Quote: In my opinion, HS soccer impedes the development of elite players. It is an interregnum of generally poor competition where even the very best teams only play a handful (if that) of competitive games in 20+ game season. That said, there are other factors (school spirit, playing with and in front of friends, etc.) worth considering. I have no idea whether those factors will carry the day in the long-run on the HS/no HS debate. For me, the question is: Is it "better" for a young man to play what amounts to an all-star game every weekend or not? I say - yes. But, reasonable minds can differ.
My question is if the aim of the Development Academy is to identify the best players then why doesn't it do just that? I can tell you by looking at the current rosters for the DA that there are a number of players not listed that are clearly better than the ones playing. As for player development, do you really get any better playing a bunch of scoreless draws? It's fine to be able to go side to side, but there are goals at each end for a (the) reason!
Quote: High School soccer greatly interrupts the needed development process for academy players and significantly impacts their ability to maximize their full soccer potential by hindering sustained development.
BS! If you cannot be a "star" at the high school level - if you are clearly an elite player - then you can forget about "player development". I saw Cardinal Newman play this year and didn't see anything wrong with the "development" of Koty or Nestor. Same goes for a lot of others like Burkholder at Wando and Freiburger at Lexington and they are going to D1 soccer programs.
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