The article suggested HS soccer prepares kids for a national stage. It jumped back and forth with the handful of men's exceptions and the women's situation to rry to prove a point that seems unsupported by either. It seems that, in equating SC HS soccer to local leagues you support the argument that DAs and clubs that travel wider distances to find decent competition are the way to develop kids' talent: Develop kids through practice and meaningful games, not by crushing local clubs/HSs. The argument that larger crowds are needed for proper soccer development is a new one for me and perhaps a holdover from the era of large format high school American football that plays more to an adult sense of ego rather than child's progress as a player, but perhaps I miss the point there.
I agree with the statements about girls/women's soccer.
