Category: youth soccer

us soccer, youth soccer

Turf war! Huuuh! What is it good for?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Absolutely nothing … say it again!*

So I’m making a good bit of progress on the next Area Guide — Southern California this time. Should be ready in a day or two. Hey, what’s this in the inbox?

US YOUTH SOCCER ANNOUNCES NEW LEAGUES STRUCTURE – THE US YOUTH SOCCER NATIONAL LEAGUES

(Alternate take from SCTV.)

But that’s just the journalist’s take. It’s the equivalent of an 89th-minute goal that forces us to tear up the stories our editors are expecting in five minutes. How does everyone else feel about it?

https://twitter.com/Sweeney_Sean/status/986932995868282881

OK, that sounds good. Anyone else?

Oh dear. (Disclaimer: Ranting Soccer Dad is an NCSL parent.)

What does this mean?

1. Instead of four regional leagues, we’re about to have a lot of conferences. They’ve named eight so far, but that just covers the East Coast, the Southeast and Texas.

conf

Will this format include more teams? Seems that way, but we’ll wait for clarification. In the current format, the Eastern Regional League has 16 teams in the Elite Division. The lower Premier and Championship divisions can theoretically take more teams but do not. The Midwest Regional League looks a bit bigger, as do the Southern Regional Premier League and the three-pronged Far West Regional League.

Through the current regional leagues, teams can qualify for the National League, which uses the hashtag #EarnYourPlace to establish its intent and perhaps throw some shade on the invitation-only DA and ECNL. And through the National League, teams can earn a place in the regional championships (an alternate path: State Cup) and then the National Championships.

Those pathways will continue. But will they be more crowded?

2. EDP, which currently has its top levels (out of many levels) in U.S. Club Soccer’s National Premier League, has apparently switched over to U.S. Youth Soccer. (I’m asking to have that point clarified.)

3. The press release mentions “newly formed club vs. club brackets may be offered.” That raises two questions. How, given the team-by-team #EarnYourPlace qualification for these leagues? And why, given the objections raised by … OK, maybe just me? See “Club-centric scheduling” on my “About the Area Guides/National Info” page.

4. With these leagues being more localized than the current league system, is the expectation that each team will enter only these leagues? In the current system, some teams play in both the U.S. Youth Soccer regional league and their “home” leagues.

Perhaps it’s unfair to think of these changes mostly in terms of the Turf Wars — U.S. Club Soccer vs. U.S. Youth Soccer in general, then the proxy war of the Development Academy (U.S. Soccer) vs. ECNL (U.S. Club Soccer) vs. traditional league/tournament play (U.S. Youth Soccer) at the elite level. But it’s really impossible to think about it otherwise.

So you may be asking: How does this affect me, especially if I don’t have a kid in the top 1-5% of youth soccer players who might be involved with these programs? 

My tentative answer: We may be hitting a tipping point of trickle-down “elite” soccer.

Here’s how …

1. Clubs in your area scramble to get their top teams in the DA, ECNL or U.S. Youth Soccer conferences. (We’re already seeing this for the DA and ECNL; the current U.S. Youth setup is more complimentary.)

2. Clubs that don’t get into these programs (or want their B teams to be in something “elite”) scramble to form “elite” leagues, some of which are pretty good and some of which are demonstrably worse than the old traditional leagues’ top divisions. (Already seeing this, too, in some areas.)

3. Your traditional league needs to recruit more teams to fill the holes in their divisions. Suddenly your big local club has six travel teams in one age group. Suddenly your local “development” league consists of a couple of teams in one place and a couple more 100 miles away.

In short, we can sum it up with one word …

Chaos.

Whether your kids are in the top 5% or the middle 50%, you may find yourself in leagues that are unsettled, with clubs and teams coming and going. Maybe a new team comes in that blows out all its opponents 10-0 or loses all its games 10-0. Maybe a league that used to have all its games within a 45-minute drive now has its games scattered all over your state.

Or not. We just don’t know. So when you sign up your kid for a full year (because heaven forbid a club lets you sign up for one season at a time) of “travel” soccer, you have little idea what you’re getting into.

So it’d be nice if the powers that be would get together and explain to us why this is necessary.

