This thread started as someone asking if teams have started training and is escalating toward an international incident. Just kidding. But in all seriousness- the 27th is a rule made by our governing body. If we as a soccer community do not like that, then we need to lobby the governing body to change the rule with hard facts and a convincing argument, not the "this is a dumb rle" argument. Just like there is mandatory dead time in college soccer and professional teams and national teams have time off, high school soccer has mandatory dead time. Yes I would like another week or two at the beginning, but I fully support mandatory dead time. I think the World Cup should be played every three years instead of four but that is not the rule. I feel a GK should be allowed to handle a throw-in from his own player, but he cannot b/c that is the rule (fyi- I do support the current back pass rule).
Players interested in seriously improving skills can play club in the fall, ODP or indoor in the winter, high school in the spring and 6-aside or attend camps in the summer. Granted, all of these levels may not have the top level coaches but this schedule gives kids a chance to play year round if they choose too. If you allow high school to practice all the time, you would loose some of the players b/c they would not want to train the schedule that some coaches would want to run. And let's not forget to think of the coaches. We all know that there is more money to be made by coaching club teams, but many of us choose to coach high school teams in the spring b/c of the numerous non-monetary rewards that come with high school teams.
