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**Guest** · 2024-11-17T16:50:33

anyone arguing that kids need to toughen up are gits. most ecnl coaches tell their players not to play high school. ours does at efc and i've heard pac coachces say the same thing. xfire prohibits their A team players from HS ball

**Guest** · 2024-11-17T17:31:18

Boys HS rankings were released a few weeks ago and not a single PNW high school made the top 25. Not a single PNW high school even made the "Also receiving votes" category. With our weather where you can play ball all year, that's a damning stat.

Either the best players don't play HS ball, or our boys in general just suck compared to rest of country. Not a good look for PNW football.

**Guest** · 2024-11-19T04:57:49

Originally posted by Guest View Post

anyone arguing that kids need to toughen up are gits. most ecnl coaches tell their players not to play high school. ours does at efc and i've heard pac coachces say the same thing. xfire prohibits their A team players from HS ball

No, XF doesn't prohibit HS ball. Mine is on XF ECNL and played as did all but 3 of her teammates.

**Guest** · 2024-11-19T04:59:35

Originally posted by Guest View Post

Boys HS rankings were released a few weeks ago and not a single PNW high school made the top 25. Not a single PNW high school even made the "Also receiving votes" category. With our weather where you can play ball all year, that's a damning stat.

Either the best players don't play HS ball, or our boys in general just suck compared to rest of country. Not a good look for PNW football.

I'm not sure how they rank teams that haven't played yet. WA boys HS soccer is a spring sport. it's not consistent in the country who plays when.

**Guest** · 2024-11-19T21:04:12

Love the long post above. I think it hits the main points about why the high school game is different and its main root cause—a diversity of skills levels for players and coaches and a compressed schedule that focuses on winning now over developing for later. I don’t have a solution to making the game “better” or more “elegant” at the high school level. It will probably come over years as the overall game matures in the US and there are more teams with rosters filled with “trained” players. Unfortunately, the way this will happen is with further hegemony of the club pay to play system which is really the only way to get classical soccer training in the US.

so given that change will happen on a generational time scale the issue is really about whether to participate and why. My daughter chooses to participate because it provides something different from her club experience—a diversity of players skill levels and mindsets, an intersection with high school social life that is helping her develop leadership, confidence and modesty among many other hard-to-teach life skills and experiences. It also creates a fantastic nexus for the community a place for players and fields to be present together as one family with common goals and interests.

Yup. Some injury risk and if your player is pro-level material ready to sacrifice community and personal development at the altar of the sport rather than using the sport as a vehicle for living, then it may not be for them.

For us, even with the game itself being played at a classically lower level, it’s just awesome. We love it and will continue with it through graduation.

**Guest** · 2024-11-19T21:12:53

Originally posted by Guest View Post

Love the long post above. I think it hits the main points about why the high school game is different and its main root cause—a diversity of skills levels for players and coaches and a compressed schedule that focuses on winning now over developing for later. I don’t have a solution to making the game “better” or more “elegant” at the high school level. It will probably come over years as the overall game matures in the US and there are more teams with rosters filled with “trained” players. Unfortunately, the way this will happen is with further hegemony of the club pay to play system which is really the only way to get classical soccer training in the US.

so given that change will happen on a generational time scale the issue is really about whether to participate and why. My daughter chooses to participate because it provides something different from her club experience—a diversity of players skill levels and mindsets, an intersection with high school social life that is helping her develop leadership, confidence and modesty among many other hard-to-teach life skills and experiences. It also creates a fantastic nexus for the community a place for players and fields to be present together as one family with common goals and interests.

Yup. Some injury risk and if your player is pro-level material ready to sacrifice community and personal development at the altar of the sport rather than using the sport as a vehicle for living, then it may not be for them.

For us, even with the game itself being played at a classically lower level, it’s just awesome. We love it and will continue with it through graduation.

Love this.