Soccer16, "when it works for them" was a poor choice of words on my part. I couldn't think of the right words at the time, and just threw that in. To expound (and Big Daddy, or whomever, please correct me if I'm wrong on this), a Developmental Player's first obligation is to their regular club team (again, I use the term "regular" for lack of a better one), i.e., their regular club team's practices and matches always come first. If there is an Academy practice or match on a particular day, and the player's regular club team does not have anything scheduled, then the Developmental player can attend the Academy event. Now, there could be a conflict between the two, and the player choose to attend the Academy event, but I believe Academy personnel will pretty much always tell a player to attend their regular club event (practice/game). Does that clarify?
Are you serious when you ask me "how is the Academy developing these players?" Maybe Daddy can cover that one; that's a whole nuther thread, and several pages by itself. I mean, I personally feel comfortable in my son's coaches' abilities to train him properly; but come on, US Soccer sends representatives to evaluate Academy training sessions on a regular basis. And they certainly don't mind pointing out things they don't like. These evaluators are pretty high-level coaches themselves – you think you know more than them? I dang sure don't.
I agree with Daddy regarding your comments on bias. Just look at the rosters – there are kids from schools of all sizes – and trust me, some of the schools these kids play for are terrible (I am not naming names here, and that has nothing – well, maybe a little, to do with their respective coaches). In fact, there is currently a full time player from AC Flora (NOT saying AC Flora is terrible) – so I'm really not sure where you're getting the big/small school thing from.
I do think I know what you're alluding to regarding IEPs and promotion plans (whatever that stuff is); you have posted before about how you don't like the varying/different processes for choosing rosters from club to club. As it relates to the Academy, I don't think you really gave it enough time to be able to form an educated opinion. If I recall correctly, your son made it to a handful of practices; maybe a half-dozen? And he played in the match in NC the day after the high school state championships last year? (and I thought he played well, having been to so few practices). If I am at least in the ballpark with the number of training sessions he attended, I'm not sure exactly what you were expecting. My son rarely missed a training session last season, but he sat the bench a good portion of the time. There were a good number of very good midfielders on that roster – are you thinking that 5 or 6 good practices, and your son was going to be taking over the position of a player who'd been training 4-days-a-week for months?
Honestly, I think if you had truly given it more time, you would have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of playing time he would get; I just don't think you gave it nearly enough time.
