SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP High School vs Academy

Also of note, is the fact that Claudio Reyna - the designer of the USDA - stepped down from his post as U.S. Youth Soccer Technical Director last May.

Wow...haven't been on the boards in a long time and fell right into this one...

Reyna stepped down to pursue a great opportunity with NYC FC...I'm sure most/many others would have done the same given the opportunity. Personally, I don't think that this move was a reflection of anything other than pursuing a great career opportunity. Unless you know the man (and I don't), I don't think that one can assume or insinuate that leaving the USSF post was anything other than that.

As a father of two boys that both play and love the game, it has been easy for me to see that there is a place for BOTH Academy and High School soccer. I have one playing DA who loves the experience and has no real desire to play HS soccer. This was his goal and dream, and he's pursuing it. DA is right for him and his decision. My other son is a good young player that has the same potential (yet not the same desires)...However, he LOVES playing for his high school and would never dream of giving that up. I have coached players that have chosen each path. In my mind, it is up to each player to decide what they prefer...

I think the real issue, as it applies to DA and HS soccer in SC, is the depth of DA level players. SC is not Dallas or Miami or LA or Washington DC and doesn't have the vast numbers of high level players that those areas have. As some of the older DA players leave the Academy to play HS soccer, those DA teams are weakened greatly. Once they get that offer, or sign their letter, I think many feel that they don't need the DA any longer and leave to play HS soccer with their schoolmates... They've achieved what they set out to achieve and feel that they don't 'need' the DA any longer. Does SC have the depth of talent to continue to support the DA if more start choosing HS instead? Should USSF look to find a way to allow both on a larger scale?

For me, I see the benefits of both...as it relates to my family. It will be interesting to see how DA and HS find ways to (or not to) coexist in the future.

TopDrawer - Settling the HS/Club Divide

You may know Bill Reno from his good work charting the progression of American goalkeepers over at EverybodySoccer.com. Today, Reno shifts his focus to the realm of high school soccer with twin interviews with Coppell (Dallas, Texas) boys head coach Chad Rakestraw and 2014 Texas Gatorade Player of the Year Chris Madden.

In their interview, Rakestraw and Madden touch on the efficacy of high school soccer and the Development Academy, splitting time between the Dallas Cup and playoff games, managing expectation on one of the most talented high school teams in the nation and more. Have a read. Very interesting stuff.

Chad Rakestraw:

How problematic is the Development Academy’s season with yours? Typically everyone is in favor of getting players to academy teams, so can you sell us on the advantages of high school ball?

This is a very controversial topic in youth soccer in the US right now and as a high school coach I am obviously a bit biased. The developmental program having their season at the same time as ours is actually just a surface level problem that goes much deeper.

But let’s go with the advantages of high school first: it’s community based, just as the professional clubs from around the world are. You play for not just your high school, but you represent an entire community and school. Another huge advantage is the minimal cost for a player to play on a high school team. When kids get to the high school and want to play, money is never going to be a reason they are not able to. But the biggest advantage is the fact that we have the ability to bring a holistic approach to the development of each of our players.

We watch their grades, keep up with their behavior in classes, we put them on a strength program and have a college-level weight room. We do character building through leadership classes and we have indoor facilities so we can train year around. We see our kids every single day, we get to work on all four pillars of the game. We hit technique, tactics, physical strength and speed, and the mental aspect of the game.

You mentioned “a much deeper” problem. Can you go into more detail about the conflict between academy and high school teams?

A true academy’s purpose is to develop professional players for a professional club. However, there have been just around a 100 some odd homegrown contracts signed and only a handful of those players are still playing professional soccer. Should professional clubs have academy programs? Absolutely. But why do we allow clubs with no affiliation to a domestic professional team to have restrictions on not letting players play in high school? I think the UIL governing body has the ability to change some things to really foster the growth of high school soccer. But as of now, because of the timing and season restrictions on us, the developmental academy have opened the door for clubs to take advantage and convince kids to choose club over school because its year around.

Do you think you could provide an alternate solution for the problem? Do you think the two can work together or is it just the way it is?

Definitely. Each high school should have their own youth development academy. These teams would be community based and provide a playing style and program philosophy from the top down. The ability to create a direct pathway from beginning to the end would benefit the players and programs. All the other clubs from around the world are this way. The kids go to school together, they live around each other, they train together and there is a level of consistency throughout their entire youth that is foreign to club soccer players here.