* Don’t get the headline reference? Check out Edwin Starr, Bruce Springsteen and Seinfeld.

The Ranting Soccer Dad Guide to Youth Soccer is underway. It includes a guide to national programs and, in progress, an area-by-area guide across the USA. Check out the Patreon page for full access and updates.

2
youth soccer

Rec soccer and “development”: At what point can we just stop?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Preseason coaches’ meeting. It’s always more of a lecture than a “meeting.” There’s absolutely no reason an email wouldn’t suffice. The in-person “meeting” would be much better reserved for a training session with a lot of small breakout groups.

But anyway …

The Important Person In Charge (IPIC, as in “I pick what we’re doing”) reminds us of the importance of “development” instead of “winning.”

In U19 recreational soccer.

I would’ve asked what we were “developing” these players for at this point, but I didn’t want to prolong the meeting. So I’ll ask here …

What are the developmental goals of recreational soccer for kids who are never going to play at a higher level? 

These kids aren’t going to make their high school teams — most of the travel kids won’t make the high school teams. Simple math. This year, I’ve seen a lot of kids from “A” teams who don’t make the JVs at their local high schools. The sweet spot for high school play in our region is the level immediately below the Development Academy — and bear in mind that a lot of kids may ditch the DA their senior years to get in that one season of playing with their classmates.

(Quick aside: I’d love to see youth clubs list the players from their clubs who make local high school teams. Or I’d love to see parents crowd-source it so we can see which clubs really are getting kids to their high school teams. Let’s fact-check the coaches who insist their players can go play wherever they want. We’ll get back to that.)

At U14, rec kids can still make the transition to travel. They might even be raw talents who play a lot of pickup soccer and can still “develop.” It’s rare at this age, but it can happen.

By U19? Aren’t we basically “developing” the next generation of adult rec players?

They may turn into parent coaches one day. They might even sign up to be referees. Great. Let’s keep them in the game.

IMLeagues

But the next level as a player is basically adult league and/or college intramurals, where I really wish I’d seen the matchup of Christian Pu-LAW-sic vs. Game of Throw-Ins.

So why aren’t we letting high school kids do the same thing? Why are we running high school rec soccer through parent commissioners and coaches who oversee practices at which they might get 3-4 players on a given night? Why are we trying to “balance” these teams instead of letting a group of friends play together and figure out which level to enter?

If some of those friends want to practice once or twice a week and have a coach, fine. They can enter the “Open A” division and play only with or against people who are just as interested in soccer as they are. That’s frankly a better option at that age than lower-level “travel.”

The kids playing U19 rec soccer have survived a decade or more of adults telling them what to do. Why not give them a little reward and let them make a fun transition to adult soccer instead of treating them like U9s?

2
youth soccer

Can you learn anything about youth soccer from message boards?

Posted on by Beau Dure

In 1999, I was hired at USA TODAY.

Not as a soccer writer, though they agreed to let me write a weekly column online. That’s how the site went in those days — a lot of us would spend 30-40 hours a week doing the nuts-and-bolts work of posting and maintaining content, then 10-20 hours a week doing the fun stuff that made the site unique.

I was hired as a community content developer. At first, my primary job was to moderate message boards.

nation-talksWhich was hell. I had to kick people off the boards (though one of my Facebook friends today is someone I kicked off the boards twice, so there’s a certain amount of respect built up over time in some cases), and I spent my 30th birthday exchanging email with Rush Limbaugh, whose lobbying to host Monday Night Football was crashing our servers.

But I still believe message boards and similar forums can be useful. It all depends on the context and the people involved. The reader comments at Deadspin are usually better than the stories. Bloody Elbow has painstakingly cultivated a lively but mostly reasonable community of readers and commenters. BigSoccer is hit or miss — some arguments in the indoor soccer forum have been ongoing since maybe 2001, but there’s some useful information exchanged. And if you’ve been kicked off BigSoccer, you probably deserved. (That’s why all the slander specialists are on Twitter, still griping about how they got kicked off BigSoccer.)

