SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Club Soccer & ODP Girls ODP Tryouts

I said above SC had 4.16% of region III's population. I misread a table. Actually, SC has 4.92% of region III's overall population. OK has 4.16%.

OK had 2 girls teams in the finals at regionals while SC had 1 girls team in the finals. SC's team in regionals was U18 while OK's teams were U14 and U15.

OK [girls] is ranked #14 nationally [gotSoccer.com]; SC is ranked #37. OK [girls] is ranked #4 in region III; SC is ranked #10 [LA and AK are the only two states lower].

OK placed 10 girls onto the region team from all age groups. SC placed 0.

>> [GFCPOP21] We tried to practice 2 and sometimes 3 times a month this year ha. You never have the complete team at practice. It is hard to be at all the practices, especially the older ones due to preparation for regional play with your club team.<<

I'm asking this out of ignorance, because I don't have the experience you do in ODP. Aren't U15+ kids available to practice almost every weekend from January through May [when regional practices start]?

Let me throw in on this. I've been involved with ODP forever, it seems, with the 86B...they are done now.
My take on it. Tx, NC, FL and etc have far more players tryout, therefore, far more money put into the ODP Region coffer(keep that in mind)
Now, what is the best way to get kids to tryout for ODP?...show them the opportunity they have to make a Reg Team etc..."Hi there young man, the '88B Fl team had 19 players in the Reg Pool in '00...your gonna have that same chance as a '90". And all the sudden Fl has 100s and 100s try out and Reg III says,"hey, we need to take care of Fl". This happened a few years ago, guess who headed the Reg III coaches that year, a Fl guy that is now with the Ntl team.
SC can not change the Reg..it can only improve SC...I think club mergers will help that.
GFCPOP and others, your son or daughter won't have to make the Reg Team to have an outstanding college opportunity, but you will need to use the ODP contacts that you are creating....

Bob

Is there a player’s listing on who made the Region III team? I’ve checked the Region III site but can’t seem to find any list.

Thanks

ODP seems to me to be another stage upon which hopeful national quality athletes can be seen and enjoy playing soccer at something resembling the "next level". Many of SC's best soccer players do participate, though some stay away for a variety of reasons. For a small group it is actually a door to participation on a US National team or the Olympic team. I am not familiar with the way other state's ODP teams practice, but I don't think the state ODP team is critical here -- the coaches are looking at players and not state teams and these are coaches trained to scout individual talent at the club level. I am perplexed that SC has not fared better in placing it's players in the Regional pool. It would be good if some of the SC ODP players posted their thoughts here but this discussion is mainly between adults.

lpaf

<Mark C> High School soccer season is in the spring and even though they don't play on all the weekends you still don't get them to be present. Our club team started preparing for regionials shortly after high school season was complete. We had conflicts with ODP practices being the same time as we were preparing for regionals. We were told club prevailed over ODP. Which in preparing for regionals should. People complaining about where practices were held, so much travel involved to get to practice etc........

I throw out this comment. I have had a lot of coaches both HS and Club tell me that ODP is a joke and my daughter should have nothing to do with it. I have actually found myself defending the ODP program to coaches, how sad is that? You will not get the best participation unless most of the coachs buy into the program. I have found most problems relating to time and money can be solved if people really want something to succeed. You have 3 groups of people that need to buy into the program: Coaches, Admins, and Atheletes. I think 10% of the coaches, 0% of the Admins, and 65% of the Atheletes actually care about ODP succeeding.

>>[Chapindad] I think 10% of the coaches [...] actually care about ODP succeeding.<<

What percentage of the clubs do you think care?

To put this another way...are you or anyone else out there aware of any clubs that are doing anything specifically, either positive or negative, associated with ODP?

Some clubs are bigger on ODP than others. The former GFC was a big supporter of ODP whereas St. Giles was less supportive over the past few years. Mount Pleasant seems to have a large support for ODP, at least in the boys program. I didn't see alot of support or advertisement from the club, but many of the coaches used being an ODP coach as a bullet on their resume, even if they haven't done anything with it in years.

I have talked to many people (parents mostly) about their experience in ODP. The vast majority of them agree to this point: ODP gives an extra amount of exposure, and it can help a player get a scholarship, but it is secondary in those things with respect to a good (very strong) club team. A strong club team will get you more looks and exposure than ODP. I would say that an exception to this might be if a player makes the region team, but we all know that there are very few from SC that do that. This history, or perception of ODP is a reason why many of the top players who already play on a top team that can go to the larger tournaments, do not choose ODP. I just paid $700 in July for my son to go to ODP region camp in Alabama. That's almost twice as much as some of the team or developmental camps around the area. My overall perception of the camp is that I essentially paid $700 for my son to try out for the region team. He did well, but didn't make it. Now I am not trying to bash ODP. ODP has brought expsoure to my son that the club did not. But if you can get on a top club team that gets to the major tournaments (read: CESA or a one off team as Mark Campbell likes to say) then that will give you a much better bang for the buck and you can spend your summers paying for the camps of the colleges that you might be interested in.