We’re looking at starting our own Coppell Development Academy, which will do exactly this. The idea is to have 1-2 teams per age group for both boys and girls. The benefit is on both sides. As a player, there is no double duty with club and high school going on at the same time. The player develops under the same direction the whole way through their youth playing career. That’s something we hope to instill in the near future.

Watching CHS, I noticed how far up the fullbacks push. For a large portion of the game y’all are in a 2-4-4 instead of a 4-4-2. It’s an extremely high line to play. On top of that, the movement off the ball is non-stop. The game I was at, Duncanville (a very good team) had an extremely difficult time connecting passes past midfield because of how quickly y’all swarmed and how well y’all held the ball. So what’s the style you’re trying to institute and how do you teach it to the players? What qualities are you looking for in players?

That is reassuring to hear that’s what it looked like. The kids have worked hard to get our playing style where it is. We like to be on the forefoot. We do not want to be reactive; we want to be proactive as a team. We want to dictate the game. When we lose the ball we stick to the five second rule. The nearest three-to-five players should be closing the man or space to get the ball back in five seconds. We don’t want to give teams any time or space to do anything. There are definite risk factors involved but I feel like the rewards outweigh the risks. We want to take games to people and put them on their heels.

We want to impose ourselves on teams. We want their forwards or midfielders to have to track back into their defending third. If we make them do that, it causes them to focus their time on defending rather than attacking which enables us to keep the game in their half and out of ours. Our training focuses on those principles and we spend a lot of time teaching in the fall, building up to the winter when season starts. To be able to play at Coppell you have to be comfortable on the ball in whatever position you are playing. We expect every player to be fundamentally sound. Forwards need to be able to defend, just as defenders need to be able to attack.

Being in the system for so long, can you think of any improvements to the high school game? I guess the obvious debated ones are the amount of subs, which I noticed y’all hardly use, and the clock counting down. Are there any others?

Yeah, I wouldn’t say the amount of subs is an issue for me. The clock and amount of time is a big one. There is no reason why we shouldn’t be playing forty-five minute halves instead of forties. Plus, the clock should be kept by a referee on the field so there is only one person responsible for the time. A countdown does not make sense in soccer. Another is having to come off the field for a yellow card, players are able to come on at the next stoppage so whats the point. I don’t see the sense in it.

Talk about the final. What did Fort Bend Clements do well? Where did y’all struggle?

Fort Bend was energetic and intense. Their hunger in that game was greater than ours. They defended with numbers and were committed to defending with everything they had. They also had a couple kids that did very well turning on the counter attack quickly which allowed them to get out of their half.

We struggled in all aspects of the game. No excuses whatsoever, but the fact is we had seventeen guys play a Sunday and Monday Dallas cup game after the Friday and Saturday regional tournament games. Then the following Thursday they played the State semi-final on and the final on Saturday. Because of the number of players we had playing club games on top of our high school playoff run, we weren’t able to train as long or hard as we needed to as a group. It’s a balance of not overtraining them and depleting their energy versus under training and not being sharp.

Our movement off the ball in that game and our movement of the ball was the worst it had been all year. We also didn’t catch any breaks. We hit the post once. They cleared one off the line early. We had six shots to their five and nine corners to their one. We just couldn’t find the net. But again, I say all that without discounting Fort Bend Clements. They were very deserving and played a stellar game on the right day.

Chris Madden:

From a player, what is your take on the High School vs. Academy situation? What’s an unseen problem by the public?

Academy teams are the main platform to get players playing at the next level, which is problem for non academy players. If you don’t play academy it is very hard to be seen by even “average” D1 schools.

Then why not didn’t you play for a DA team, when you had the talent to?

I played on a team that was on par with a lot of Academy teams, not necessarily the best ones but many of them. I decided to stay with the coaches and players whom I have spent my whole soccer career with. Yes, I might have gotten more exposure with another team, like I mentioned, but I’d say we had enough due to our team’s reputation. As for the coaching, I don’t think there’s a disparity between academy and high level non academy.

Compare the environment between Coppell’s team and the FC Dallas club team you’re on. What are some positives of each environment?

FC Dallas has a professional team backing which lends to a multitude of things. Top class training facilities, connection to the pro and reserve teams, as well as being able to train with or play against the Academy regularly. Coppell provides weight and condition training, a motivation to perform well in the classroom, and the ability to play in front of your friends and peers every week.