Anonymous message boards should be a valuable source of information for youth soccer parents. You can share candid information without fear of reprisal from coaches and clubs. But you can also share unsubstantiated accusations. Maybe little Johnny isn’t quite good enough for the megaclub’s A team, so the parent goes on the board to tell everyone the coach is clueless or corrupt or whatever.

The worst boards are the ones that aren’t just anonymous but require no sign-on. The conversation generally runs like this:

Anonymous: We’re thinking of moving my 9-year-old son from FC United to United FC. Any thoughts?

Anonymous: Oh, you’re probably one of those moms who thinks your kid is the next Messi.

Anonymous: United FC is falling apart. All the coaches are terrible, and the board members are rec-league parents who want their kids to be on the A teams.

Anonymous: We get it, you’re upset that you were fired from United FC.

Anonymous: Oh, shut up. You’re on the board, aren’t you? You’re the one whose kid made the U10 A team in 2010.

Anonymous: Um … I don’t think anyone’s been on the board that long.

Anonymous: You’re not fooling anyone. You’re the same person.

Anonymous: The same person as who?

Anonymous: We KNOW who you are.

Anonymous: Yeah, you’re mad because your kid had to go to another club in 2012 because none of the parents liked you.

That could be 10 people. It could be two.

I’ve been on one such board for a while, and I’ve finally started using a unique sign-on. I’m RantingSoccerDad. So it’s pretty easy to put two and two together and figure out who I am. That means I’m not going to share much information about my sons’ clubs, but that’s a fair trade to me. And I’m hoping to start a movement where people create unique sign-ons so we can actually see how many people are in these conversations.

Flawed as they are, these message boards can be helpful. I like Georgia Soccer Forum, where I’ve learned a bit about a potential “Champions League” and reminisced about the Athens Applejacks.

All facts need to be checked elsewhere, of course. But it’s nice to get some impressions from people on the ground. On the whole, we probably need more of these boards. Maybe multiple boards in one area, so we can promote and relegate them.

If you have any favorites anywhere in the USA, please share.

1
podcast, youth soccer

RSD31: Grassroots and futsal, with Leslie Hamer and Jason Longshore

Posted on by Beau Dure

It’s a futsal/grassroots doubleheader! After a brief intro (no full rant this week), you’ll hear from Leslie Hamer, who works with futsal at every level from the grassroots to the pros. She has been getting futsal into New York City public schools and now into colleges.

Next up: Jason Longshore, whom you may know as a commentator on Atlanta United games but has spent much of the last 12 years working with Soccer in the Streets, an organization that brings soccer (or futsal — whichever makes sense for the available facilities) to underserved communities and schools. You may know them from their effort to put a small soccer field at a MARTA (local transit) station.

You’ll find a few differences and a few similarities in their stories. They work with other organizations from municipal governments to soccer clubs to the U.S. Soccer Foundation. (Reminder: The Foundation is not the Federation, though the Fed does nominate some board members.) Both programs are fundamentally geared toward providing healthy and productive activities for underserved areas, but you’ll sometimes see players move into elite levels, including pro academies.

The bell sound is from SoundBible.com. Every other musical note and sound effect was scratched out by me in GarageBand or through GarageBand.

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case studies, youth soccer

How Norway dominates the Winter Olympics

Posted on by Beau Dure

Sure, it helps to have a lot of snow and ice. And it helps a little to have a social democracy in which the government is happy to help with anything that makes children healthier.

But it also helps to have a “Sport for All” ethos that stresses participation over winning. And no specialization at early ages.

Those are certainly values we can consider in soccer, aren’t they?

Tom Farrey explains.

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podcast, youth soccer

RSD30: Announcement time

Posted on by Beau Dure

This week: The Ranting Soccer Dad Guide to Youth Soccer is officially underway. Check out the first couple of entries and support it on Patreon.

In the podcast, I spend about five minutes explaining all that. Then I go on a rant about the generation gap in understanding soccer and why we don’t have a glorious promotion/relegation pyramid just yet. (Plus a few ideas on how to get there. Or how not to.)

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youth soccer

The first Youth Soccer Guide pages are up

Posted on by Beau Dure

And these are free.

PAGE 1: About the Area Guides — this will tell you about all the national organizations you’ll need to know to make sense of the area guides.

