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NPSL Chairman Ken Farrell on Youth System in America

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    NPSL Chairman Ken Farrell on Youth System in America

    KENNY FARRELL: There's a mentality over here to produce all-star teams as soon as you possibly can, and the measure of success for these teams is how many games they win and championships they win. And what happens is the higher-level coaches, or the more advanced guys teaching the game, seem to end up with those players a lot of times.

    I think a big problem with the United States at the youth level is that we're cutting out players way too early instead of being patient. I don't care what level they come in at -- if they've got the passion to play, the desire to be there, and we have the right environment that they want to come back and it's fun for them, they're going to get better.

    So, when they pick these all-star teams at these clubs all across the country, and they look like they have a massive success, they're actually eliminating probably 80-85 percent of the players because they shoved them down to where a dad is coaching them or somebody else is coaching them. In all honesty, they're some of our best players. And they get lost. They don't have a chance to come through.

    So at the Jesters, we've got three levels: Purple, Green and Black. The Black level is the level where the people really don't have the skill. We keep them at recreational soccer, but we keep training them because they want to be there.

    You'd be surprised how many players, if you're patient over two or three years, actually come through and actually go on to be the better players. They weren't physically developed enough or maybe just weren't mature enough as the other players at nine, 10, 11, 12 years old. They weren't seen as the players who could win the game. So they got pushed aside. Well, we don't do that.

    You'll find that most of the United States will say that, but what they really want when it's coach-centric and not player-centric, is they want to win the game, then they look at the team performance, and the last thing on the list is individual development.

    And I think if we can turn that around across the United States, we have a chance to produce a world-class player, and I don't believe we've produced one yet. There may be one on the way in [Christian] Pulisic, but I don't believe we've produced one yet. And I think this is a major problem in the United States.

    SA: So, players come in who aren't quite as advanced yet, may be playing games at a recreational level but they're getting a little training. Is that right?

    FARRELL: We're partnered with a very good recreational group here in New Orleans called the Carrollton Boosters Soccer Association, and they are pure and true to our recreational game. So while we train some of those players that are in our lowest level -- the Black level -- they will still play in the recreational program to get their games in every week. But if I was to put them on the field with better-level players like the Purple level, they'll never see the ball. So I have to put them where they can actually develop. What happens is they graduate from that to the Green level, and then if they continue to improve, they graduate to the Purple level.

    But no one will get turned away. And they don't get turned away financially. We shouldn't be turning anybody away financially, and we shouldn't we turn anybody away, for any reason, that really wants to be on the field. That's our philosophy. And if they're there because they want to be there, not particularly because their parents want them there, but because they want to be there, then we'll invest in them if they're investing in us.

    #2
    FARRELL: We're partnered with a very good recreational group here in New Orleans called the Carrollton Boosters Soccer Association, and they are pure and true to our recreational game. So while we train some of those players that are in our lowest level -- the Black level -- they will still play in the recreational program to get their games in every week. But if I was to put them on the field with better-level players like the Purple level, they'll never see the ball. So I have to put them where they can actually develop. What happens is they graduate from that to the Green level, and then if they continue to improve, they graduate to the Purple level.

    But no one will get turned away. And they don't get turned away financially. We shouldn't be turning anybody away financially, and we shouldn't we turn anybody away, for any reason, that really wants to be on the field. That's our philosophy. And if they're there because they want to be there, not particularly because their parents want them there, but because they want to be there, then we'll invest in them if they're investing in us.

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