What was the biggest problem with the overlap between the two seasons? How did you deal with it and can you ballpark how many games you played this Spring?

The amount of games and practices can really exhaust you, more so junior year. For club, the senior class’s Classic League is only in the fall, as opposed to the fall and spring season every other year. From the start of the year to the state tournament (April 19th), I played about 40-45 games between club and high school [as a senior]. But you could play in the high 40’s or 50’s your junior year, all in that four and a half month period. You just have to be on top of your schoolwork but especially you hydration, eating habits, and sleep. Priorities are key so that you don’t jeopardize your health for indulgences.

Another good read - Are HS Academies the Way Forward

HS Notebook: HS residencies taking root?

Can high schools and top-of-the-line development exist harmoniously? A few pockets of developmental experimentation in the U.S. are aiming to find out.

High school and the Development Academy have generally been pitted against one another since the two parted ways in 2012. The DA opted to hoe its own rows by splitting the two ventures and disallowing players to play both. Even if the move hasn’t been accepted nationwide - mainly in parts of the country where high school is still a valued talent incubator - it’s largely become part of the developmental fabric in the U.S. A largely accepted fact.

The idea that a high school and a Development Academy-level soccer program can be welded together as a kind of mutant producer of next-level talent isn’t terribly new. But it also isn’t so well established that clubs have figured out its nuances, either. The most notable of its kind is Minnesota-based Shattuck St. Mary’s, which has been in the Development Academy since its foundation in 2007. It combines an academic high school atmosphere with the rigors of a day-to-day academy lifestyle.

One of the most notable new examples of this came online in 2013, when the Philadelphia Union opened up the YSC Academy, which we documented here. More than a year later, the model is slowly entrenching itself in the day-to-day grind of life for 64 boys students in the Philly area. The intense twice-daily training sessions and convivial classroom atmosphere - the school has a conference room shaped like Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena - are beginning to make their mark on its students.

Can this model of melding the benefits of the hierarchical, holistic atmosphere of a high school with the increased training demands of a Development Academy soccer team work? One high school coach recently told TopDrawerSoccer.com that it might.

“(High school soccer) is community based, just as the professional clubs from around the world are,” said Chad Rakestraw, the head coach of Coppell High School in the Dallas, Texas area. “You play for not just your high school, but you represent an entire community and school. Another huge advantage is the minimal cost for a player to play on a high school team. When kids get to the high school and want to play, money is never going to be a reason they are not able to. But the biggest advantage is the fact that we have the ability to bring a holistic approach to the development of each of our players.

“We watch their grades, keep up with their behavior in classes, we put them on a strength program and have a college-level weight room. We do character building through leadership classes and we have indoor facilities so we can train year around. We see our kids every single day, we get to work on all four pillars of the game. We hit technique, tactics, physical strength and speed, and the mental aspect of the game.”

The idea that high schools are community based, and that that reflects the realities of many residential academies around the world, is well-founded. The vast majority of Development Academy sides in the U.S. are run like day camps, where players travel - sometimes exorbitant distances - to practice in the afternoon while molding it around their otherwise busy schedule. Forming the academy around a high school is a convenient way to circumvent that.

In a lot of ways, residencies are the next level for U.S. soccer. Dedicated training centers that both help to eliminate cost and inject talented players into the nation’s mainline soccer bloodstream at an early age. But they’re both difficult to set up and costly to maintain. That’s a major reason why most clubs still operate under a more traditional, cost-effective model. Where start-up money isn’t plentiful, clubs have to find other ways to generate capital to keep the system moving. Simple economics.

That said, Rakestraw dropped a bombshell when he noted that Coppell is looking at starting up its own academy. High schools are already rough residential translations, and the idea that a top high school can rope in its own players by starting a more robust academy model seems to follow a discernible pattern.

“Each high school should have their own youth development academy,” Rakestraw said. “These teams would be community based and provide a playing style and program philosophy from the top down. The ability to create a direct pathway from beginning to the end would benefit the players and programs. All the other clubs from around the world are this way. The kids go to school together, they live around each other, they train together and there is a level of consistency throughout their entire youth that is foreign to club soccer players here.”

Whether or not that’s feasible (or if it catches on), time will decide. But with the slow but steady churn of high school/academy hybrids like YSC and Shattuck-St. Mary’s, it’s gradually being introduced as a viable model for developing the next great American soccer star.