PAGE 2: Area Guide: D.C. metro — of course I started on my home turf.

So here’s what’s next …

Help me write the area guides …

Sound off about your area. Let me know what I should know and can’t discern easily from my own research. Contact me.

Get access to read the rest when they’re done …

Support me at Patreon, where for as little as $1/month, you’ll get access to everything I’m writing.

Made a video about it. Want to see it? Here it goes …

 

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us soccer, youth soccer

Where did national team players play youth soccer?

Posted on by Beau Dure

As part of the research for the Ranting Soccer Dad Guide to Youth Soccer, I’ve looked up where every current men’s or women’s national team player or recent call-up played youth soccer.

I started at Wikipedia but then verified every mention of past clubs (not complete, but all accurate!) using college and U.S. Soccer bios among other information. In some cases, I found more clubs on the bios and added them to the list.

Enjoy, and feel free to suggest anyone or any club that should be added.

ARIZONA

Danilo Acosta: Real Salt Lake AZ

Julie Ertz: Sereno SC, Arizona Arsenal (formerly Gilbert SC)

Justen Glad: Real Salt Lake AZ

Ashley Hatch: Legends FC (Calif.)

Brooks Lennon: Real Salt Lake AZ

Sydney Leroux: Sereno SC

—————————————————————-

CAL NORTH

Abby Dahlkemper: MVLA Avalanche

Tierna Davidson: De Anza Force

Lynden Gooch: Santa Cruz Breakers

Nick Lima: De Anza Force, San Jose Earthquakes

Megan Rapinoe: Elk Grove United

Lynn Williams: East Fresno Fusion, CVSA, Bullard Valley FC

Chris Wondolowski: Diablo Valley SC, Mustang

CAL SOUTH

(Historical: Nomads had Steve Cherundolo, Marcelo Balboa, Eric Wynalda, Paul Caligiuri, Frankie Hejduk, Shannon MacMillan, Jovan Kirovski)

Paul Arriola: LA Galaxy, Arsenal FC

Steve Birnbaum: Pateadores, Irvine Strikers

Joe Corona: Nomads

Marky Delgado: Chivas USA, Cosmos West, LAFC Chelsea, ISES Strikers, Arsenal FC

Benny Feilhaber: Irvine Strikers

Ashley Hatch: Legends FC (commuted from Arizona)

Hailie Mace: Eagles SC

Alex Morgan: Cypress Elite, AYSO

Michael Orozco: Irvine Strikers

Chris Pontius: Irvine Strikers

Christen Press: Slammers FC

Christian Ramirez: San Diego Surf, Pateadores, Irvine Strikers

Cristian Roldan: Union Independiente FC (also national high school player of the year)

Amy Rodriguez: Laguna Hills Eclipse, West Coast SC

Brandon Vincent: Real So Cal, Strikers FC, South Coast Bayern

Jorge Villafana: Chivas USA (joined after winning reality show)

Bobby Wood: Irvine Strikers (moved from Hawaii; then moved to Germany at age 14)

Gyasi Zardes: LA Galaxy

McCall Zerboni: SoCal Blues

—————————————————————

COLORADO

Jaelene Hinkle: Real Colorado

Lindsey Horan: Colorado Rush

Ethan Horvath: Real Colorado

Jaelin Howell: Real Colorado

Matt Polster: Colorado Rapids (anywhere in Nevada before that?)

Mallory Pugh: Real Colorado

Sophia Smith: Real Colorado

—————————————————————

CONNECTICUT

Alyssa Naeher: South Central Premier, Yankee United

—————————————————————

DC METRO

Bill Hamid: D.C. United, Premier AC (his father’s club — disclaimer: Ranting Soccer Dad’s son also has played for Premier AC)

Ian Harkes: D.C. United

Ali Krieger: Prince William

Midge Purce: Freestate, SAC, Bethesda, Potomac

C.J. Sapong: Prince William

Andi Sullivan: Bethesda, McLean

—————————————————————

FLORIDA

Jozy Altidore: Schulz Academy, Boca Raton Soccer Club

Alejandro Bedoya: Weston Fury

Morgan Brian: Ponte Vedra Storm (lived in Georgia and commuted)

