I believe that the decline of high school ball has significantly hurt the men’s game. Why? Because it is free. The US youth system is missing the influx of talent from poorer and often urban or rural areas. This is often where the kid that not only wants to succeed but feels like they have to succeed comes from. In the pay to play model these kids are left behind and eventual turn to other sports, quit all together, or worse, are never found. Add to that, typically, the better coaches don’t coach HS ball any longer. So, even if a raw talent makes the HS team they don’t get the best coaching to improve their game.

Solution. Since club ball is here to stay, the USSF should allocate significant scholarship and development funds for economically challenged or underserved community raw talent players. Players qualify to compete for the scholarships by either being financially underprivileged or by living in an underserved community. Then there are a series of free camps, including structured, officiated matches that identify the best raw talent to receive the voucher. That one year voucher can then be used at an accredited soccer club to pay for club fees, team fees and unis as well as commuting costs to the practices and games. The next year the qualification process starts again. This can start at the pre-teen age (say 10 or 11 yrs old) to allow for some growth and learning and continue thru HS. A ussf rep helps the family and kid navigate to a solid club / coach.

Vouchers are controlled independent of clubs so that clubs can’t give money to suburban kids that are less well off than their suburban counterparts but not truly underserved or poor. Clubs can still offer their own free rides to those kids of course.

Marketing of the ussf program would need to be heaviest in poor and underserved communities. USSF can also pay for outdoor concrete futsal soccer courts in urban settings to sit alongside the hundreds of b-ball courts and market the raw talent program using those venues. Identifying the underserved communities would be easy by having clubs and state registrar databases send their anonymous players zip code records to ussf who then does a simply query to ID the underserved areas. Anyhow, just some thoughts on how to get the grittier part of our nation’s youth involved in competitive youth soccer.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do the best NFL players get made? Or NBA players? High school and college, where the level of competition is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

That doesn't work in soccer, no matter what Don Garner and his lackeys at USSF believe. Nobody else does it like that. We need to invest in a proper alternative. That, specifically, is what needs to happen.

Our fascination with school sports is why when it comes to soccer we fail on the global stage. Just because we believe college works for Football and Basketball does not mean it works for soccer. The NFL is not a global sport in the same sense that soccer is so how we develop players for the NFL is nothing more than a self fulfilling prophecy that we proclaim works because there just is no competition on the global scale to prove otherwise.

That is very true. That's why whether or not it has been perfectly successful, the DA model of 10 months rather than school ball is necessary. That doesn't mean it has solved all US soccer problems, but that is a problem that needed solving.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do the best NFL players get made? Or NBA players? High school and college, where the level of competition is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

That doesn't work in soccer, no matter what Don Garner and his lackeys at USSF believe. Nobody else does it like that. We need to invest in a proper alternative. That, specifically, is what needs to happen.

So now USSF “lackeys” believe that soccer should follow the football and basketball models, where unmatched competition reigns starting with high school??

This is why they created DAs with high school soccer disallowed. SMH.

College is the destination for most US players for cultural and economic reasons, as has been pointed out numerous times here. Parents and kids know that they need a good degree from a good school; an MLS contract doesn’t touch a wisp of an NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL contract, and European soccer is nearly impossible to crack for most American players.

We are directing the college path, not USSF “lackeys.”

As functional developmental stage college soccer stunts development regardless of the intent of a majority of players who participate in college soccer. Most college football and basketball players never turn pro either but we do not question the college game as the pathway for those who do end up going pro.

Anonymous wrote:Where do the best NFL players get made? Or NBA players? High school and college, where the level of competition is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

That doesn't work in soccer, no matter what Don Garner and his lackeys at USSF believe. Nobody else does it like that. We need to invest in a proper alternative. That, specifically, is what needs to happen.

So now USSF “lackeys” believe that soccer should follow the football and basketball models, where unmatched competition reigns starting with high school??

This is why they created DAs with high school soccer disallowed. SMH.

College is the destination for most US players for cultural and economic reasons, as has been pointed out numerous times here. Parents and kids know that they need a good degree from a good school; an MLS contract doesn’t touch a wisp of an NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL contract, and European soccer is nearly impossible to crack for most American players.

We are directing the college path, not USSF “lackeys.”

Anonymous wrote:Where do the best NFL players get made? Or NBA players? High school and college, where the level of competition is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

That doesn't work in soccer, no matter what Don Garner and his lackeys at USSF believe. Nobody else does it like that. We need to invest in a proper alternative. That, specifically, is what needs to happen.

Our fascination with school sports is why when it comes to soccer we fail on the global stage. Just because we believe college works for Football and Basketball does not mean it works for soccer. The NFL is not a global sport in the same sense that soccer is so how we develop players for the NFL is nothing more than a self fulfilling prophecy that we proclaim works because there just is no competition on the global scale to prove otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:Where do the best NFL players get made? Or NBA players? High school and college, where the level of competition is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

That doesn't work in soccer, no matter what Don Garner and his lackeys at USSF believe. Nobody else does it like that. We need to invest in a proper alternative. That, specifically, is what needs to happen.

*Don Garber (and mobile spellcheckers suck)

Where do the best NFL players get made? Or NBA players? High school and college, where the level of competition is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

That doesn't work in soccer, no matter what Don Garner and his lackeys at USSF believe. Nobody else does it like that. We need to invest in a proper alternative. That, specifically, is what needs to happen.