Boys 05

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Prediction guy is moderately amused by all of this.

[Unregistered]

Very good post and spot on

Hey OP, you can stop reinforcing your own posts. You are too transparent. It's an absolute joke that you know both the 2004 and 2005 parents so well to judge what they are saying, doing and how they are representing your club. To be frank, you are not even representing your club accurately, then you claim to know about the entire 2004 and 2005 group. Shut it down and stop wasting our time. FCP is filled with ignorant and self righteous parents who are living for the success of their 12 year old's soccer success. Just like every club, there are some great people at FCP and there are some seriously nutty ones--look in the mirror and shut up already.

[Unregistered]

Hey OP, you can stop reinforcing your own posts. You are too transparent. It's an absolute joke that you know both the 2004 and 2005 parents so well to judge what they are saying, doing and how they are representing your club. To be frank, you are not even representing your club accurately, then you claim to know about the entire 2004 and 2005 group. Shut it down and stop wasting our time. FCP is filled with ignorant and self righteous parents who are living for the success of their 12 year old's soccer success. Just like every club, there are some great people at FCP and there are some seriously nutty ones--look in the mirror and shut up already.

I am constantly amazed how often people claim to know who other posters to an anonymous forum are. If you have admin privileges and can find the IP address of a poster... and THEN if you can subpoena their ISP to figure out which subscriber had what IP address when (with mobile data plans and most residential broadband, it frequently changes), AND you knew someone's home address, you might actually have a clue as to who is whom.

But some of the guesses thrown about here are... hilarious.

Sincerely,

Merritt Paulson

[Unregistered]

Hey OP, you can stop reinforcing your own posts. You are too transparent. It's an absolute joke that you know both the 2004 and 2005 parents so well to judge what they are saying, doing and how they are representing your club. To be frank, you are not even representing your club accurately, then you claim to know about the entire 2004 and 2005 group. Shut it down and stop wasting our time. FCP is filled with ignorant and self righteous parents who are living for the success of their 12 year old's soccer success. Just like every club, there are some great people at FCP and there are some seriously nutty ones--look in the mirror and shut up already.

Ummmmmm,

1. my child has played for both groups.
2. The whole group has traveled together to Seattle twice for Friendlies and San Diego twice. 3. We’ve done two poker fundraisers together. The two teams practice together four times a week.
Trust me, I know the parent group. Just because your club doesn’t have a culture like that doesn’t mean you have to get all pi$$y. Relax.

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Does anyone have a clear idea on what happens to the DA program after U14? I was told that the DA does not allow boys to play high school soccer(?) and I see that other parts of the country have the older brackets - so are all those boys not playing in high school?

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The only DA program after u15 is Timbers Academy. At that age they have a residence program so kids from out of state that make the team can live here to train. There is no highschool Soccer allowed which is why so many kids quit.

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The only DA program after u15 is Timbers Academy. At that age they have a residence program so kids from out of state that make the team can live here to train. There is no highschool Soccer allowed which is why so many kids quit.

Most of the best kids quit so they can play high school. That is one of the reasons the US men’s NT is so bad. They wind up with players who lack creativity and joy for the game.

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The only DA program after u15 is Timbers Academy. At that age they have a residence program so kids from out of state that make the team can live here to train. There is no highschool Soccer allowed which is why so many kids quit.

Hmmmm I'm wondering what the point of DA in this area is then. The kids who are going to make the academy are probably already there (and I am sure some are going back to their clubs this year or next) and I only see a marginal difference in practices and games.

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Most of the best kids quit so they can play high school. That is one of the reasons the US men’s NT is so bad. They wind up with players who lack creativity and joy for the game.

Lol. This is such a bad take.

There are a lot of reasons good kids are poorly served by our system, but a lack of high school soccer is not one of them.

[Unregistered]

Lol. This is such a bad take.

There are a lot of reasons good kids are poorly served by our system, but a lack of high school soccer is not one of them.

It is people like you that are clueless. HS soccer might not be high level but it is very fun. It’s fun to have hundreds cheering for you. The girls crowding around after the game. Parents and grandparents engaged. If you take players out of their community connections and run them hard in a factory system they might get more touches on the ball and might develop more technical skill. But they lose all the joy of the sport. They lose creativity. It becomes a job. Balance is incredibly important. Joy and love of the game is the magic ingredient. The USMNT lacks all of the above.

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It is people like you that are clueless. HS soccer might not be high level but it is very fun. It’s fun to have hundreds cheering for you. The girls crowding around after the game. Parents and grandparents engaged. If you take players out of their community connections and run them hard in a factory system they might get more touches on the ball and might develop more technical skill. But they lose all the joy of the sport. They lose creativity. It becomes a job. Balance is incredibly important. Joy and love of the game is the magic ingredient. The USMNT lacks all of the above.

