Paul Marin: High School vs Club

[Assasin]

This year some of the MLS Next teams didn"t allow their kids to play high school and some of the Kids quit to play. In my area there are some of the best high school teams in Georgia and the nation. Some MLS team also allow U19 to play but no other age group.It was competitive and the kids love playing against each other and with stand full. I went to one of the semifinal and finals for 7A as the four school in the semi are from my area.The level of ball game was very high and Harrison which was ranked number 1 in the US walked away with it. There was about 15,000 people at the semi and finals. While some club will not all their kids, Atlanta United allow the kids to choose if the want to play high school. A lot of kids after making their varsity team walked away from MLS clubs. This year some are choosing to play ECNL or E64 as they will not accept MLS spot if they can't play for high school. Most of the high school coaches are also club coaches but not directors.

Did your youth play high school?

Of note, the Oligarchy continue in my area. Concord fire bought out what was Georgia Alliance. Did you use to play against them? SSA bought out the club was from Dalton that use to play in Georgia league. how is coaching coming on? We have to link up sometime.

[Bricktop]

they made varsity teams & walked away from MLS clubs? obviously not serious about the sport then

[Assasin]

Brickie a lot of thing happening. They are losing some talent. MLS has a limited amount of games over a year. I know last year it was about 12. It was suppose to be different from DA that was before that limited kids to playing only soccer and only for their DA teams. The problem is they have young kids as young as 11 doing a lot of travel across states on weekend and training 4 days a week. These are kids and sometimes want to simply play with their friends. They also have to keep up with school work.

I will give you experience of 3 kids I know quit.
A good defender at 15, his father told me he was in a room in Miami by himself and it dawned on him that this will be his life. He never played another competitive game again.

A very good player who was top on MLS team. He was big, fast and strong (the way they like them). He started kicking for high school football team and quit to play for high school. Now he is the number 1 recruit in the nation as a kicker been recruited for his age group.

Another you wanted to play but he also wanted to kick and play for high school. You can see the talent is there and this youth also play for the top high school in the US. 3 clubs are begging him to play for their MLS next but he doesn't he want to continue kicking and play for high school so unless they can work something out he is just going to play ECNL or NPL.

Kids will go to Altanta United but their contract is only for one year, no guarantee of renewal so in some case they will have to make judgement call.

With high school the kids see their friends having fun as the kids here can tell you high school is so much for fun for most teams and you play two games per week for 2 months. and it is tempting for them to compete.

Fact is some of MLS clubs have to be a bit more flexibly or they will continue lose more talented kids especially when they had no idea what they are getting into at age 11 and 12.

Also if you are not with Atlanta United or a MLS club that pay for your Kids it can easily cost 10 thousand dollar a year in fees and travel if you have to travel with your kids.

[Paul Marin]

Boy Sass, can't say I agree with your
overall assessment. There is no doubt a cultural predisposition to high school and a big social element, but if we are talking development, it is a joke. The issue is primarily one of winning vs. development. In high school you have kids who make the 20 + man team who don't see a minute of playing time all season. For the best players, yes they play, but for the ones that need more work, it's a complete waste of time. As for ECNL, MLSNext etc, if I was "ruler of the world", there is ZERO chance players on my MLSNext or ECNL team would be allowed within a mile of a high school training session. All that said, this is another example of US Soccer incompetence, they have done nothing to integrate NCAA or high school into their development and until they do, America will be leaving nuff talent behind. ,