Ashlyn Harris: Indialantic Force, Seminole Ice, South Brevard United, Palm Bay Rangers

Dax McCarty: Central Florida United

Graham Zusi: FC America (now GPS Orlando)

—————————————————————

GEORGIA

Joe Bendik: Cobb FC/SSA

Morgan Brian: Ponte Vedra Storm (Florida)

Jane Campbell: Concorde Fire, North Atlanta Soccer Academy

Sean Johnson: Atlanta Fire

Kekuta Manneh: Georgia Rush (joined Rush organization in Gambia; later moved to Texas)

https://www.socceramerica.com/publications/article/77179/usmnt-kekuta-manneh-added-to-roster-for-paraguay.html

Shaq Moore: Smyrna Stealth, Cobb FC (before going to Dallas and Bradenton)

Kelley O’Hara: Concorde Fire, AFC Lightning, Peachtree City Lazers

Emily Sonnett: North Atlanta Soccer Academy

Walker Zimmerman: Gwinnett Soccer Association

—————————————————————

HAWAII

Bobby Wood: Powder Edge FC (moved to California at age 12)

—————————————————————

IDAHO

Sofia Huerta: FC Nova

—————————————————————

ILLINOIS / CHICAGO METRO

Michael Bradley: Chicago Sockers

Brad Guzan: Chicago Magic

Eric Lichaj: Chicago Magic

Andrija Novakovich: Chicago Magic

Megan Oyster: Windy City Pride

Casey Short: Chicago Magic

Jonathan Spector: Chicago Sockers, Schwaben FC

—————————————————————

INDIANA

Matt Hedges: Indy Burn

—————————————————————

MASSACHUSETTS/BOSTON METRO

Geoff Cameron: Bayside United

Sam Mewis: Scorpions SC

—————————————————————

MISSISSIPPI

Marlon Hairston: Central Jackson Soccer

—————————————————————

MISSOURI/KANSAS: KANSAS CITY METRO

Matt Besler: KCFC Alliance

Adrianna Franch: KC Comets

Erik Palmer-Brown: Sporting KC, KC United, KC Inter, Lee Summit Soccer Academy

MISSOURI: ST. LOUIS METRO

Tim Ream: Scott Gallagher

Josh Sargent: Scott Gallagher

Becky Sauerbrunn: JB Marine

—————————————————————

NEVADA

Matt Polster: Colorado Rapids (anywhere in Nevada before that?)

—————————————————————

NEW JERSEY (split between Philly and NY?)

Carli Lloyd: Medford Strikers

—————————————————————

NYC METRO

Tyler Adams: Red Bulls

Juan Agudelo: Red Bulls, PASCO, NJSA

Russell Canouse: Red Bulls (after PA Classics)

Crystal Dunn: Albertson SC, RVC

Tobin Heath: PDA (NJ)

Tim Howard: Central Jersey Cosmos

Allie Long: Albertson SC, Northport Cow Harbor Mustangs

Matt Miazga: Red Bulls

Tommy McNamara: FC Westchester

Tim Parker: (where?)

Timothy Weah: Red Bulls (moved to PSG in teens), BW Gottschee, Rosedale Soccer Club (also in Florida with West Pines United at early age)

NEW YORK WEST

Alex Bono: Empire United

—————————————————————

NORTH CAROLINA

Ike Opara: Triangle FC

—————————————————————

OHIO NORTH (Akron, Findlay, Canton, Cleveland)

Justin Morrow: CSA

Darlington Nagbe: Cleveland Internationals

OHIO SOUTH (Columbus, Cincinnati)

Rose Lavelle: Cincinnati United Premier, Sycamore United

Wil Trapp: Columbus Crew

—————————————————————

OREGON

Rubio Rubin: Westside Timbers, Westside Metros

—————————————————————

PENNSYLVANIA EAST

Russell Canouse: PA Classics (then Red Bulls)

Christian Pulisic: PA Classics

Zach Steffen: FC Delco, West Chester United

PENNSYLVANIA WEST

Meghan Klingenberg: Penns Forest FC

—————————————————————

SOUTH CAROLINA

Savannah McCaskill: Carolina Elite SC

—————————————————————

TEXAS NORTH (Dallas, Waco, Abilene, Amarillo, Lubbock, Southlake, Odessa)

