The putrid business of competitive youth soccer

[Unregistered]

Why would you develop a player from u10 in to a quality player on competition teams to cut them at u17 when a better player comes along or you don't have enough to make a team? Get creative and let the players keep playing somehow.

Nobody said anything about developing kids for years then cutting them as senior players. I'm talking about new kids to the club who just aren't good enough to keep around on a senior team just to make another team. There are clubs that do. That is the only way to have 3 - 4 teams in an age group. Other than money, what is rationale for keeping 14, 15, 16 year old kids on a C or D team?

[Unregistered]

Senior teams is mostly about politics. Kiss butt and crazy parents all jacked up trying to get scholarships for B team players. Crazy. All the fun is taken out of it. As earlier poster said, the crazy guy... not about fun at the senior level. That is the shame and everything that is wrong with soccer. Crazy parents.

You're at the wrong clubs then. I do agree there are crazy parents though. Difference is, we don't kowtow to the crazies, we weed them out and run them off. Because your absolutely correct. They are bad for the sport and the kids.

[Unregistered]

You're at the wrong clubs then. I do agree there are crazy parents though. Difference is, we don't kowtow to the crazies, we weed them out and run them off. Because your absolutely correct. They are bad for the sport and the kids.

Nobody wants to talk about clubs putting unlicensed coaches over teams.. Why? You know what unlicensed coaches are. Rec soccer

Before you join any team, find out what the coach is about. You may decide you are wasting your money and the club is ripping you off.

[Unregistered]

Nobody wants to talk about clubs putting unlicensed coaches over teams.. Why? You know what unlicensed coaches are. Rec soccer

Before you join any team, find out what the coach is about. You may decide you are wasting your money and the club is ripping you off.

License don' t make the coach:)

[Unregistered]

Okay, you are clearly 30 or 40 years old. Because sports have changed mightily from the 80s and 90s. Most recruiting in basketball occurs with the AAU teams and coaches. The top level travel teams. Very little basketball scouting and recruiting still goes through the high school and the HS coaches.

Travel softball and baseball teams have also skyrocketed recently. A lot of players gain attention by attending heavily scouted tournaments and such. Simply because schools get more bang for their buck, these top events (like in soccer) offer good value for coaches. Also, attending college camps is also imperative these days to get recruited. A lot of top baseball and softball players attend private schools so there is a concentration of talent in certain leagues and areas but . . . travel went from being a non-factor to a HUGE factor in these sports.

Football is probably the lone sport where HS play is the primary tool to getting noticed for playing at the next level (college).

Football is so expensive (equipment/insurance) and requires many players to play that club would not make sense. However most of all, HS football can make money. Not only do HS football bring in a lot of money from selling tickets and concessions but they even get money from sponsors and have TV revenue.

If HS soccer could make similar money they probably would be the dominate or highest level of the sport.

[Unregistered]

It is worse than not just having coaches of quality. Example. 20 kids show up for tryouts for U14. Coach is then directed by the DOC to tell all the kids they will be fielding 2 teams, so congratulations you have a spot here, even though they have no coach for this fake 2nd team yet. They lead the kids on, screw them over in the end when not enough kids come around to actually make another team. Instead they could have been honest up front and said 5 of you are not making the team after the first night and then the kids would have had a team to play on somewhere else. Yes, I have witnessed this twice.. same basic scenario with a major club. To any coach of DOC reading this that has done this to a kid... $crew YOU !

It is funny because this is how it used to be or pretty much like this when I played baseball growing up. We had what were called "select teams" and they would have tryouts that went on for a couple of weeks not days. The first week they might cut down the majority of kids the second week you might have 25 kids competing for 16 spots. The kids that did not make it had to go find somewhere else to play. There was no financial benefit to keep two teams, actually the opposite was the case because they could fund two teams.

[Unregistered]

Youth soccer literally has thousands of adults building their professional careers on the backs of children. If those children win, the coach can get a better coaching job, maybe even a college job. If they lose, the coaches career is jeopardy. Parents are literally paying these coaches to damage their children psychological, by over working them and putting un-due pressure on them (nevermind the verbal abuse committed by many coaches). It is complete and utter insanity. It is not sustainable.

The "trophy kid" mentality has taken over for sure. Besides the parents who are ultimately directly responsible for the decisions they make for their kids, the colleges and their coaches are the most culpable for the state of youth soccer today. They have no problem being the carrot used by the clubs. So many college coaches are now part of clubs the lines are completely a blur now. They are pushing the shift to these "elite" super leagues that require many times the cost and they are the one benefiting the most. The parents are funding not just the development of all their future players but are bringing them to their front door by paying to fly their kids to central locations for coaches to scout. This is done for the college coaches conveniences. If it is not that, they pay to have their kids attend ID camps at the colleges at the parents expense. Meanwhile these college coaches many who are now also club coaches,DOC etc help sell this to the parents. They are basically shills.