All true, but you're describing a detriment in the professional soccer systems in this country rather than some inherent advantage of high school soccer.

High school soccer is bad, and is bad for good players' development. It would be easier to fix our professional culture than it would be to make high school soccer good.

[Unregistered]

It is people like you that are clueless. HS soccer might not be high level but it is very fun. It’s fun to have hundreds cheering for you. The girls crowding around after the game. Parents and grandparents engaged. If you take players out of their community connections and run them hard in a factory system they might get more touches on the ball and might develop more technical skill. But they lose all the joy of the sport. They lose creativity. It becomes a job. Balance is incredibly important. Joy and love of the game is the magic ingredient. The USMNT lacks all of the above.

The rest of the world does great without high school soccer. While hs soccer might be fun, it isn’t the reason our usmnt doesn’t do well.

[Unregistered]

It is people like you that are clueless. HS soccer might not be high level but it is very fun. It’s fun to have hundreds cheering for you. The girls crowding around after the game. Parents and grandparents engaged. If you take players out of their community connections and run them hard in a factory system they might get more touches on the ball and might develop more technical skill. But they lose all the joy of the sport. They lose creativity. It becomes a job. Balance is incredibly important. Joy and love of the game is the magic ingredient. The USMNT lacks all of the above.

As I've said before...

1) Currently, HS soccer is crap in much of the country. There are valid reasons why the DA today prohibits it.
2) Improving it, however, would be very beneficial to US soccer, for the reasons cited above.

After all, HS basketball and football are NOT crap, and they are key elements of both developing talent (whether headed to the pros, to college, or kids who are playing for fun but whose athletic careers will end when they get their diploma) and promoting and nurturing the sport. They do serve a social function that club soccer does not.

How to fix this, I don't know. US soccer, including HS, is filled with old dogs who refuse to learn new tricks, and will fight like mad against anything they perceive is a threat. While the US's failure to qualify for Russia is being used as an impetus for reform, it is ALSO being used as an impetus to try and undo the reforms that have been implemented. There's lots of people around here who want to keep soccer a country-club sport (if for no other reason than their paying customers like it that way!), and don't really care if the USNT or MLS are first-class or not.

My thoughts on this: DA programs should consider permitting DA players to play HS soccer (even at the cost of an bridged or missing fall season), if the local state sanctioning authority agrees to the following:

1) Use of the Laws of the Game (or a permitted youth modification thereof). No countdown clocks, no weird substitution rules, etc.
2) 75% of all training time (any time players are with coaches or trainers working out) shall be technical in nature. Soccer is not cross-country, and soccer players should not be training like distance runners. Limited running for fitness sake is OK, as are soccer-specific fitness and agility drills (ladder exercises, etc), but most training should be technical in nature.
3) While I'm hesitant to suggest a requirement that HS coaches (specifically the varsity head coach) obtain a particular class of USSF license (the license system needs some reform), there ought to be a continuing education requirement of some sort, so HS coaches aren't teaching kids soccer tactics and technique which were out of date in 1985.
4) Reasonable training/game schedules that allow for sufficient rest and recovery time.

I'm less incensed about "bootball" in high school than I am in elementary- and middle-school soccer programs; HS players who haven't developed a high level of technique (and who aren't comfortable with the ball at their feet, or who can't beat defenders off the dribble) by the time they reach their mid-teens probably aren't going to be of concern to the pro ranks or the national team. HS is the time for learning tactics and formations; it's the time to switch from "play it out of the back" to "here's when you play it from the back, here's when you play it long, and the cost/benefit of each". Kids who are in DA programs ought to be technically adept already.

That said--a more robust soccer culture will lead to more robust school soccer.

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The rest of the world does great without high school soccer. While hs soccer might be fun, it isn’t the reason our usmnt doesn’t do well.

Different cultures. You have to step back and look at the big picture. Kids have to have joy for the game. They have to be motivated by something other than some idiot with US Soccer sweatpants.

I remember after high school games getting mobbed by the students that came out and especially the girls. Great memories of high school. Beating the crap out of rival schools. Bragging rights. Did I mention girls?

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You can't talk about this problem without acknowledging that some of the longing for high school soccer and "fun" in an '05 boys thread is coming from the fact that there are too many kids playing "DA" who simply should not be. DA is boring, and most kids and their parents would prefer competitive soccer of the OYSA variety complete with state cup and summer tournaments.