SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP USSF Academy-Year 3

As the Academy gets ready to start year 2 it looks to be solidifying its position as the inside track for boys soccer at the highest level.

Year 2 also saw the addition of several key/core Clubs ala Texas. What will year 3 bring?

The only Academy ball in SC is offered at Bridge. Will there be a second Academy in SC and if so, who?

CESA would be a logical choice. But no more so than in the past two years and they have passed. Would year 3 be different?

What about CUFC? Very aggressive club with plenty of fields and good proximity to a top college program? Plus, central to the rest of the state.

Thoughts?

When do you think they will open this up to the ladies?

No offense.....but I'd prefer this thread stay focussed on boys. I opened up another one for girls....good topic as well.

After reading a little about the Academy on the Bridge website I noticed the kids in this can only play on high school or National Teams outside of the Academy. So are they allowed to participate in ODP?

Nope. My understanding is that they can not participate in ODP nor are they to participate in Region Premier leagues as well.

I'm interested to hear if either CUFC or CESA are pursuing an Academy program for next year. Any scuttlebutt?

At one time I thought Rock Hill/Discoveries/Winthrop would have been an interesting choice given the proximity to Charlotte and the Manchester complex. But when USSF put an Academy at South Charlotte that pretty well killed that.

Metro Charlotte is sufficiently served with 2 Academy programs. But I think.....Columbia and Greenville and York County kids are getting overlooked. YC kids can do Academy out of Charlotte......but then they miss high school, becasue the NC Academy programs are accomodating NC high school.

A SC Academy that respects SC high school would be interesting. Bridge has a great program but it doesn't work for us up here.

It all boils down to egos! Coaches, players, parents ...

I am all for changing the culture of soccer in SC but as long as we continue to make decisions for the wrong reasons we will continue to put forth a product that is inferior to the power houses of Region III.

Don't understand your post at all.

For boys.....USSF Academy is apparently being perceived as the primary means of player identification and development.

In South Carolina its not available unless you drive to Charleston 3-4x per week, or......cross the border into Charlotte and sacrifice your high school career.

You may understand it more than you realize since you use the word 'apparently' ...

I wouldn't read too much into that.

I said apparently, only because I didn't want to sound arrogant or all knowing, becasue I'm not. At least not all knowing....

So let me state this...the 2-3 college coaches I've talked to have asked me if my son is playing Academy.

And I say no. Charleston is too far to go 3-4x per week to train. And Charlotte....would more or less keep him from playing high school. He wants to play high school....and with where we live... the current Club/ODP model provides him the best opportunity to balance school and competitive soccer.

But is that in his best interests if a goal of his is to play D1 soccer in college?

BD - Does it matter where he plays? Or how he plays?

What is the difference between beating a solid team from GA 3-2 or a solid team from NY 3-2? (Other than the cost!)

If a coach is going to judge me on whether I played Academy or not - well, I would be asking a lot more questions of him or her than they would be of me!

This is for another thread, but a lot of college coaches like hot topics, whether it be ODP, RIII PL, or in this case Academy! Gives them something to talk about! I call it College speak ...

RECCOS,

I believe the Academy exists for identification purposes. Top D1 college coaches want to see the best kids in a competitive setting, here it is.....made easy for them.

College coaches have time and financial constraints.

Hurst,

I think you answered your own question. The Academy is about development. However.....it also makes identification a whole lot simpler. A potential recruit that doesn't play in an Academy maybe has an asterisk placed next to their name.

Daddy,

I don't think I asked a question, I was supporting your opinion.

You, though, propose an interesting point. It's fairly understood that ODP is about identification and NOT development.

Are you going to argue that the Academy Program is about both development AND identification? Can it serve both purposes? Would you emphasize one over the other?

Uh, yeah. Sorry. I think I was on scsoccer overload.

It seems to me that there is a gap between concept and reality in S.C. With all due respect to the Bridge, we now have two competing systems for top players in SC: Academy and ODP. Whatever the merits of the Academy program, we are more fragmented than before, because the largest clubs haven't bought into the Academy program. I'm sure that the Academy program offers great -- and perhaps geographically broader -- exposure for players. However, won't ODP still be a college recruiting venue until the big clubs buy in? I've also heard there is a Nike v. Adidas angle to all of this; any comments?

I personally feel like you guys are reading too much into this. These college coaches (even though time constrained) are professionals who know what they are looking for. Word gets around within the circles who needs to be looked at whether they play Academy, RIII PL and/or ODP. High School ball is also important in its own way. You think when Northwestern and Spring Valley played the last several years that place was crawling with college coaches? Go out to the Palmetto Cup held at Brookland Cayce HS every spring - it's like a who's who of SC college coaches.
I'm simply saying give these guys credit - they generally have a network and a system for identifying the best players. You can give me the old "some fall through the cracks" argument - but I would argue thats the exception not the rule. You can also give me the "politics" argument. I'll agree it may seem like that sometimes but they can't play that game too often because their jobs depend on getting the best possible players to assure a winning program. Sure kids need to be aggressive in (for lack of a better word)"marketing" themselves but if they are truly D1 caliber there are several ways to be sure he/she will get looked at.