These leagues like ECNL on the girls side should be at least partially funded by the NCAA. Not that this will ever or could realistically happen. However, it is probably time these clubs get regulated by state and local level governments. They have taken sports out of many middle schools, lowered the level of HS sports and done so by pillaging the locals. I think as country we can offer a competitive environment for kids to play sports much more effectively. I am all for competition, and even in education having public compete against private is for the most part good. However, imagine if the only option for your kid to go college was to attend a private school.

[Unregistered]

The "trophy kid" mentality has taken over for sure. Besides the parents who are ultimately directly responsible for the decisions they make for their kids, the colleges and their coaches are the most culpable for the state of youth soccer today. They have no problem being the carrot used by the clubs. So many college coaches are now part of clubs the lines are completely a blur now. They are pushing the shift to these "elite" super leagues that require many times the cost and they are the one benefiting the most. The parents are funding not just the development of all their future players but are bringing them to their front door by paying to fly their kids to central locations for coaches to scout. This is done for the college coaches conveniences. If it is not that, they pay to have their kids attend ID camps at the colleges at the parents expense. Meanwhile these college coaches many who are now also club coaches,DOC etc help sell this to the parents. They are basically shills.

These leagues like ECNL on the girls side should be at least partially funded by the NCAA. Not that this will ever or could realistically happen. However, it is probably time these clubs get regulated by state and local level governments. They have taken sports out of many middle schools, lowered the level of HS sports and done so by pillaging the locals. I think as country we can offer a competitive environment for kids to play sports much more effectively. I am all for competition, and even in education having public compete against private is for the most part good. However, imagine if the only option for your kid to go college was to attend a private school.

Brilliant.

[Unregistered]

Football is so expensive (equipment/insurance) and requires many players to play that club would not make sense. However most of all, HS football can make money. Not only do HS football bring in a lot of money from selling tickets and concessions but they even get money from sponsors and have TV revenue.

If HS soccer could make similar money they probably would be the dominate or highest level of the sport.

Actually, due to its enormous ancillary costs, many high school football programs are under great stress to raise enough money to keep ithemselves going every year. Most programs require large chunks of a schools sports budget to operate with fundraisers and sponsors needed to make up the shortfalls. The idea that high school football programs are even self-sufficient, let alone make money, is patently false. There are only a few dozen division 1 college programs that actually make a profit with the vast majority having greater expenses than revenue.

[Unregistered]

The "trophy kid" mentality has taken over for sure. Besides the parents who are ultimately directly responsible for the decisions they make for their kids, the colleges and their coaches are the most culpable for the state of youth soccer today. They have no problem being the carrot used by the clubs. So many college coaches are now part of clubs the lines are completely a blur now. They are pushing the shift to these "elite" super leagues that require many times the cost and they are the one benefiting the most. The parents are funding not just the development of all their future players but are bringing them to their front door by paying to fly their kids to central locations for coaches to scout. This is done for the college coaches conveniences. If it is not that, they pay to have their kids attend ID camps at the colleges at the parents expense. Meanwhile these college coaches many who are now also club coaches,DOC etc help sell this to the parents. They are basically shills.

These leagues like ECNL on the girls side should be at least partially funded by the NCAA. Not that this will ever or could realistically happen. However, it is probably time these clubs get regulated by state and local level governments. They have taken sports out of many middle schools, lowered the level of HS sports and done so by pillaging the locals. I think as country we can offer a competitive environment for kids to play sports much more effectively. I am all for competition, and even in education having public compete against private is for the most part good. However, imagine if the only option for your kid to go college was to attend a private school.

So your plan is to try and convince NCAA programs that already lose money to incur an additional cost by funding for profit private soccer clubs.

And you also want to get government involved since the only way to make things more inefficient and convoluted would be add some government interference.

Is this a joke? Who wrote this post . . . . Bernie Sanders?

[Unregistered]

Actually, due to its enormous ancillary costs, many high school football programs are under great stress to raise enough money to keep ithemselves going every year. Most programs require large chunks of a schools sports budget to operate with fundraisers and sponsors needed to make up the shortfalls. The idea that high school football programs are even self-sufficient, let alone make money, is patently false. There are only a few dozen division 1 college programs that actually make a profit with the vast majority having greater expenses than revenue.

Well phrasing it "making money" is probably not the most accurate, although they do take in a substantial amount of money, which is not the case for HS or college soccer. Many HS football programs would not fall into this category but the fact that HS football at some schools can take in that kind of money definately puts it on a different level than other sports.

As far as college football programs making a profit, that is not surprising because the number of teams labled division 1 is too high considering how different two D1 programs can be. The top 30 or so if making a profit again still puts football in a different category at the college level than other sports.

For most schools a large portion of their athletics are funded by the students fees.

[Unregistered]

So your plan is to try and convince NCAA programs that already lose money to incur an additional cost by funding for profit private soccer clubs.