Kellyn Acosta: FC Dallas

Clint Dempsey: Dallas Texans

Greg Garza: Dallas Texans (in between stints in other countries)

Jesse Gonzalez: FC Dallas, CD Independiente

Omar Gonzalez: Dallas Texans

Weston McKennie: FC Dallas

Shaq Moore: FC Dallas (briefly; see Georgia)

Abby Smith: Dallas Texans

Taylor Smith: Solar Chelsea

Chioma Ubogagu: D’Feeters

TEXAS SOUTH (Houston, El Paso, Austin, San Antonio)

Kekuta Manneh: Lonestar SC (Austin), Texas Rush (Houston; before that, Georgia Rush)

https://www.socceramerica.com/publications/article/77179/usmnt-kekuta-manneh-added-to-roster-for-paraguay.html

———————————

UTAH

Kealia Ohai: Utah Avalanche

———————————

WASHINGTON

Jordan Morris: Seattle Sounders, Eastside FC

Kelyn Rowe: Crossfire Premier

DeAndre Yedlin: Seattle Sounders, Crossfire Premier, Northwest Nationals, Emerald City FC, Shorelake Soccer Club

4
us soccer, youth soccer

Kyle Martino and the next steps for the U.S. Soccer “change” movement

Posted on by Beau Dure

(This week’s podcast has been snowed out.)

A historical reminder here: Four years after Richard Nixon just demolished George McGovern 520-17 in the electoral vote, the USA elected a Democrat named Jimmy Carter.

 

Granted, the situation had a few unique factors. Nixon threw it all away with Watergate. Carter was a Southern Baptist, making him a little more palatable to conservatives than more modern Democrats. But he had solid progressive credentials and eventually left his denomination for that reason. And the causes of the 60s radicals were certainly not dead.

The point for soccer people? Giving up after the election of Carlos Cordeiro is simply ridiculous.

The Chattanooga summit showed a healthy willingness to innovate, though I still have doubts about the lack of experienced people working with them. Why were so few traditional USASA clubs represented, for one thing?

And now we finally have some extended thoughts — once you battle your way through SI’s obnoxious autoplay video and pop-up ads — from a presidential candidate. Unsurprisingly, it’s Kyle Martino, the “change” candidate who showed more potential than most in bridging the gap between the conservative old guard and the “hey, I just discovered soccer two years ago, and now I know everything — America doesn’t have pro/rel because it’s stupid” contingent.

Martino gives us a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how things went down, including a surprise change of opinion in the youth soccer establishment. But he isn’t griping. He understands why voters broke toward Cordeiro and sees potential in the new president.

And Martino puts the focus back where it really needs to be — youth soccer. He’s jumping into that arena himself, working with Street Soccer USA, where initiatives such as putting futsal goals on basketball courts are a natural fit.

Make no mistake — that’s where the rot lies in U.S. Soccer. It’s astounding to see exponential growth in the amount of soccer on TV and the level of fan interest while the participation level is stagnant or worse. We’re losing recreational players before they can become elite players. And we’re giving elite players a muddled pathway, with the Development Academy and the ECNL playing a giant game of Risk across North America.

U.S. Soccer took a laissez-faire attitude for decades. Then they stepped in with the Development Academy, competing with rather than bolstering programs that had been in place (and developed some damn good players), and a ridiculous birth-year age-group mandate that any veteran of youth soccer could’ve told them was a really bad idea. As Martino points out, these moves alienated and marginalized people who may not have been perfect but had valuable expertise and experience.

Seems like there’s a lesson in all that for the “change” movement as it focuses on the other aspects of change, from promotion/relegation to … promotion/relegation. Yeah, there’s not much else.

Bring the new ideas. Have good honest discussion about them. But don’t marginalize the people who have built things that work. Even the people who’ve built things that didn’t work have experience worth sharing. You learn more from failure than success.

Opportunities are still there. But an “us vs. them” mentality isn’t going to help. Gotta build some bridges if you want to get across the river.

 

 

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