whole team is fielded by travel players --it's sucks no one else could ever get near it. American soccer is so f*cked. I'm glad we weren't invited to the World Cup--US soccer: self-important asshole parents and coaches. You can rot for crushing the dreams of kids who have the ability and potential but don't play like Messi when they're 10 years old.

Hard to know what to make of that without knowing more about the seniors and their individual circumstances. The start of the article said a number of the boys had not received the attention from colleges they might have hoped. Is that because they didn't have the guidance they needed to know how to get themselves in front of the right coaches, or for another reason? And what sort of colleges were they interested in? You have to be a standout player to play at UVA or a lot of other D1 schools. Many maybe could have been very happy playing at a DIII school, but the finances might not work out even if they were recruited.

I'm also skeptical of the comment from the coach that club soccer turns kids into robots. There are as many styles as there are club teams, and it's not like most high school games have a lot of free-wheeling creativity on display. Sounds like a good coach and great team experience for the boys though.

The article is about a bunch of (~14 ) seniors that realized they were not good enough for a good D1 program or never got seen/recruited and decided to play HS instead of club.

Am I missing something.

I don't find anything in the article unusual.