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hat-trick
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hat-trick
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Alister, as I said my son plays on a NC Academy team. Coaches of u16 teams in NC:
CASL Chelsea - Head coach of UNC
NC Fusion(Greensboro) - Asst head coach of Elon
CSA - Head coach of UNC Charlotte
North Meck - Asst head coach of Davidson
I would agree that money is an issue Would be sweet if it were free. Not sure if that would really draw in the masses, as by definition...this isn't for the masses. If a kid is a great player.....he'll have a spot on an Academy team, regardles of his parents finances. I see it on my sons team.
Year round Academy would threaten this coaching setup, IMO. NC Academy currently doesn't get going until early November....so the coaches have anywhere from a few days to a month of conflict to manage. The winter and spring seasons in college aren't quite as demanding as the Fall. But if Academy season ran from Sept thru June....I would agree it would be really hard for these guys to keep doing what they do during their fall college season.
Probably settle more into a role like Coach Molinary at USC, who is involved with SC United....but doesn't coach a team.
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Goal Kick
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How many soccer players opt not to play high school soccer in favor of club? There was a kid at Dorman who did it and went to USC but he didn't even letter. Is it really that beneficial not to play for your high school? I hardly think you would get worse. How popular are these players amongst their schoolmates knowing that they have hung them out to dry with an eliltist attitude?
When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.
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I don't think there should be a general belief that Academy level players don't benefit from HS soccer or HS coaches.
I've had two Academy players at JICHS over the last four years. In both cases I have to say I believe they benefited from their HS experience. Wando may have beaten us handily the second time we played this season, but I believe it was a great experience for my guys to be up against a team of that caliber, and to have to dig in to be a leader on and off the field. In fact, in many of our matches we were up against quality opponents who have quality coaching. I also have to say that the vast majority of the coaches I've encountered at the high school level are very good at teaching (developing) their players. They aren't coaching ACC teams, but I'd wager some of our most experienced and best high school coaches - like Savitz, Reilly, Riddlehover, Pelton, etc., and some of the "younger" coaches too (Heise, Eudy, Hiller, Tisdale) would NOT exactly crash and burn at the college level. I think it would be fun to see college coaches take on some of the teams we get at the high school level and see if they can develop them like the guys above do.
I'm also concerned that Academy soccer might veer too close to professionalism or like some higher level college program. What happens when a player gets hurt, loses his touch, burns out? Are they cast aside and forgotten in favor of someone else. Sure, it's survival of the fittest, but at the same time these are just kids afterall. What if they are late bloomers - do they ever get a chance? How cut-thoat do we want it to be?
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hat-trick
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Probably not an issue. Kids are more mature than parents on stuff like this.
My dad grew up on a farm in western PA back in the depression. He said they were poor but they didn't know they were poor, becasue everyone around was in the same boat. Kids are kids...until adults start pointing out differences.
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hat-trick
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Quote:
I don't think there should be a general belief that Academy level players don't benefit from HS soccer or HS coaches.
I've had two Academy players at JICHS over the last four years. In both cases I have to say I believe they benefited from their HS experience. Wando may have beaten us handily the second time we played this season, but I believe it was a great experience for my guys to be up against a team of that caliber, and to have to dig in to be a leader on and off the field. In fact, in many of our matches we were up against quality opponents who have quality coaching. I also have to say that the vast majority of the coaches I've encountered at the high school level are very good at teaching (developing) their players. They aren't coaching ACC teams, but I'd wager some of our most experienced and best high school coaches - like Savitz, Reilly, Riddlehover, Pelton, etc., and some of the "younger" coaches too (Heise, Eudy, Hiller, Tisdale) would NOT exactly crash and burn at the college level. I think it would be fun to see college coaches take on some of the teams we get at the high school level and see if they can develop them like the guys above do.
I'm also concerned that Academy soccer might veer too close to professionalism or like some higher level college program. What happens when a player gets hurt, loses his touch, burns out? Are they cast aside and forgotten in favor of someone else. Sure, it's survival of the fittest, but at the same time these are just kids afterall. What if they are late bloomers - do they ever get a chance? How cut-thoat do we want it to be?
Of course there are benefits to Academy kids playing HS. You used several valid areas as examples. But there are also downsides to it...speed of play being one, consistently playing under pressure being another one.
Just saying that while there are benefits to HS....there would be more benefits by spending those 3 1/2 months in the Academy environment. Thats my opinion.
In terms of where Academy is headed.....IMO, it is more of a fish or cut bait environment. I won't debate the pros/cons of that. This is meant to be a winnowing process. Which kids have the God given ability and the desire and the work rate and personality....to thrive in that environment?
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[quote} Of course there are benefits to Academy kids playing HS. You used several valid areas as examples. But there are also downsides to it...speed of play being one, consistently playing under pressure being another one.
Just saying that while there are benefits to HS....there would be more benefits by spending those 3 1/2 months in the Academy environment. Thats my opinion.
In terms of where Academy is headed.....IMO, it is more of a fish or cut bait environment. I won't debate the pros/cons of that. This is meant to be a winnowing process. Which kids have the God given ability and the desire and the work rate and personality....to thrive in that environment?
Here is my problem, I completely agree that more work makes players better. And I agree the Academy system provides that. But, my concern is, first you are limiting the player pool by default. We are trying to develop our youth soccer programs to compete, we need to keep as many kids playing for as long as we can and if that means High School, then do not take that away. My second concern has been stated in this thread previously, you can look around and find kids that should be on the academy teams and are not. Why, politics, school affiliations, bubba has been on the team for 4 years so we are not going to replace him even though Sam is better, whatever reason. I know there is not an answer to that but elimintating a fallback option for those kids does not make sense.
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Goal
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How are kids identified for the IMG academy in Flordia?
I don't know much about it but isn't that kind of like the European system with getting kids in to train together.
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hat-trick
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Jimmy, what is being eliminated? How is choice being taken away? How is the soccer pool being shrunk? No one is talking about eliminating HS soccer.
The only kid who has conflict....is the kid who is an Academy player and also really loves HS. That kid....will have to choose. And if it were my kid and he really loved HS that much....I'd tell him to follow his heart and if he was good enough the right college team would still find him.
Way back on this thread someone said this only effected 35-40 kids in SC. Those 35-40 kids have plenty of options to keep playing the game they love if they find Academy overly confining.
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Agreed. College and professional coaches find talent. They don't care if a kid played Academy or not, or club or not, or club over high school. They only care if a player is good, full stop.
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A few observations related to some of the comments:
I believe that a survey of college coaches would show them to be near unanimous in their preference that recruits play Academy all year, from a developmental perspective.
The Federation clearly believes that a year round Academy program is ideal, but isn't willing to mandate it - yet.
All training isn't equal. The Federation closely monitors DA training to ensure that it meets a very high standard. The Federation has its own ideas of what training should be (I suppose one could disagree with their model), and insists that it be adhered to.
I agree that in a perfect world all kids of ability would be identified early and afforded the chance to play and train at a high level for free. Figuring out how to do that is above my pay grade.
The Federation considers the DA to be an extension of the National Team(s). It wants the best players getting the best training and playing the most uniformly competitive games it can provide. Yes, in that sense it is "elitist."
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