And you also want to get government involved since the only way to make things more inefficient and convoluted would be add some government interference.

Is this a joke? Who wrote this post . . . . Bernie Sanders?

Said they should pay part of it; if they are going to allow their college programs with the help of their coaches to promote the high expense club system, but as was written this is not a realistic option.

If the clubs are allowed to operate under the protection of non profit because of the service they provide the community but what are they really doing? They are constantly coming up with better mouse traps to bring in more revenue to pay the operators of the club. They are consolidating the clubs that is driving small local clubs either into extinction or making them less relevant. They do this by coming up with rules that limits access to leagues for only mega clubs. This is driving up the cost to play sports.
What has been the benefit of the current system? Less access to sports because of the cost. For those that have the talent or the desire to play beyond the youth level have less access because public school sports, especially soccer can no longer provide an avenue for this. This has caused a decrease overall in sports participation not an increase.

These clubs have a loop hole that the club does not make a profit but those affiliated to it can. They often do this by selling that they can help get your kid to play in college and even get a scholarship or maybe play pro. "Our club has affiliation with league XYZ and that is the best way to get your kid to play at the next level." "Our club has placed X number of kids in college or professionally." All this would be fine if they just were like any other business. However, they want it both ways, they want the tax exemptions and the access to free or ridiculously low leases on fields. If they had to take on the extra cost of taxes and other expenses they could not stay in business the way they are run today.
It is not like kids did not go on to play in college or even professionally before things are like they are today.

It is very unlikely that this is the system that was in mind when it all began. The selling of youth sports by tax exempt clubs often aided and abetted by college coaches many whom are employed by tax funded universities that not only allow their program to be used as the prize but help to sell this.

[Unregistered]

I admit that youth sports in general have changed drastically over the last 30-40 years.
Today you still have inexpensive options like tackle football where the season is limited and you have a large pool of talented coaches that are unpaid. A kid can pay one small fee for the year and that is it.

But in the case of tackle football you only drive maybe 3 hours at the most for the playoffs.Every other game is close by so expenses are almost zero.

But that isn't the case with youth soccer. The system is what it is and we all have to deal with it. There isn't a ton of coaches, let alone unpaid.

The talent is so spread out that you need to travel, which bumps up the cost.

But we can't forget that in a capitalist society people will seek out business opportunities within their field of expertise and this is a good thing.

All travel sports are big $$$ businesses now.

[Unregistered]

I am sure Mrs. Hazelbutz is posting again. That stupid witch.

[Unregistered]

The "trophy kid" mentality has taken over for sure. Besides the parents who are ultimately directly responsible for the decisions they make for their kids, the colleges and their coaches are the most culpable for the state of youth soccer today. They have no problem being the carrot used by the clubs. So many college coaches are now part of clubs the lines are completely a blur now. They are pushing the shift to these "elite" super leagues that require many times the cost and they are the one benefiting the most. The parents are funding not just the development of all their future players but are bringing them to their front door by paying to fly their kids to central locations for coaches to scout. This is done for the college coaches conveniences. If it is not that, they pay to have their kids attend ID camps at the colleges at the parents expense. Meanwhile these college coaches many who are now also club coaches,DOC etc help sell this to the parents. They are basically shills.

These leagues like ECNL on the girls side should be at least partially funded by the NCAA. Not that this will ever or could realistically happen. However, it is probably time these clubs get regulated by state and local level governments. They have taken sports out of many middle schools, lowered the level of HS sports and done so by pillaging the locals. I think as country we can offer a competitive environment for kids to play sports much more effectively. I am all for competition, and even in education having public compete against private is for the most part good. However, imagine if the only option for your kid to go college was to attend a private school.

You've actually got it 100% backwards. All of the issues you listed are nothing more than symptoms of the real problem: Parents.

Why do clubs push so hard for "elite" teams, "elite" tournaments, and "elite" leagues? Why are clubs so results-focused? It's because parents are. It's because 99% of parents don't know the first thing about what's important for a youth soccer player, put their own desires in front of what's best for their kid's development, and are entirely too results-oriented.

As a coach, let me tell you this for a fact: There's nothing I'd love more than to be able to just train my players, play games as an extension of their training, not care at all about what results they get, and simply focus on being able make them better players year in, year out. However, I can't do that because parents would never allow it. They're too wrapped up in their kids winning trophies and playing in "elite" leagues and "elite" tournaments so that they, as parents, can pad their ego about their kid.

You want to know why the US is so far behind Europe in terms of soccer? They simply have the correct system. Their system is designed in a way where parents have no say on their kid's development. In the US, it's opposite. Parents rule the roost. They also put ZERO focus on results until the kids reach the 1st team or make it as a true professional. Over here, parents are raging about whether their kid wins Region Cup at U11. It's insane.

Our entire screwy system is nothing more than a side-effect of parents having too much of a say in our youth soccer. The clubs simply accommodate them, because if they don't, they'll be out of business. It's as simple as that.