Big,
You are exactly right. You can have year-round soccer 2 ways - 1)Academy soccer or 2)stay together as a club team and play regional/national tournaments during Spring (high school season.) Nothing wrong with that except that tough to get guys/gals to not want to play for their respective schools. It takes away from the high school experience, but thats the sacrifice the kids would have to make. If they want to play bigtime Div. I soccer, that sacrifice is oftentimes essential.
This is bigtime; and even though Tomek did play for CC High, he devoted most of his time to the high level club experience-
http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?S...p;Q_SEASON=2007SC is not Cal., but here is the way it is handled in Cal.
"The good side of the increasing club/high school separation is that it increases the number of kids who get to participate on high school teams," he wrote.
"Sure, the coaches are bummed to lose their best players. But for every kid that turns to club, there's another kid that gets a lot more playing time."
Said Mike Shimizu, boys' soccer coach at West Torrance: "If [U.S. Soccer] truly wanted to encourage these gifted players to experience all the aspects of playing a high school sport, they would just make it a rule that the clubs had to release them for their high school seasons no matter if they were in the fall or winter.
"I lost three players from my high school program, and I do not begrudge them for their decision. While we are a different team, we continue to do well and play what I hope people consider a good and entertaining style of soccer.
"In the end, I will coach those kids who want to represent their school and cheer for those players from my community who have chosen to do the academies instead of high school soccer. Both sets of kids are working toward positive experiences."
